A new study from Juniper Research, the foremost experts in telecommunications markets, has found that the global cost of AIT to enterprises is set to decline by 55% between 2024 and 2029. It discovered that these losses peaked at $2.1 billion in 2023 and will fall owing to A2P SMS traffic migration.
AIT refers to non-genuine A2P SMS traffic generated to raise SMS volumes and imposes unnecessary costs on enterprises for traffic that serves no purpose.
To accomplish this reduction in AIT, the study identified two key drivers for stakeholders:
1. A2P SMS Traffic Migration
Recent termination price rises for SMS, partly caused by AIT, have driven enterprises to explore alternative channels for mobile authentication, such as APIs and RCS. The report forecasts that global A2P SMS traffic will fall from 1.9 trillion in 2023 to below 1.5 trillion by 2029; leading to a less valuable proposition for fraudsters and reducing enterprise losses.
2. Enterprises Must Block AIT at Source
AIT prevention vendors’ efforts to reduce fraud must focus on working directly with enterprises to verify OTP requests before they reach the MNO. The study found that automated bots playing a substantial role in creating AIT and placing safeguards at the point of origin will eliminate this traffic before it reaches SMS networks.
Research author Georgia Allen remarked: “Traditional CAPTCHA mechanisms are no longer adequately blocking intelligent AI bots from requesting OTPs. Click monitoring and behavioral analysis will enhance an enterprise’s ability to detect bots and reduce AIT fraud before the SMS request.”