DataDome launches Priority Protect virtual waiting room to manage AI shopping agents and bots

DataDome Introduces Priority Protect to Manage Online Traffic

DataDome has launched Priority Protect, a virtual waiting room built specifically to handle the complexities of modern e-commerce traffic during high-demand sales events 1

1

. The bot and agent trust management company designed the platform to differentiate between human shoppers and AI agents, as well as identify malicious bots before they reach checkout flows 2

2

. Unlike traditional queue systems that make a single admission decision and trust the session afterward, Priority Protect runs continuous in-session validation throughout the entire customer journey 1

1

.

The platform extends DataDome's existing bot detection engine into queue management, classifying every request in real time and applying separate access policies for humans, trusted AI agents and bots 1

1

. This traffic classification capability draws on 5 trillion daily signals from across DataDome's network, enabling operators to set capacity, release rates and access policies for each traffic class through a dashboard or API 1

1

.

Addressing the Challenge of AI Shopping Agents at Peak Demand

Retailers and ticketing platforms now confront a fundamental shift in how flash sales unfold. Traditional virtual waiting rooms were built to absorb scalability spikes from human shoppers refreshing pages, but AI shopping agents operate differently 1

1

. These agentic AI systems run continuously, react to inventory changes in milliseconds, and can hit checkout flows at machine speed the instant a product drops 1

1

. They can rapidly add products to carts, compare prices across websites and potentially lock up inventory before completing a purchase [2](https://www.pymnts.com/artificial-intelligence-2/2026/datadome-l aunches-a-virtual-waiting-room-for-ai-shoppers/).

During a recent midnight ticket sale for a major sporting event, DataDome discovered that 31% of queue traffic was bot traffic, accounting for 2.4 million of 7.8 million requests 1

1

. The company argues that conventional queue tools cannot distinguish between legitimate buyers and automated agents that change user behavior once inside the system 1

1

.

Intent-Aware Analysis Enables Fair Access for Online Retailers

Priority Protect uses what DataDome calls intent-aware analysis to prioritize traffic and determine which users or agents should gain access during peak demand periods 2

2

. The system re-evaluates visitors throughout a session and can re-challenge or remove them if behavior shifts, ensuring that every spot in line goes to a real customer or an approved agent 1

1

. Operators can scope rules to specific URLs and route trusted users or approved agents into priority lanes using custom attributes 1

1

.

The virtual waiting room runs on the customer's own infrastructure with branded templates, position tracking and estimated wait times, rather than redirecting shoppers to a third-party domain 1

1

. "Peak moments should drive revenue, not outages," said Chief Product Officer Pradheep Sampath. "A virtual waiting room that cannot tell a human customer from a bot or an unauthorized AI agent has no way to guarantee fairness" 1

1

.

Building Agent Trust Infrastructure for Commerce

The platform is part of DataDome's broader push into agent trust infrastructure, which focuses on authenticating and monitoring AI agents interacting with commerce platforms 2

2

. The product launch follows DataDome's April 2025 release of large language model detection and intent-based AI models, representing a pivot toward distinguishing legitimate AI agents from unauthorized ones rather than treating all automated traffic as hostile 1

1

.

DataDome, founded in 2015, previously raised $42 million in Series C funding to expand its AI-driven bot detection platform 2

2

. The company counts Etsy, PayPal and SoundCloud among its customers 1

1

. The move reflects a growing shift across commerce and cybersecurity industries as businesses prepare for AI agents to play a larger role in online shopping, with companies including OpenAI, Google and Anthropic pushing AI systems capable of executing tasks on behalf of users 2

2

.