If using a bot...

What are the risks of using a bot that likes, comments etc on instagram? I could have my account banned I assume? Is there any way around this?

you can get your account banned even if you manually spam like crazy as bigpolarcookie put it, it's how you use that bot. Any bot that is configured the right way can help a lot . Also Instagram don't really ban accounts immediately, mostly they will make you enter captcha from time to time if you go over-board or verify your number..