Wikipedia, one of the internet’s most trusted sources of information, is seeing fewer human visitors. According to the Wikimedia Foundation, which runs the site, page views from people have fallen by around eight per cent over the past year. The decline comes after a recent update to the foundation’s bot detection systems, which revealed that much of the apparent traffic earlier this year was not human at all but generated by sophisticated bots designed to evade detection.
Marshall Miller, a senior executive at the Wikimedia Foundation, explained in a blog post that the downturn in traffic reflects wider changes in how people find information online. Increasingly, users are turning to generative artificial intelligence and social media rather than visiting websites directly. Search engines are now providing AI generated summaries that answer questions without linking to the original sources. At the same time, younger audiences are relying more on short form video platforms like TikTok and YouTube for information.
AI’s Double Edged Role
While the rise of AI has reduced direct visits to Wikipedia, its influence across the internet remains enormous. Almost every major AI system, including large language models, uses Wikipedia content to train and refine its algorithms. Search engines and chatbots regularly draw from its data to produce accurate, factual answers. As a result, millions of people are still reading the work of Wikipedia’s contributors, just not necessarily on the Wikipedia website.
However, this shift carries risks. Fewer visitors mean fewer volunteers editing and improving articles and fewer donors contributing to keep the platform running. Miller warned that when information is consumed through AI summaries, people may lose awareness of the human effort that goes into creating and maintaining it.
A Global Team of Volunteers
Wikipedia remains unique in its scale and transparency. It is built and maintained by a community of experts, enthusiasts, and volunteers who edit millions of articles across more than 300 languages. These contributors ensure that information is accurate, neutral, and verifiable. The Wikimedia Foundation relies on public donations to fund this work, keeping the site free from advertising and corporate influence.
To address changing trends, the foundation has launched initiatives to reach new audiences and encourage participation. Two new reader teams are exploring how people discover Wikipedia and testing ways to improve the experience for mobile users. The foundation is also developing a framework to ensure proper attribution when third parties such as AI companies use Wikipedia content.
The Changing Internet
The decline in Wikipedia traffic mirrors a broader shift affecting publishers across the web. As search engines and AI tools deliver instant answers, users are less likely to click through to the original sources. Studies show that when Google displays AI generated summaries at the top of search results, people click fewer links overall.
Miller emphasised that companies using Wikipedia content should encourage users to visit the site itself, ensuring the sustainability of free, reliable knowledge online. He urged internet users to look for citations, click through to original materials, and support human curated information.
Twenty five years after its creation, Wikipedia remains a cornerstone of the open web. Yet as AI and social media reshape how we access information, its future will depend on people recognising the value of human made, freely shared knowledge and choosing to keep it alive.
