Wikipedia has long been an essential reference for information on all types of subjects. But as technology evolves, the online encyclopedia is beginning to feel the effects of artificial intelligence (AI). The Wikimedia Foundation reports a drop of around 8% in human visits to Wikipedia compared to the same period last year.
In brief
- Wikipedia pages viewed by humans decreased by 8% in one year, a sign of a change in search habits.
- The rise of generative AI, chatbots and direct-answer search engines is steering people away from original sources like Wikipedia.
AI and bots contribute to traffic decline
Marshall Miller of the Wikimedia Foundation explained Friday that the organization uses algorithms to distinguish human visits from automated bot activity. In May 2025, these systems detected a sudden increase in traffic, appearing to come from human users, primarily in Brazil. This anomaly led the Foundation to review its bot detection system.
After updating its detection system, here is what the Wikimedia Foundation discovered :
- Analysis of traffic data between March and August 2025 revealed that much of the increase seen in May and June came from bots seeking to evade detection.
- Once these automated visits were reclassified, the Foundation confirmed that page views by real users decreased by approximately 8% compared to the same period in 2024.
Marshall said: “ These declines reflect the impact of generative AI and social networks on the way people search for information, especially with search engines providing answers directly to Internet users, often based on Wikipedia content. »
Changing User Behavior and Challenges for Publishers
While supporting new ways of accessing knowledge, the Foundation emphasizes the importance of AI systems, search engines and social platforms redirecting users to Wikipedia. The Foundation said: “ We welcome these new ways for people to acquire knowledge. However, LLMs, chatbots, search engines and social platforms that leverage Wikipedia's content must encourage more visitors to the site, so that the open knowledge on which so many people and platforms depend can continue to circulate sustainably. »
The change in user behavior extends beyond Wikipedia. According to data released in July by Pew Research, Google users exposed to AI-generated summaries are significantly less likely to click on external links. Only 8% of them open a traditional search result, compared to around 15% of users who did not receive an AI-generated summary.
These developments have attracted the attention of publishers, who are concerned about how AI and search platforms exploit their content. Danielle Coffey, executive director of the News/Media Alliance, noted that Google relies on publisher content without offering compensation. She also noted that there is no practical way for publishers to opt out without losing visibility in search results, warning that this situation could represent a major risk to the sustainability of the news industry.
Growth of AI-generated content
The use of artificial intelligence has led to a surge in machine-created online content. After ChatGPT launched in November 2022, a study conducted by SEO company Graphite found that the number of AI-generated articles increased rapidly. In just twelve months, nearly 39% of all content published was produced using AIshowing how quickly these tools have become widespread in digital publishing.
These trends reflect profound changes, both in content production and in the way Internet users access information. The growing use of AI to provide direct answers could reduce engagement with original sources, including Wikipedia, and limit how users interact with human knowledge.
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