Wikipedia is seeing a decline in human traffic as more people turn to artificial intelligence tools and social media for information, according to the Wikimedia Foundation.
The organization says human pageviews have fallen by roughly 8% in recent months compared to the same period in 2024, a trend it links to the rise of generative AI, which often surfaces answers directly to users without sending them to source websites.
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The foundation says companies are heavily relying on Wikipedia to train large language models and power AI search responses.
Google, however, is pushing back on claims that its AI features are reducing web traffic. The company says overall organic clicks to websites from Google Search have remained “relatively stable year-over-year,” and argues that AI summaries can generate more search activity, not less.
Regardless, Wikipedia is working on new policies, tools and reader experiences to keep the website sustainable and ensure that platforms using its content direct users back to original sources.
