Wikipedia is losing visitors to AI tools

Technology Oct 21, 2025

Wikipedia just saw an 8% drop in human visits between March and August 2025, and the Wikimedia Foundation says AI tools like ChatGPT and smarter search engines are a significant reason.
These platforms pull info straight from Wikipedia, so users get answers without ever clicking through.
This shift is a big deal for Wikipedia, which depends on active users and donations to keep running.

Wikimedia Foundation is working on this issue

Fewer visitors could mean fewer donations and less interest from volunteer editors—the people who keep Wikipedia accurate and up to date.
To push back, the Wikimedia Foundation is working on better ways to track real visitors (not bots) and is asking tech companies to properly credit Wikipedia when they use its content.