Wikipedia faces traffic decline due to generative AI growth

Wikimedia Foundation CEO Bernadette Meehan reported that Wikipedia has experienced an eight percent decline in page views over the last year, a trend attributed to the rise of generative AI. While AI models rely heavily on Wikipedia’s human-written content to provide answers, these systems often deliver information directly to users without directing them back to the website.

This shift poses a financial risk to the Wikimedia Foundation, as eighty percent of its operating budget is derived from small donations typically collected through site visits. While the foundation charges major enterprise customers—including Amazon, Google, Microsoft, Meta, and Perplexity—for high-volume data access, these payments only account for ten percent of operating expenses. Meehan noted that while the decline was not unexpected, the organization remains concerned about the long-term sustainability of the community-driven encyclopedia.