In the spring of 2025, Wikipedia experienced an unusual increase in traffic. This led the project team to re-check its bot detection systems, reports 404media, citing Marshall Miller, the Wikimedia Foundation's product director.
After the checks, it turned out that the number of real users decreased by 8% compared to 2024. Miller explains this by the influence of artificial intelligence and neural networks on information search. AI-synchronized summaries provided by search engines and social networks also reduce the number of users going directly to sites.
According to Miller, the decrease in traffic may lead to a decrease in support for Wikipedia from volunteers and sponsors. The Wikimedia Foundation is also working on technological solutions to ensure responsible access to content by third parties and is promoting the service on platforms such as YouTube, TikTok, Roblox and Instagram to increase the popularity of the service among young people.
