Taboo Grow | Reddit Marketing Agency

When someone asks ChatGPT “What’s the best [product]?” or Perplexity “What do people recommend for [problem]?”—where does the AI get its answer?

Increasingly, from Reddit.

Google paid Reddit $60 million for AI training data access. OpenAI has a partnership with Reddit. These aren’t small deals—they signal that Reddit content is foundational to how AI understands and recommends products.

The Reddit-AI Pipeline

The Data Deals

Major AI companies have explicitly partnered with Reddit for data:

Google-Reddit Deal (2024):

$60 million annual payment
Access to Reddit’s data API
Training data for Google’s AI products
Enhanced Google AI Overviews with Reddit content

OpenAI-Reddit Partnership:

Access to Reddit’s real-time data
Training data for ChatGPT
Enhanced ability to cite recent Reddit discussions

These deals confirm what researchers already knew: Reddit data is exceptionally valuable for training AI to understand real-world preferences and experiences.

Why Reddit Data Is Valuable

Reddit offers something other platforms don’t:

Authenticity signals: Reddit’s community moderation and voting system surfaces genuine content while burying spam and manipulation.

Detailed experiences: Users share comprehensive product experiences, comparisons, and recommendations that AI can learn from.

Structured discussions: Threaded conversations with questions and answers provide natural training data for Q&A capabilities.

Diverse perspectives: Multiple users contribute to discussions, providing AI with varied viewpoints to synthesize.

How AI Uses Reddit Data

AI models use Reddit data in multiple ways:

Training: Learning patterns about product quality, user preferences, and common problems
Retrieval: Directly pulling Reddit discussions to answer questions
Citation: Referencing Reddit content as supporting evidence
Synthesis: Combining multiple Reddit perspectives into recommendations

AI Citations in Action

ChatGPT and Reddit

When you ask ChatGPT for product recommendations, it often draws from Reddit:

Example query: “What’s the best standing desk for home office?”

How ChatGPT responds: Synthesizes common recommendations from r/standingdesks, r/homeoffice, and similar communities—even if it doesn’t explicitly cite sources.

The training data includes Reddit discussions, so the “knowledge” about product quality comes significantly from Reddit community consensus.

Perplexity and Reddit

Perplexity explicitly cites sources, and Reddit appears frequently:

Example query: “What do people think of [Brand] laptops?”

How Perplexity responds: Pulls and cites specific Reddit threads, summarizes community sentiment, and provides links to relevant discussions.

Reddit threads often appear as primary or supporting sources for product-related queries.

Google AI Overviews

Google’s AI Overviews synthesize information from multiple sources—including Reddit:

Example query: “[Product] pros and cons”

How Google AI responds: Generates summary drawing from Reddit discussions, review sites, and other sources, often highlighting Reddit-sourced insights.

What This Means for Brands

The Visibility Equation

The connection is straightforward:

Strong Reddit presence → Training data / retrieval source → AI citations → Visibility when users ask AI for recommendations

Brands with positive, prominent Reddit discussions are more likely to be:

Included in AI training data
Retrieved when AI searches for relevant content
Cited when AI provides recommendations
Recommended when users ask for suggestions

The New SEO

Traditional SEO focused on Google rankings. The new landscape includes:

Traditional SEO	AI Visibility (GEO)
Google rankings	AI citations
Keywords and backlinks	Authority and authenticity
Compete for page 1	Compete for the answer
Traffic to your site	Brand mentioned in responses

Reddit presence serves both: threads rank on Google AND get cited by AI.

The Compounding Effect

AI visibility compounds:

AI models train on current Reddit data
Future models build on previous training
Brands cited today are more likely cited tomorrow
Early presence creates lasting advantage

The brands establishing Reddit presence now are building into AI models that will serve billions of queries for years.

Building AI Visibility Through Reddit

Content That Gets Cited

AI models preferentially cite content that demonstrates:

Authority: Posts from knowledgeable users with established reputations

Detail: Comprehensive information with specific experiences and comparisons

Recency: Fresh content that reflects current product status

Consensus: Multiple users corroborating similar experiences

Authenticity: Genuine discussions, not marketing material

The Reddit Strategy

Building AI visibility through Reddit:

Monitor existing discussions: Understand how your brand is currently discussed
Participate authentically: Add value to relevant conversations
Build authority: Establish presence as knowledgeable category participant
Create citable content: Develop discussions worth citing
Maintain freshness: Keep presence active and current

What Doesn’t Work

Some attempted shortcuts fail:

Astroturfing: Fake discussions get detected and harm credibility
Promotional content: Marketing material isn’t cited as authentic
One-time campaigns: AI learns from sustained presence, not bursts
Ignoring negative content: Unaddressed criticism persists in training data

The Future of AI Search

Trend Direction

AI search is growing rapidly:

ChatGPT: 200M+ weekly active users
Perplexity: 15M+ monthly users, growing fast
Google AI Overviews: Appearing in 30%+ of searches
Overall trend: Users increasingly asking AI instead of browsing results

Zero-Click Future

As AI provides direct answers, users click through less:

Old model: Search → Click results → Research → Decision

New model: Ask AI → Get answer → Decision

Being in the AI answer becomes more important than ranking on page 1.

Reddit’s Central Role

Reddit’s unique value proposition—authentic community discussions—positions it as a primary source for AI recommendations indefinitely. The data deals confirm this isn’t changing.

Getting Started

Audit Your AI Presence

Start by understanding your current AI visibility:

Ask ChatGPT about your brand/category
Query Perplexity for product recommendations
Check Google AI Overviews for relevant searches
Note whether and how your brand is mentioned

Assess Reddit Foundation

Then audit your Reddit presence:

Search your brand name on Reddit
Review sentiment and discussion quality
Identify subreddits discussing your category
Map opportunities and risks

Build the Connection

With both audits complete:

Address negative Reddit content appropriately
Build positive presence through authentic participation
Monitor both Reddit discussions and AI citations
Iterate based on what’s working

The Reddit-AI connection is real and growing. AI models learn from Reddit. AI recommendations cite Reddit. Users asking AI for guidance increasingly receive Reddit-influenced answers.

For brands, this creates both opportunity and urgency:

Opportunity: Strong Reddit presence translates to AI visibility Urgency: AI models training now will serve users for years

The brands building authentic Reddit presence today are positioning for the AI-mediated future of search.

Ready to position your brand for AI search? Book a strategy call to discuss building Reddit presence that gets cited.

AI Models Are Learning From Reddit: What This Means for Your Brand's Visibility