Reddit leverages AI and 20 years of conversations to transform advertising with new community intelligence tools

Reddit has unveiled a major expansion of its advertising capabilities with the release of two AI-driven tools, aiming to provide marketers deeper access to the platform’s vast repository of user-generated content. Announced during the Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity, these tools are part of a broader initiative Reddit is branding as “Community Intelligence™” — a data engine built on the company’s 22 billion posts and comments spanning two decades.

The new products — Reddit Insights and Conversation Summary Add-ons — signal the company’s strategic pivot toward community-driven marketing powered by artificial intelligence. With online spaces increasingly saturated by generic, AI-generated content, Reddit is positioning itself as a hub for authentic, human discourse that can offer actionable insights for brands.

Reddit Insights, currently in alpha testing, serves as an AI-powered social listening tool. It enables marketers to analyze discussions in real-time, identify cultural trends, and test creative concepts using structured data extracted from Reddit’s enormous pool of user conversations. The tool allows brands to perform competitive analysis, monitor brand health, and discover emerging sentiment shifts that can inform campaign strategies.

“Reddit’s communities offer a unique window into real opinions, not just surface-level engagement,” said Reddit COO Jen Wong. “Reddit Insights provides a scalable solution that gives marketers the ability to tap into this authenticity.”

Reddit had previously offered insights to advertisers manually. This new platform automates and scales the process, giving brands direct access to conversation metrics, top subreddits, and content threads tied to their industries or competitors. Publicis Media served as the exclusive alpha tester for Reddit Insights, deploying it with clients like The Hershey Company and Comcast to identify new audience segments and brand opportunities.

The second tool, Conversation Summary Add-ons, is a new ad feature that appends real Reddit user comments and AI-generated conversation summaries directly beneath ad creatives. Designed to enhance ad credibility and relevance, this feature introduces organic social proof by surfacing relevant community discussions. Early tests show this format resulted in a 19% higher clickthrough rate than traditional image ads.

Brands such as Jackbox Games and Lucid Motors have already tested the feature, using it to bring attention to enthusiastic community discussions around their products. For Lucid Motors, the add-ons allowed potential customers to view conversations about the company’s electric vehicles, helping them validate their purchase decisions through peer insight.

“In today’s advertising environment, consumers want more than slick messaging — they want community endorsement,” said Akerho “AK” Oghoghomeh, SVP of Marketing at Lucid. “These new tools let us spotlight real opinions from real users.”

Reddit’s push into AI-powered advertising comes at a time when platforms like Snap and Pinterest are also leveraging artificial intelligence to attract marketers navigating uncertain economic conditions. The launch also follows Reddit’s strong Q1 ad revenue report, which showed a 61% year-over-year increase, totaling $358.6 million. Despite concerns about changing U.S. trade policies and shifting Google search traffic, Reddit remains focused on diversifying its advertiser base and expanding product offerings.

Beyond advertising, Reddit is integrating its community intelligence into other tools, including Reddit Answers, a generative AI search feature that returns AI summaries linked to relevant Reddit conversations. Unlike other AI platforms, Reddit’s approach maintains a direct connection to the original posts, preserving transparency and context.

While these product announcements mark an evolution in Reddit’s ad strategy, the company emphasizes that this is only the beginning. More innovations powered by Community Intelligence™ are expected to roll out in the coming months as Reddit seeks to redefine how brands engage with digital communities.

“Our goal is to bridge data with human experience,” Wong said. “With these tools, we’re not just extracting insights — we’re offering brands the ability to engage with audiences in meaningful, contextual ways.”

Reddit’s Cannes Lions headquarters is open to attendees throughout the week, offering demos of the new tools and sessions on the future of community marketing.