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Reddit is positioning Reddit AI search as a key part of its future business strategy, company leaders said during the fourth-quarter earnings call. The platform plans to blend traditional keyword search results with conversational AI to create a unified user experience.
Unlike conventional search engines, Reddit believes that generative answers can add value, particularly for questions that lack straightforward answers. CEO Steve Huffman noted that aggregating perspectives from many users can provide richer insight than pointing to a single link. This emphasis on generative responses reflects how Reddit wants people to engage with information on the platform.
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Usage metrics suggest interest in AI-powered search is rising. Weekly active users of Reddit’s search features climbed from 60 million to 80 million over the past year. Meanwhile, weekly engagement with Reddit Answers, the company’s AI conversational feature, grew from about 1 million users in early 2025 to 15 million by year’s end. Executives see this rapid adoption as a sign of broader demand for more interactive search results. They also hinted that although Reddit AI search is not yet monetised, the company views it as “an enormous market and opportunity” that could eventually drive revenue.
The move to combine traditional search and generative answers aligns with broader trends in information retrieval. Competitors in the search space have already begun integrating conversational interfaces into their solutions. Reddit’s approach differs in that it leverages its extensive user-generated content as a source for both link-based results and AI-generated summaries. Reddit aims to streamline how users find information within the site by unifying these methods. For communities and researchers who rely on nuanced perspectives, this could shorten the path from query to insight.
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In addition to consumption on Reddit itself, the company is exploring other ways to benefit from its search and content offerings. Reddit’s content licensing business allows external firms to train models using subreddit data under license. This part of the business, reported as “other revenues,” grew to $36 million in the fourth quarter. For the full year, that category grew to $140 million, up 22% year over year. Executives say this growth partly reflects interest in Reddit’s rich, diverse text content.
Reddit AI Search Poised for Broader Personalisation
Reddit also announced plans to personalise search results and user feeds more deeply, removing the distinction between logged-in and logged-out experiences by the third quarter of 2026. The goal is to customise discovery based on behaviour, regardless of how users access the site. This could increase engagement by making both search and answers feel more relevant.
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Furthermore, Reddit is piloting richer media in its AI answers interface, adding images, video, and dynamic elements to make responses more informative. These efforts support the company’s broader ambition to be a destination for answers, not just social interaction. With Reddit AI search, the company seeks to build a differentiated search experience grounded in community insights and modern retrieval methods.
It’s to be noted that Reddit’s focus on search evolution reflects its bid to expand value beyond advertising. In addition, the company hopes to deepen engagement and unlock new revenue channels tied to search usage by enhancing how people find and interact with content.
