Why Reddit feeds the AI answers
Google pays a reported 60 million dollars a year to train its AI on Reddit, and ChatGPT, Perplexity and Google AI Overviews pull from Reddit constantly when they recommend tools and vendors. A Reddit thread is not just a search result, it is retrieval and training material for the AI your buyers ask.
How to earn a citation
Find the threads the AI already reads, the ones that rank or get cited for your category, and become a genuinely useful part of them. Answer the question well, mention your brand only where it fits, and help the thread stay active. The AI cites what real communities found useful, so usefulness is the strategy.
What does not work
Dropping links, buying upvotes, or spinning up fake accounts. AI tools and Reddit communities both discount obvious manipulation, and a caught brand loses more than it gains.
Measure the citations directly
The whole point is the AI answer, so measure that. Ask the tools your buyers use the questions your buyers ask, and track whether your brand appears and which thread is cited. The homepage here explains the mechanism, and Upvote Labs reports these citations for clients every week.