The guide
Why the Reddit threads in AI answers matter
When ChatGPT, Perplexity or Google AI Overviews answer a "best tool for..." question, they read a handful of pages first. The products those pages name are the products the answer names.
AI answers are built from a few pages
With search on, an AI assistant runs a few searches, reads the top results and writes its answer from them, citing what it used. If those pages are comparison lists and Reddit threads that never mention you, the answer will not either, however good your product is.
Reddit shows up a lot because it is where people compare tools in their own words. Reddit was the single most-cited source in Perplexity (6.6% of all citations) and in Google AI Overviews (2.2%) in Profound's analysis of 680 million AI citations. The numbers move with every model update; the sourced figures are on Bazzly's Reddit statistics page (/reddit-marketing-statistics#stat-profound-reddit-top-source-perplexity-aio).
The threads AI cites are usually the ones Google ranks
AI search leans on the same results a search engine returns. Reddit threads that rank on Google's first page are old and small more often than you would think: in Bazzly's data the median page-one Reddit thread was about a year old, and 2,722 Bazzly comments sit on such threads. A useful reply there keeps being read by people and by models for months.
How to use the results
Run the questions your buyers ask, five or ten of them, and write down the Reddit threads that keep coming back. Those are the threads to join first. Read each one, check the subreddit rules, and add the answer you would give a friend, with your product as one honest option.
Check again every few weeks. Answers change as models and search results update, and a thread you replied to should start showing your product in the answer once it ranks and gets upvoted.