Reddit (NYSE: RDDT) saw its stock surge more than 8% in early trading Tuesday, following the announcement of its new AI-driven marketing suite, Reddit Community Intelligence, unveiled at the prestigious Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity in France. Although shares later dipped slightly, they remained strong at £100 ($135) apiece by mid-session.
Investor enthusiasm drove trading volumes past 19.6 million shares, more than double the platform’s daily average of 8.3 million shares, reflecting high interest in Reddit’s newest step into artificial intelligence.
New AI Tools Aimed at Enhancing Brand Engagement
The AI suite, Reddit Community Intelligence, includes two initial tools: Reddit Insights and conversation summary add-ons, both designed to help marketers better understand and interact with Reddit’s vast and highly engaged user base.
The tools are powered by a custom-built AI engine trained on a massive dataset—over 22 billion posts and comments—making it one of the most data-rich tools in the social media marketing space.
Reddit Insights is a real-time social listening tool that uses Reddit’s proprietary metadata to help brands plan campaigns, test creative concepts, uncover cultural trends, and monitor overall brand sentiment. It delivers actionable insights backed by data extracted directly from Reddit communities, offering advertisers an inside look at authentic conversations around their products or services.
Meanwhile, the conversation summary add-ons feature integrates community feedback directly into an advertiser’s creative. These summaries pull positive, on-topic Reddit user posts and display them beneath ads, effectively adding built-in social proof. Reddit said this improves ad performance by helping consumers make quicker, more confident decisions based on real community dialogue.
According to Reddit, early testing of the summary feature resulted in a 19% higher click-through rate than traditional image ads, while also boosting overall ad relevance and brand engagement across diverse user segments.
Industry Reactions and Analyst Optimism
Publicis Media Exchange CEO Joel Lunenfeld praised the Reddit Insights tool, calling it a game-changer for brands looking to understand how real people feel about them. “It’s become an indispensable asset for campaign planning, client pitches, and performance tracking,” he said. “Teams can now react in real time, uncover opportunity gaps, and build genuine trust through community-driven intelligence.”
Reddit’s Chief Operating Officer Jen Wong echoed that sentiment, emphasizing the platform’s unique position in the AI era. “In a world increasingly flattened by AI, the value of human content on our platform only grows,” Wong said. “We’re offering not just insights, but deep context and real voices at scale.”
Stock Performance and Future Outlook
Reddit’s recent product launch builds on strong momentum for the company. Its shares have gained 18.44% in the past month and a staggering 122% over the past year.
Wall Street analysts remain bullish, with several issuing 12-month price targets of £110 ($148.12) per share, while some forecasts go as high as £163.39 ($220). However, not all projections are rosy—more conservative analysts have targets around £55.7 ($75), highlighting the inherent risk in the high-growth tech sector.
Still, the positive market response to Reddit’s AI innovation reflects investor confidence in the platform’s ability to transform its vast trove of user-generated content into valuable marketing intelligence.
A New Era for Reddit’s Business Model
Reddit Community Intelligence marks a significant pivot in Reddit’s evolution from a traditional forum-based platform into a serious player in the marketing technology space. By positioning itself as a bridge between real human dialogue and AI-driven business insights, Reddit is betting on its unique culture and authenticity to drive long-term monetization.
As Reddit continues expanding its advertising and data analytics capabilities, the company appears poised to capture a larger share of marketing budgets—especially among brands looking to build trust and relevance with younger, community-driven audiences.