What to know about Reddit and Wikipedia in the AI search age
Corporate communicators are newly laser-focused on Reddit and Wikipedia. Here's everything you need to know
Research shows that Reddit is the number one most cited domain across all major AI platforms, accounting for 3.5% of all citations across AI models - nearly three times more than Wikipedia.
Data from Profound: citations in percentage across all models:
- Reddit 3.1%
- YouTube 2.3%
- Wikipedia 1.4% [GB1]
As Reddit is a primary data source for numerous models, is it frequently cited in Google AI Overviews, Perplexity and ChatGPT, and comes up as a source when people ask questions about your company.
Reddit and Wikipedia are providing answers to questions such as "Is L'Oreal a good place to work" or "What are the benefits of working at McDonalds" and "What is Amazon's net zero plan".
As well as contributing to AI answers, Reddit is increasingly being used as a search engine. In 2026, Reddit overtook TikTok as the fourth most-visited social media platform in the UK. According to Ofcom, there’s been an 88% increase in traffic over the past two years.
Reddit is so successful because it has real-time, human-driven discussions. Reddit threads pose and answer questions using the language that real people use. It's a platform that provides authentic peer advice instead of overly polished corporate messages.
Why is Wikipedia important for corporate communications in 2026?
Like Reddit, Wikipedia is a primary knowledge source for LLMs, due to its authority and vast citable content: seven million English language articles and a free-use policy (source: BBC Science Focus).
Although human page views are falling 8% year over year, Wikipedia plays an important role in feeding AI search engines with information about your company.
This underscores a point we made on our recent webinar with The Conference Board about GEO and reputation: the corporate website should be the definitive home of information about your company, not Wikipedia or Reddit.
What should corporate communicators do?
- Make your corporate website the "mothership of truth" about your company, so that your owned content shows up alongside – and as frequently as possible ahead of – Wikipedia and Reddit in AI search citations.
- Monitor your own Wikipedia page and monitor Reddit for discussions about your company.
- Create a company Reddit account if you don't have one already.
- Have FAQs on your own website addressing a range of common questions about the company.
- Use the language of real stakeholders on your corporate channels: AI models seek clear, direct answers in a natural tone.
- In a time of AI slop and misinformation, human voices and real opinions carry more weight. Reddit is a good home for this - but so is your corporate website. We recommend investing in authentic stories, employee testimonials and ensuring that named internal experts are featured prominently on your corporate channels.
- Audit the visibility of your corporate content – Bowen Craggs can do this for you. Please reach out to Tom Golden to find out more.
Who is doing it well
Bayer has detailed FAQ banks on a range of topics.
Nestlé's vast FAQ bank compiled answers to common questions, including controversial issues, supported by evidence.
Amazon has a detailed "Policy and positions" page which sets out company views clearly.
Henkel has integrated Glassdoor testimonials onto the corporate site – a trust signal that will be picked up by jobseekers and AI algorithms alike.
Verizon is a good example of sharing employee stories frequently on corporate channels.