Hello Reader

A few weeks ago I was building a Claude workflow to update a product page and I went looking for real opinions on Reddit.

I searched three subreddits, found 14 threads and read every reply.

People were naming competitors, describing specific frustrations, features they loved and using words and phrases I could use in my copy.

It was the most useful 45 minutes of research I’d done in months.

Then I asked ChatGPT to recommend a vendor in that category. Two of the threads I’d just read came back as sources in the answer.

Reddit used to be the place you went to find out what your customers and users thought about a problem.

Now it’s feeding AI answers.

Statista shows that Reddit has emerged as the primary source of AI-generated online content, with large language models (LLMs) citing it in 40 percent of instances.

​
Marketers are increasingly focused on Reddit for exactly that reason: the threads their buyers read are training the models that make recommendations.

Which brings me to this week's edition of AI at Work.

I usually save the last week of the month for a round up of everything you might care about, but given all the interesting developments in AI search, I'm focusing on SEO, AEO and what's changed on Reddit.

Oh, and a promo or two :D

Read on!

Claude for Marketers

I’m running a series of live workshops on Maven and I'd love for you to join!

I’ll show you how to set up Claude and build marketing specific workflows for showing up in AI search, closing more deals and winning at Reddit.

You can sign up for the free webinar here, and the full workshop for $249 here.

Reddit is Now a Top Citation Source

One Redditor claims they’re seeing a 450% rise in Reddit citations inside AI answers.

What an increase!

Tinuiti and Profound research, (while more conservative), still shows Reddit as the top source, even doubling its growth in some industries.

YouTube is a distant second.

Most marketers I talk to treat Reddit as a community channel—something to monitor or occasionally post in. But you should now be thinking about this as a multi-purpose program.

A thread from 2023 where someone asked for software recommendations in your category, is feeding AI answers to buyers in 2026. Your brand’s presence in that thread (or absence from it), is part of your AI visibility profile.

This means you need a consistent, credible presence in the subreddits where your buyers are engaging in. You should be posting helpful replies and detailed answers.

When those threads get cited, your brand will show up alongside the answer. Brilliant, right?

The secondary implication is about timing. Old threads don’t expire. A low-quality comment you left in 2022, or a frustrated customer post your team never responded to, is just as likely to surface in an AI answer as anything you publish today.

Bottom line? Reddit presence requires consistent cultivation.

Hubspot Launches AEO Platform

HubSpot’s Spring Spotlight earlier this month showed that organic search traffic for HubSpot customers fell 27% year over year.

In the same period, AI referral traffic tripled.

Customers in the same study who prioritized Answer Engine Optimization (AEO) saw AI referral traffic grow 20% compared to those who didn’t.

There are a ton of options on the market for tracking AI search, but if you want one built into Hubspot, you're in luck!

​It's included in Marketing Hub Pro and Enterprise, or $50/month standalone, and it tracks how your brand surfaces in ChatGPT, Gemini and Perplexity, suggests prompts based on your CRM data and recommends content actions.

Skip the AEO Long Game with AI Ads

AEO is a long game.

Building the content, consistency and cross-platform citations that make an LLM recommend you takes months. For the lazy, OpenAI offers a shorter path: AI Ads.

OpenAI has forecast $2.4 billion in ad revenue for 2026 and $11 billion for 2027. The company is also hiring its first advertising marketing science leader, whose job is to build the attribution model.

Sadly this isn't open to most advertisers yet, but if you want to get on the wait list you can sign up here. The rest of us will have to stick with Reddit.

AI Hack of the Week

ChatGPT released it's new image gen model and the outputs are impressive.

Not sure what to create first? Here are five prompts for Images 2 worth saving:

1. Email Sequence Template

“Create a polished email sequence template for [company name]”

2. Multi-page Brand Kit

“Create a polished multi-page brand kit for [enter brand name]”

3. Scan and Clean

[Upload old paper with writing] “Scan this image and get rid of all the creases”

4. Whiteboard Infographic

[Upload infographic] “Convert this infographic into a handwritten whiteboard infographic suitable for LinkedIn in ratio 9:16”

5. A webinar banner

“A webinar promotion graphic featuring [main content/text]. Use [font style] typography with [design details like colors, textures, layout].”

Top Reader Questions of the Month

Every month I collect the best questions you send me via email and LinkedIn and publish them here:

#1. I know AI chatbots are evaluating our brand before a human visits our site. What should I do with my website?

Think about what an LLM actually needs to construct an answer about your company. It needs your product descriptions, your pricing, your category, your use cases.

It also needs that information to be findable, not buried in JavaScript or locked in a PDF.

When the agent can't find a clear answer, it does one of two things: makes something up or moves on to a competitor who gave it more to work with.

The content types that AI models pull most reliably are FAQs with direct answers, stats that are named and attributed, testimonials that include a specific outcome and copy that ties your value to a concrete pain point.

#2. Our CEO approved an AI budget but wants to see ROI within 90 days. What's actually measurable in that window?

Ninety days is enough time to measure activity and early output quality, but not enough to measure revenue impact.

What you can credibly report in 90 days: time saved on specific tasks, output volume per person, reduction in briefing and revision cycles, and early engagement signals on AI-assisted content versus your baseline.

#3. We're publishing more content than ever but our organic traffic is still dropping. What are we missing?

Probably the same thing HubSpot just quantified for its entire customer base. Organic search traffic for HubSpot customers dropped 27% year over year. AI referral traffic tripled in the same period.

The question to ask about your content program is whether it's built to be cited or built to rank. Those aren't the same thing. Content that ranks well is optimized for keywords and crawlability.

Content that gets cited by AI models is specific, attributable and answers a question cleanly. FAQs, statistics, outcome-based case studies and clear category positioning all help.

Everything you Need to Set Up Claude

If you've made it this far, congratulations. You've really got some staying power!

Given your dedication, I don't want you to miss out on my free Claude workshop. You should sign up right away.

I launched it on Monday and we already have 200 people signed up!

I know, I can barely believe it myself.

Come join a bunch of other folks who want to know exactly how to set up Claude so it works beautifully every time.

You can sign up for the free webinar here.

If you want something really in-depth you can register for my full workshop here for $249. This is the same content I teach to enterprise teams, but for a fraction of the cost.

I hope to see you there.

Tahnee