Reddit turns user threads into AI reviews for 10,000 products

Reddit is turning product discussions on its platform into a dedicated shopping feature. The company introduced Reddit Reviews on Tuesday, a set of AI-generated pages that bring together community conversations about around 10,000 products, with summaries, sentiment breakdowns and links to buy.

The feature is rolling out to all US users on iOS, Android and the web, following a period of testing that began in February. Reddit initially covered electronics, video games, and health and beauty products, before adding home and fashion categories in September.

Users can find a review page by searching for a product or tapping its highlighted name in a comment. Each page summarises “what people are saying” and shows how many comments express positive, negative or mixed opinions.

Shoppers can filter discussions by topic, compare similar products and follow links to the original threads to ask questions.

The launch comes just weeks before the holiday shopping season, when consumers are likely to spend more time researching purchases. Reddit says half of US shoppers already visit the platform to check recommendations they receive from AI tools.

The company has also been adding shopping features throughout the year, including shoppable ads, AI-powered product search and AI-narrated videos.

Turning informal discussions into structured review pages could also make them easier for brands to manipulate. Astroturfing, the practice of making promotional content look like genuine grassroots support, is a particular concern. Reddit says it will rely on its platform rules, anti-spam systems and volunteer moderators to prevent this.

Reddit’s own AI systems detect around 25,000 spam posts and comments every day. Many are planted by brands hoping that chatbots will pick up their marketing messages and repeat them as genuine recommendations.

There is also a broader concern about what happens when Reddit starts making money from the conversations that built its reputation.

Writing in Inc, Jason Aten argued that the feature “might ruin Reddit” by commercialising the authenticity that makes its discussions useful. Users have traditionally shared their experiences without the expectation that those conversations would become part of a shopping product.

The launch comes days after Reddit said it would move towards a logged-in experience as Google’s AI search tools reduce the number of visitors reaching its site. Product reviews could give shoppers another reason to visit Reddit directly instead of encountering its discussions through someone else’s chatbot.

Reddit’s appeal to advertisers and AI companies rests partly on the volume of personal experiences and opinions shared by its users.

The company now wants to make that material easier to search and use when shopping. Whether it can do so without changing the nature of those conversations remains an open question.