How Reddit Answers Utilises AI to Enhance User Experience

In the social media sector, platforms are ramping up competitiveness to retain user engagement through innovative search and discovery tools.

It is no surprise that AI is becoming key to these advancements, with Meta's AI-powered search bar on Instagram that enables personalised content discovery and enhanced influencer connections, to Spotify's use of AI for trendspotting and personalised playlist curation based on user behavior, to name a few.

This use of AI spotlights the issue of traditional search methods, that while functional, often struggle to navigate the complex web of discussions, opinions and user-generated content that characterise modern social platforms.

Addressing this challenge and joining other social media giants, Reddit, the self-proclaimed "front page of the internet" with its vast network of over 100,000 active communities and hundreds of millions of monthly active users, has innovated Gen AI to enhance user experience.

Through its launch of Reddit Answers, Reddit’s unique position as a repository of diverse community knowledge spanning nearly two decades can face its particular challenges in making its wealth of information readily accessible to users.

Reddit Answers has been created to change how users can interact with the platform's extensive content archive.

AI-driven search aims to streamline information retrieval

Reddit Answers is designed to provide users with a more efficient way to access the platform's wealth of information.

Reddit explains: “With Reddit Answers, redditors can ask questions and receive answers using a new, AI-powered conversational interface.

“Once a question is asked, curated summaries of relevant conversations and details across Reddit will appear, including links to related communities and posts.”

Therefore, this AI-powered system aims to simplify the process of finding specific information within Reddit's vast network of communities and discussions.

With a feature that operates through a conversational interface, users are enabled to interact with the platform in a more natural manner.

When a question is posed, the system generates summaries of pertinent discussions and provides links to related communities and posts.

This approach allows users to quickly access relevant information without having to navigate through multiple threads or subreddits manually.

Enhanced user engagement through interactive search

Reddit Answers provides static results as well being designed to facilitate a more dynamic search experience, by allowing users to delve deeper into topics through follow-up questions.

How this sets Reddit apart, is that this interactive element aims to mimic the natural flow of conversation, potentially leading to more comprehensive and satisfying search outcomes for users.

Reddit's Chief Product Officer, Pali Bhat, set out this intention in an interview with McKinsey earlier this year: “At Reddit, we are committed to democratising conversations globally.”

As a result, this feature also enables users to read snippets and answers directly within the search interface, with the option to access full conversations if desired.

This functionality could also significantly reduce the time and effort required to find specific information on the platform, potentially increasing user satisfaction and engagement.

Phased rollout and future expansion plans

Reddit is taking a measured approach to the implementation of Reddit Answers.

The company reports that the initial rollout will be limited to a select number of users in the US, with the feature currently supporting only English-language queries.

This way, Reddit can gather user feedback and refine the system before a wider release.

Looking ahead, Reddit has expressed intentions to expand the feature to additional languages and geographical locations.

This planned expansion signals the company's intention to improve accessibility and user experience on a global scale.

Talking with McKinsey in an interview earlier this year, Pali discussed his attitude to utilising AI for Reddit: “Once you commit to understanding how an AI and ML pipeline would work, the next step is to figure out where you sit in the value chain.

“On the product side, you could be building a portion of the emerging AI stack [...] The other extreme is taking your existing product and adding Gen AI to it. [...] But you have to be thoughtful about your data, because if it is being ingested by some Gen AI, there could be risks on the regulatory side or confidential information could leak.”

He concluded: “Once you understand how you’re using ML and AI, you’ll know what skills you need.”

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