Marketing

Community Managers: The Secret Weapon in the AI Search Era

Community management will become central within marketing teams as brands are increasingly catering their communications to LLMs and AI agents.

Jul 23, 2026

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During talks and conversations at Cannes Lions 2026, it emerged that more and more brands are adapting to optimize their online presence to rank higher in AI search environments – moving their focus from SEO to AEO.

Because AI is searching the web for answers, information about a brand and its products that is presented in a Q&A format can be more easily surfaced by these LLMs and AI agents.

Finding Insights on Reddit

Rustom Dastoor, executive vice president and head of marketing and communications for the Americas at Mastercard, noted that brands will need community managers to engage with users across platforms such as Reddit and other similar forums.

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