Blog: Engine Room AI.

Reddit is the only forum that really registers (72% of forum citations over the last month) for AI tools, but it’s still a small slice: only about 6% of AI answers cite it. So, what pulls it in? Three question themes lead: practicality, reliability and electric. Together, they account for 37% of all Reddit citations. […]

According to Engine Room, the RAC editorial pages are the fifth-most cited domain in AI search with the likes of ChatGPT, Gemini, Google AIO and Perplexity behind CarWow, What Car?, Auto Express and YouTube. This year saw the launch of the RAC New Car Awards. So how did this impact its AI visibility? RAC announced […]

AI search is now the top of the funnel for car sales. Rather than a page of links and magazines off the shelves, car buyers are asking ChatGPT. And those clicking through from AI are four times more likely to convert. It means understanding how you’re appearing on AI platforms, such as ChatGPT, Perplexity, Gemini and […]

We know that online search is changing as car buyers switch to AI over traditional search engines when researching their next vehicle. So what makes ChatGPT and other LLMs surface one car brand over another? The answer starts with consistency. A consistent brand voice across every digital touchpoint – your own digital content, social media channels […]

SEO vs GEO: what communications teams need to know. The gold standard of online automotive content has long been page one visibility, driven by high-quality articles laden with keywords and search terms. In short, SEO (or Search Engine Optimisation). The equation was simple. Rank higher on Google, get more clicks, increase organic site traffic, generate […]

The face of search has changed forever and the pace at which it’s doing so is quicker than ever. At the start of the year, half of UK adults were using LLM-based AI tools to find car information. Now, as we enter H2, that number is already at two-thirds – and growing.   The era of […]

What GEO actually looks like for car brands. SEO gets you on page one. AEO (Answer Engine Optimization) gets your content extracted. GEO (Generative Engine Optimization) gets your brand woven into the narrative itself. Here is the difference: AEO is about structure: Clean headings, FAQ sections and Schema markup so AI can pull a direct answer GEO is […]

We’re used to seeing the same links appear at the top of  Google searches but one size does not fit all in AI search. Our data shows the sources LLMs are citing and trust change depending on what the buyer asks. Practicality and reliability: YouTube is the 2nd most cited source, while Reddit, Inc. advice sits […]

The car-buying journey just broke. The traditional SEO and paid digital funnel still exists, but there is now a parallel journey happening inside AI search engines. Buyers aren’t clicking through 10 links anymore. They are asking for recommendations and getting a single, compressed response that names brands and products without the user ever visiting a […]

Your brand website is no longer the front door to your dealership.​ ​ Two-thirds of UK adults in the car-buying journey are now using LLM-based AI tools to find car information. When a buyer asks Claude ChatGPT Mastery or Perplexity for the ‘most reliable hybrid’, they don’t get a list of blue links.​ ​ They […]