AI search is becoming a conversation

Drivers no longer need to translate every need into a short keyword. They can describe their situation, ask follow-up questions and use AI to compare models and finance options.

This creates a wider visibility challenge. It is no longer enough to know where a page ranks for a keyword. Brands also need to understand:

  • whether they appear in relevant AI-assisted research;
  • how their products, expertise and proposition are described;
  • which competitors are recommended and why;
  • which owned and third-party sources shape the answer;
  • whether the surrounding customer journey can turn interest into action.

 

Visibility only matters when it influences the right decisions

A high volume of brand mentions can look positive without creating meaningful commercial value. We focus on whether your business is visible and well represented when commercially relevant audiences are researching a need, comparing their options or deciding who to trust.

Be discovered

Appear when relevant customers are exploring a problem, category, model, finance option or provider.

Enter consideration

Earn a meaningful place in model comparisons, finance explanations and recommendations – not just a passing mention.

Build confidence

Make sure your proposition, offers, evidence and differentiators are represented clearly and corroborated by credible sources.

Create action

Connect AI-influenced demand to useful website journeys, test drives, qualified enquiries, pipeline and revenue wherever measurement allows.

Improving AI search visibility requires connected expertise

AI search strategy and measurement

We establish where AI search can influence valuable customer journeys, how your brand currently appears and where competitors are stronger. The work can include audience and topic research, prompt analysis built around real buyer types and model-level queries, competitor comparison, response and citation analysis, visibility baselines, measurement planning and a prioritised roadmap.

Commercial role: Focus investment on the audiences, topics and decisions most likely to matter.

Technical readiness for AI search

We assess whether search engines, relevant AI crawlers and other discovery systems can access and interpret the information they need. This can include crawler directives, indexability, JavaScript rendering, canonicalisation, internal linking, structured data, vehicle and stock feeds, model and offer pages, and technical remediation.

Commercial role: Ensure important product, service and proposition information can participate in discovery rather than being obscured by avoidable technical barriers.

Content optimisation for AI search

We improve the clarity, completeness, structure and evidential quality of existing content, and identify where new content is needed. This can include topic-gap analysis, customer-question research, model comparisons, finance and EV explainers, product and proposition content, expert input, proof points and information architecture.

Commercial role: Help customers and AI systems understand why the brand is relevant, what makes it different and what the customer should do next.

Brand authority and external context

AI systems can encounter far more than the claims made on a company's own website. We strengthen the external evidence surrounding the brand through digital PR, motoring press coverage, expert commentary, owner and dealer reviews, partnerships, awards and more consistent third-party narratives.

Commercial role: Build the corroboration and confidence that can support both AI representation and customer choice.

Powered by UnderAI

Better AI search decisions need better visibility intelligence

UnderAi is UpShift’s proprietary AI visibility tool. It helps our strategists analyse how brands appear across key models, finance routes, buyer types and changing AI responses.

Rather than treating every prompt or brand mention as equal, UnderAi helps us assess where your brand earns meaningful attention, where competitors are stronger and which marketing changes deserve priority.

We use those findings to guide work across search strategy, websites, content, technical performance, digital PR and conversion. UnderAi is used within UpShift engagements and is not sold as standalone software.

Find out more

FAQs

AI search optimisation is the work involved in improving how a business is discovered, understood and represented across AI-assisted search experiences. It can involve strategy, technical accessibility, content, structured information, digital PR and wider brand authority. The right combination depends on the customer questions and commercial outcomes that matter to the business.

GEO usually refers to generative engine optimisation, while AEO commonly means answer engine optimisation. The terms describe efforts to improve visibility within generated or direct answers. We use AI search as the broader client facing term because performance depends on more than isolated optimisation tactics and increasingly spans search engines, AI assistants, websites and external sources.

They share important foundations, including technical accessibility, useful content, clear structure and authority. However, AI-generated answers can synthesise multiple sources, vary by context and present brands without behaving like a fixed list of rankings. AI search therefore requires additional analysis of audience context, response prominence, narrative accuracy and third-party evidence.

No agency can credibly guarantee inclusion or a fixed position across generated answers. Platforms, models, sources and responses change. We establish a more dependable baseline, identify factors the brand can influence and prioritise work intended to strengthen visibility and representation over time.

Sometimes an AI referral can be followed into a conversion journey, but AI may also influence awareness or consideration before a later branded search, direct visit or enquiry. We aim for commercially connected measurement, combining visibility, marketing and sales indicators without claiming perfect attribution.

AI search needs explicit consideration, but it should not become disconnected from the wider marketing strategy. We identify where it changes customer discovery or exposes gaps, then integrate the response with SEO, content, digital PR, website and conversion priorities.

We consider visibility across relevant topics, audiences, competitors and platforms, as well as the prominence and context of the brand's inclusion. UnderAI helps us distinguish meaningful attention from a passing mention. We then connect those findings to search demand, website engagement, referrals, branded interest, enquiries and CRM outcomes where data is available.