The new car buyer starts their research in ChatGPT or Gemini. Most automotive brands have no idea what it says about them.

Last month I ran a simple test. I opened the major AI assistants - ChatGPT, Gemini, Perplexity, and Claude - and asked them all the same question: "What's the best family SUV under $60,000 in 2026?"

One brand appeared in all four. Another appeared in three. Two significant manufacturers, brands spending hundreds of millions on advertising, didn't appear in any of them. And the brands that did appear weren't always described the way their own marketing teams would describe them.

None of those brands had any idea this was happening.

Human awareness vs. AI awareness

Human awareness of a brand does not always match AI awareness of that brand. Research from Jellyfish, INSEAD, and Harvard Business Review - published in HBR shows us that you need to optimise your brand for these large language models as well as the human eye. To create this study, they used Share of Model platform data, they charted consumer brand awareness against AI brand awareness across the major car manufacturers.

The findings were stark. Several brands with extremely high consumer recognition - brands in the top quadrant of household awareness - had AI awareness scores in the bottom half of the chart. Meanwhile, some EV startups with limited consumer reach had disproportionately high AI presence because their content had trained the models effectively.

"High advertising spend does not equal AI awareness. The brands that trained the model's view of automotive best are not always the ones who spent the most. That's both the problem and the opportunity."

This matters because the car buyer's journey has fundamentally changed. Jellyfish and YouGov research shows 66% of 18–24 year olds and 51% of 25–34 year olds now ask AI to recommend brands, products, and services. For a $60,000 purchase, AI is increasingly the starting point - the tool that shapes which brands enter the consideration set before a single dealership visit or test drive is booked.

What Share of Model reveals in automotive

Share of Model's Brand Perception module tracks how ChatGPT, Gemini, Claude, and Perplexity describe your brand across every relevant query type - not just "best SUV" but "most reliable family car," "best EV range," "safest car for families," "best resale value." The platform maps which attributes the models associate with your brand, what the sentiment is, and how that compares to each competitor across every model.

The EV perception problem - and how to fix it

Nowhere is AI brand perception more commercially important right now than in the EV market. AI models are constantly asked to compare electric vehicles, identify the best EV for first-time buyers, and evaluate charging infrastructure. And the answers are unreliable for many established brands - because the content that trained the models doesn't always reflect their current product reality.

One significant European brand is routinely described as "behind on software" by multiple AI models despite launching a major update over a year ago. Another legacy manufacturer's EV range barely appears in AI recommendations despite producing a genuinely competitive product. These aren't opinion problems — they're content signal problems. And Share of Model's Sources & Links feature identifies exactly which publications, forums, and domains are shaping the model's view, so brands can engage the right content channels to correct the perception.

From perception data to campaign activation

For automotive brands already running Google campaigns, Share of Model connects directly to Google Ads. AI brand visibility signals feed into search theme selection, PMax asset optimisation, and campaign targeting; which means the insight from the Brand Perception module doesn't stay in a dashboard, it moves into the media that's actually influencing buyers.

The brands getting ahead of this in automotive are auditing their current AI perception, identifying which competitor is taking ground in queries they should own, and using those insights to brief their PR, content, and paid teams simultaneously. The window is still open - but it won't be for long. The first mover advantage in AI brand perception compounds.

The question isn't whether AI is influencing automotive purchase decisions. It already is. The question is whether your brand is shaping what the model says - or just hoping for the best.

Find out at shareofmodel.ai.