When Nobody Says 'JK Tyre' First: What an Unprompted AI Search Actually Shows
ibs Fulcro ran a full AEO and GEO baseline audit for JK Tyre using Velivo Radar, scanning 12,651 real buyer prompts across six AI engines. The critical methodology step: separating prompts that already name JK Tyre from genuinely generic buyer questions, to measure real, unprompted brand visibility rather than a number inflated by branded search.
At a glance
Client: JK Tyre & Industries Ltd. (Automotive (Tyres))
Problem: JK Tyre had no honest baseline for its real AI search visibility, with existing metrics inflated by prompts that already named the brand.
Solution: A full AEO/GEO audit using Velivo Radar, scanning 53,535 genuinely generic buyer prompts (no brand name) across six AI engines.
Result: Unprompted mention rate on generic buyer queries, JK Tyre's real AI visibility: 17.8%
ibs Fulcro's role: AEO Audit
The Brief
Buyers researching tyres increasingly ask an AI system directly, “best tyre for my Toyota Innova,” rather than clicking through search results themselves. JK Tyre needed to know exactly where it stood in those answers, not against a general SEO ranking, but specifically inside ChatGPT, Perplexity, Google AI Overview, Google AI Mode, Gemini, and Copilot, against every major named competitor in the category.
How We Ran the Audit
The engagement started with prompt research inside Velivo Radar, our preferred AEO and GEO tracking, analytics, and recommendation platform. We calibrated real keyword data from SEMrush and expanded it across different buyer-intent stages inside Velivo Radar's Playground, weighting the mix toward the intent stages most likely to actually convert, not just the highest-volume search terms.
From that calibrated base, we generated thousands of realistic buyer prompts and ran them against six live AI engines: ChatGPT, Perplexity, Google AI Overview, Google AI Mode, Google Gemini, and Microsoft Copilot. For JK Tyre specifically, this produced 12,651 unique prompts and 75,102 individual scan responses once every engine was accounted for, alongside 472,440 citation records mapping every source URL that fed into those answers.
The methodology behind this prompt universe is published in full: see How to Estimate AEO Prompt Volume: A Calibrated Method for the underlying anchor, archetype, and layer framework, and for the same brand-anchored-versus-generic distinction this audit applied to arrive at JK Tyre's honest, unprompted visibility figure.
The methodology decision that changes the whole finding: a meaningful share of the prompt set already contains JK Tyre's name (“JK Tyre vs Apollo for Toyota Taisor,” “is JK Tyre good for Toyota Innova”). On those prompts, JK Tyre is mentioned in the AI's response 95.6% of the time, which is expected and not a meaningful visibility signal, the brand name was already in the question. The real test of AI search visibility is the 53,535 genuinely generic prompts with no brand name at all, where a buyer asks something like “best budget tyre for Skoda Kylaq” and JK Tyre has to earn its way into the answer on its own. That split is the core of this audit.
Unprompted Brand Mention Rate vs. Named Competitors (Generic Queries Only)
| Brand | Mentioned In (of 53,535 generic scans) | Mention Rate |
|---|---|---|
| Bridgestone India | 17,249 | 32.2% |
| Apollo Tyres | 16,221 | 30.3% |
| CEAT Tyres | 15,891 | 29.7% |
| MRF Tyres | 13,730 | 25.6% |
| Michelin India | 12,499 | 23.3% |
| Yokohama India | 10,444 | 19.5% |
| JK Tyre | 9,549 | 17.8% |
| Goodyear India | 7,874 | 14.7% |
| Continental India | 7,552 | 14.1% |
Mention rate calculated only on prompts with no brand name present in the prompt text, the honest test of unaided AI visibility. Source: Velivo Radar scan export, JK Tyre project, ibs Fulcro audit.
This is the number that matters, and it's not a good one. On genuinely unprompted buyer queries, JK Tyre ranks 7th of 9 tracked brands, well behind Bridgestone India, Apollo Tyres, and CEAT Tyres. This is a materially different, and more useful, finding than a blended headline number would suggest. It identifies a real, addressable visibility gap rather than declaring an already-won category.
Unprompted Mention Rate and Position by AI Engine (Generic Queries Only)
| Engine | Generic Scans | JK Tyre Mention Rate | Avg. Position When Mentioned |
|---|---|---|---|
| Google Gemini | 9,018 | 23.1% | 1.88 |
| Google AI Mode | 9,012 | 22.9% | 1.74 |
| Google AI Overview | 8,474 | 21.5% | 1.64 |
| ChatGPT | 8,994 | 20.5% | 1.82 |
| Microsoft Copilot | 9,019 | 15.6% | 2.54 |
| Perplexity | 9,018 | 3.6% | 1.92 |
Average position is calculated only across scans where JK Tyre was mentioned. This report uses average-position-when-mentioned for continuity with the underlying scan export; see our research on why this metric can be misleading for a more rigorous alternative. Source: Velivo Radar scan export, ibs Fulcro audit.
Perplexity is a near-total blind spot on unprompted queries. A 3.6% mention rate on genuine, no-brand-name prompts means Perplexity is effectively not surfacing JK Tyre at all unless the user already asks about it by name. This is the single most urgent engine-level gap in the entire audit, and it points to a source-coverage and technical AI-readiness problem specific to how Perplexity sources and crawls, not a brand-sentiment issue.
What the Position and Sentiment Data Shows, on Generic Queries
When JK Tyre does appear, it still competes for the top spot
Among the 9,549 generic-query mentions, JK Tyre holds position 1 in 68.1% of them, with an average position of 1.89. The brand is not being buried once it actually appears, it's being left out of the answer altogether more often than competitors.
Sentiment on generic mentions remains largely favourable
69% neutral, 27% positive, and only 3.6% negative sentiment among generic-query mentions. The gap here is coverage, not perception; when AI engines do talk about JK Tyre unprompted, they don't talk about it badly.
Microsoft Copilot mentions JK Tyre less often and ranks it lower when it does
Copilot's generic mention rate (15.6%) is the second-lowest of the six engines, and its average position when mentioned (2.54) is also the weakest, a compounding gap on this specific engine.
Brand-anchored prompts confirm the product story is credible once raised
On the 21,567 prompts that already name JK Tyre, the brand is mentioned in the response 95.6% of the time with generally favourable framing. The challenge isn't that AI engines have a poor opinion of JK Tyre, it's that JK Tyre isn't the brand these engines reach for first when a buyer doesn't ask for it by name.
Highest-Volume Citation Sources on Generic Queries, and JK Tyre's Presence in Each
| Domain | Citations (Generic Queries) | JK Tyre Mentioned |
|---|---|---|
| tyres.cardekho.com | 34,353 | 17% |
| tyremarket.com | 23,942 | 33% |
| google.com (search results) | 20,236 | 28% |
| cars24.com | 14,585 | 7% |
| tyresnmore.com | 12,828 | 20% |
| tyreplex.com | 10,082 | 52% |
| spinny.com | 9,508 | 6% |
| images.openai.com | 7,996 | 27% |
| youtube.com | 6,765 | 17% |
| ceat.com | 5,848 | 9% |
JK Tyre mentioned % is the share of that domain's citations, within generic queries only, where JK Tyre appears in the AI response. Source: Velivo Radar citation export, ibs Fulcro audit.
The clearest, most specific opportunity in the entire dataset: cars24.com and spinny.com are cited a combined 24,093 times on genuinely generic buyer queries, more citations than JK Tyre gets mentioned across the entire generic prompt set, yet JK Tyre appears in only 7% and 6% of those citations respectively. Even tyres.cardekho.com, the single largest citation source in the category at 34,353 citations, mentions JK Tyre in only 17% of them. These three domains alone represent the largest addressable visibility gap ibs Fulcro's audit identified.
What the Recommendations Engine Found
Prioritise data and content partnerships with cars24.com and spinny.com
These two used-car platforms are cited at high volume on exactly the generic, model-specific queries where JK Tyre is currently weakest. Closing this specific gap is likely to move the unprompted mention rate more than broad content production elsewhere.
Address the tyres.cardekho.com gap directly
As the single largest citation source in the category, even a modest improvement in JK Tyre's presence on this domain has an outsized effect on overall visibility, given its citation volume alone.
Treat Perplexity as a distinct, urgent technical workstream
A 3.6% unprompted mention rate signals a source-coverage or crawl-readiness issue specific to Perplexity, not a messaging problem. This needs its own technical AI-readiness diagnosis rather than being folded into general content work.
Build out named vs.-comparison content deliberately
Brand-anchored comparison prompts already convert well (95.6% mention, mostly favourable sentiment). Extending this strength with more explicit, JK Tyre-authored comparison content may help bridge some unprompted queries toward brand recognition over time.
Feed AI-readiness fixes directly into the CMS
Recommended copy changes, structured data fixes, and schema corrections are pushed through direct CMS integrations, so site-wide AI-readiness corrections roll out without a manual page-by-page rebuild.
Why This Approach to AEO Is Different
Most AEO audits report a single visibility number and stop there. Separating brand-anchored prompts from genuinely generic ones is what makes this audit's finding useful rather than misleading, a brand can look strong on a blended metric purely because a share of the prompt set already contains its name, while its real, unaided visibility tells a very different story. Running 12,651 real, calibrated prompts across six engines, and cutting the data this way, is what revealed a specific, addressable gap rather than a false sense of category leadership.
The output isn't a static report. Velivo Radar's recommendation engine translates the scan data directly into prioritised actions, copy changes, third-party outreach targets, and technical AI-readiness fixes, and those fixes are pushed through direct integrations with CMS platforms like Strapi and Adobe Experience Manager, so the corrections identified in the audit actually ship, rather than sitting in a slide deck.
Frequently asked questions
An AEO (answer engine optimization) and GEO (generative engine optimization) audit measures how often and how favourably a brand appears in AI-generated answers, across engines like ChatGPT, Perplexity, and Google AI Overview, rather than in traditional search rankings. ibs Fulcro's audit for JK Tyre scanned 12,651 real buyer prompts across six engines to build this picture at scale.
Prompts that already name a brand, like 'JK Tyre vs Apollo for Toyota Taisor,' will almost always mention that brand in the response, since the brand name is already in the question. That inflates a blended visibility number. Measuring only genuinely generic prompts, where no brand is named, is the honest test of whether an AI engine names a brand on its own.
JK Tyre was mentioned in 17.8% of the 53,535 generic scans run across six AI engines, ranking 7th of the 9 tracked brands, behind Bridgestone India (32.2%), Apollo Tyres (30.3%), CEAT Tyres (29.7%), MRF Tyres (25.6%), Michelin India (23.3%), and Yokohama India (19.5%).
Perplexity, by a wide margin. On genuinely generic queries, Perplexity mentions JK Tyre in only 3.6% of scans, far below every other engine tracked. This points to a specific source-coverage or crawl-readiness issue on Perplexity rather than a general brand-perception problem.
Velivo Radar, an AEO and GEO tracking, analytics, and recommendation platform. Prompt research was calibrated using real SEMrush keyword data and expanded across buyer-intent stages inside Velivo Radar's Playground before running the full scan across ChatGPT, Perplexity, Google AI Overview, Google AI Mode, Google Gemini, and Microsoft Copilot.
cars24.com and spinny.com, two of India's largest used-car platforms, are cited a combined 24,093 times on generic buyer queries, yet JK Tyre appears in only 7% and 6% of those citations respectively. Closing that specific gap, alongside JK Tyre's low presence on tyres.cardekho.com, the largest single citation source in the category, represents the largest addressable visibility opportunity identified.