How do two competing (more or less) UAE brands show up in AI searches?

Ask ChatGPT | Perplexity | Claude | Google AI Mode to summarise and analyse this (long-ish…) post.

Two airlines, both popular for different reasons.

In the fair UAE, where we lay our scene…

Just like the feud between the Capulets and the Montagues, the competition for AI mentions is fierce. And as you’ll see from our analysis, when it comes to UAE airlines, one definitely has the upper hand.

In fine form, Emirates has the favour of AI tools when asked about airlines in the UAE. 

FlyDubai is lagging behind, only getting mentioned with further questioning (which not all customers will bother doing!) 

How could two similar brands be so far apart in AI visibility? And how can FlyDubai catch up so as not to miss out on budding travellers getting AI tools to do their vacation planning for them?

Read on to the next scene to find out…

TL;DR: Despite both being reputable brands, Emirates is much more likely to be mentioned by AI tools than FlyDubai. This could have a direct impact on their sales as we’re going to chatbots for answers more and more. From an analysis of their online presence, we can see why Emirates is AI’s golden child and FlyDubai is feeling more left out than the Ugly Duckling! Emirates is utilising schemas, third-party references and brand content, boosting its AI-readability and authority. FlyDubai is doing the opposite, with no clear technical structure, little brand content and few trust signals. 

The brand battle for AI mentions

Curious about how established UAE brands were faring with AI search, we wanted to know what would happen if someone were to ask AI:

“What’s the best airline to fly to Dubai?”

The results may surprise you…

• ChatGPT (GPT-4o): Emirates and Etihad were top mentions.

• Gemini: Emirates featured prominently, with mentions of Etihad and Qatar Airways.

• Perplexity: Again, Emirates and Etihad were recommended. FlyDubai? It only surfaced when asked specifically about low-cost carriers.

Emirates dominated the search results while FlyDubai barely got a look in. Yes, Emirates is a well-established brand but FlyDubai is a solid, well-known brand too. If they have to rely on users asking secondary questions to get a mention from AI, they could be in big trouble.

So what exactly is going on here and what can we learn from it to get ahead in the age of AI?

Why do some brands get mentioned by AI and others don’t?

AI tools are where consumers are getting their information from nowadays (at least, more and more). This doesn't mean more traffic to your website because people are getting all their information from summaries and conversations with chatbots, but it does mean that once they arrive on your website (having heard about you in AI responses), they're ready to make a purchase. 

This is the magic of the invisible funnel you might have heard about online. The key is to know how to play the AI game. And it looks like Emirates does which is why they are pulling ahead in AI brand mentions compared to their competitors. See how well your website is optimised for AI with our Brand Visibility Score tool.

When it comes to AI, it’s not the same as playing for views on social media or ranking on Google search results. AI summarises the information it finds online such as your website. It takes three main things into account when deciding what websites to pull from and what brands to mention - structured signals, content clarity and online authority. We go into more detail about this in our AI search optimisation template.

Among the thousands of sources available to them, they want to quote the ones that enable them to create the most trustworthy, structured response. AI aims to please, that’s for sure!

The dos and don'ts of AI visibility

So, to our preliminary audit of Emirates and FlyDubai’s content and technical structure. Why is Emirates being favoured and FlyDubai only getting a very small slice of the AI mentions pie? Keep in mind this won’t be the full story because there’s only so much we can tell from the outside looking in. 

What Emirates does to get mentioned by AI

• Emirates has clear “about” and “experience” content. This makes it easy for AI to vet the validity of the website and brand, giving it confidence in using Emirates in its answers. 

• They have strong third-party reputation mentions. Emirates isn’t just tooting its own horn. There’s proof from other sources that they are the real deal such as mentions on news outlets and review sites.

• It looks like they are using a structured schema, although we’d need to test this with a technical audit to be sure. Organising their content in this way makes it easier for AI to interpret what it’s reading and utilise it in answers. 

Why FlyDubai is missing out on AI visibility

• FlyDubai has less brand-rich content on its public-facing pages. AI can’t easily verify who they are and why they should trust them enough to include them in their answers. 

• They have no easily detectable schema markup like JSON-LD. As they aren’t using this technical structure to organise key data like FAQs, AI is finding it harder to scan their site and summarise the data into answers. 

• In all their content, they have fewer long-form or descriptive content blocks about the brand itself. So even if AI finds a blog potentially useful, it’s going to hesitate to quote the information because the author of the content is a bit of an unknown. 

From surface-level checks, FlyDubai’s brand presence is less AI-readable than Emirates’. 

How FlyDubai (and you!) can get traffic from AI tools

If this were our brand, we’d be really worried about losing visibility as people turn to AI for travel and purchase-related answers more and more. Here’s what we’d do to change the trajectory and get AI loving our website and brand so we are quoted, mentioned and visible to customers. 

• Add schemas: We’d make key information easy for AI to interpret by adding schemas that tell crawlers what they are reading on the backend. We’d start with schemas for the organisation, FAQs and products and services. 

• Q&A content: We’d think about what customers are asking AI tools and create content answering those questions in a way that’s super easy for AI to understand and summarise. For example, a piece on “Is FlyDubai a good choice for business travellers?”

• Third-party trust signals: We’d boost our credibility with AI by getting validation from other sites with authority. Building our presence on review sites and stepping in as a guest expert on other blogs creates those all-important mentions and backlinks. 

• About sections: Across old and new content, we’d add brand positioning paragraphs that explain who we are, what we’re about and why we’re qualified to talk about what we’re discussing in the content. It connects the dots for AI.

FlyDubai is definitely not the only one on the back foot when it comes to getting picked up by AI. A lot of brands haven’t realised how important it is to adapt to their customers using AI searches in the buying process. Even those that do have no idea where to start. 

But it’s not too late to get ahead by giving your online presence an AI makeover and be more Emirates i.e. dominate AI answers!  At decipher. we’re here to show you the way. 

Seen in Search is a series by decipher. the AI search optimisation agency helping UAE brands get seen, understood, and chosen by both AI tools and real people.