How well are the career pages of the major automobile companies in the Dax 40 prepared for AI systems? We did the test with our GEO check. The results are sobering – especially since career sites of this size often cost hundreds of thousands of euros to produce and maintain.
The look of the pages is correct. But as soon as AI systems like ChatGPT or Perplexity are supposed to answer specific questions about culture, jobs or the application process, the career sites usually fail. And this despite the fact that all companies pass the technical accessibility test without any problems.
This is evident across all results: Not a single company has stored structured metadata that would help AI systems to classify content correctly. Even the “test winner” Volkswagen completely misses the technical award.
Technically clean, content unclear
In the “Availability for AI” category, almost all companies get full points. AI crawlers can basically index the respective pages. But this solid starting point is deceptive. As soon as it comes to the actual usability of the content, systematic weaknesses become apparent.
What is particularly striking is that in the “Technical Award” category, which deals with classification aids for AI systems, most of the companies examined achieved zero out of four possible points. Neither structured organizational data nor explicit FAQ formats are available – a real obstacle for AI systems that have to combine and classify content from different sources.
In order to display external content, your revocable consent is required. Personal data from third-party platforms (possibly USA) may be processed. More information.
VW in front, Continental with the best AI readability
With 28 out of 38 points, Volkswagen achieved the best result in the comparison. Incidentally, the maximum value that can be achieved by VW (38) differs from the other companies (36). This is because the GEO check at the Wolfsburg-based company also checked the criteria “career-relevant linking” (the career page specifically links to career-relevant sub-pages, such as benefits and culture) and “company name in the first paragraph” in the “Readability for AI” test field. The GEO Check could not check the other career sites because this information could not be determined by the tool and was therefore not evaluated.
The Volkswagen page is structured, balanced in terms of content and comes closest to being prepared for AI – including six out of eight points for the text elements and seven out of eight points for the page structure. But here too the technical distinction is completely missing (0/4).
Continental achieved 27 out of 36 points. The supplier scores particularly well when it comes to readability: eleven out of twelve possible points in this category are the best in the entire field. The site is information-driven instead of brand-driven, which pays off in terms of machine processability. Nevertheless, the company also achieved zero out of four points in the technical award.
BMW and Porsche in midfield
The BMW Group’s career page scores 25 out of 36 points. It shows strengths in accessibility (6/6) and readability (9/12). A specific deficit: Directly after the main title, there is no compact introductory text with the most important information – exactly the area to which AI systems pay particular attention. The GEO check marks this as not fulfilled.
Like Daimler Truck, the Porsche SE achieved 24 out of 36 points. Porsche shines with a perfect page structure (8/8), but has room for improvement when it comes to text elements (3/6) and technical distinction (0/4). Daimler Truck, on the other hand, already shows weaknesses in the page structure (4/8): H1 heading and heading hierarchy need improvement and, according to the check, the imprint is not linked in a way that can be found.
The central career page of the Mercedes-Benz Group could not be analyzed in the GEO check – the tool is blocked there.
Info
The GEO check of human resources management
The GEO-Check is a free human resources tool that HR managers can use to check their career pages and job advertisements for AI suitability. GEO stands for Generative Engine Optimization – the question of whether web content is structured in such a way that AI systems such as ChatGPT, Perplexity or Google AI can process it, classify it and include it in answers.
The tool analyzes pages based on several categories: accessibility for AI crawlers, page structure, text elements, technical markup and readability for AI. Each criterion is rated as “Completed”, “Note” or “Check” – including specific suggestions for improvement.
The GEO check is available free of charge to all registered users of personalwirtschaft.de.
The check can also be carried out with individual job advertisements!
Car manufacturers’ career pages: common deficits
The results of the GEO check do not show a total failure. The technical basics are in place, many career pages are structured and accessible for AI systems. What is striking, however, is that the deficits are similar across all companies. Structured data is almost always missing, central content is often not condensed clearly enough and typical answer formats such as FAQ sections are rarely used – even though these became important for Google findability long before the advent of AI.
The overall picture is therefore less a ranking of individual winners and losers than an industry-wide pattern: The prerequisites for visibility in AI systems often exist, but are not used consistently.
Sven Frost is responsible for HR tech, which includes the areas of digitalization, HR software, time and access, SAP and outsourcing. He also writes about recruiting and employer branding. He continues to be responsible for the editorial planning of various special human resources publications.
