According to a recent AI Shortlist study by Sheffield marketing consultancy, Manual Focus, Wahoo is the smart trainer brand AI engines recommend most often to UK shoppers. The study used Light Meter, a new tool from Manual Focus, to put 309 UK buying questions about indoor cycling to six AI engines. Each question ran three times on 19 October 2026, which produced 5,562 answers.
All six engines put Wahoo first for smart trainers. Wahoo appeared in 83% of answers to trainer questions that didn’t name a brand, with Tacx second on 65%. Zwift led training apps on 88%. Smart bikes were the closest category, where Wahoo’s 64% put it just ahead of Wattbike on 58%. Below the leaders the engines disagreed sharply. Claude named Decathlon’s Van Rysel in 43% of its smart trainer answers compared with 5% for Google AI Mode, while JetBlack ranged from 47% on Claude to 11% on AI Mode.
The answers also shifted from one run to the next. When an engine got the same question three times, it named exactly the same brands in all three answers only 20% of the time.
Cycling media supplied more than half of the sources the engines cited. Cyclingnews was cited in 45% of answers, with BikeRadar on 36%. Community sites such as Reddit and YouTube supplied between 3% and 5% of citations.
Google showed an AI Overview on 64% of the searches in the study. Ofcom puts the figure at about 30% across all UK searches, so shoppers looking for indoor cycling kit see Google’s AI answer far more often than average.
James Vickers, founder of Manual Focus, said “AI traffic to UK retail sites grew 149% in the year to August, according to Adobe. Knowing whether ChatGPT mentions your brand in a single answer doesn’t tell you how often each engine names you, or what to do about it. Over half the sources came from cycling media, so for an indoor cycling brand most of this is PR work.”
What does this mean for marketing and PR strategies?
According to Vickers, the big finding for brands is that there isn’t a single AI shortlist. “All six engines put Wahoo first for smart trainers, but below Wahoo they split. Van Rysel turns up in 43% of Claude’s trainer answers against 5% on Google AI Mode. A brand can be on one engine’s shortlist while missing from another’s, so checking ChatGPT once tells you very little.”
When it comes to cycling media, over half of the courses the engines cited come from media sources. This means the engines are still searching for ‘authoritative’ sites to build their answers from. “Cyclingnews cited in 45% of answers,” Vickers continued. “Community sites such as Reddit and YouTube came to between 3% and 5%. The buyer’s guide a rider reads on a cycling site is now also the source an AI quotes when someone asks what to buy.”
So in real terms, what does that mean for your brand marketing strategy? Vickers says the study shows the importance of earned media.
“On strategy, I think AI pushes brand marketing back towards earned media. For smart trainers, editorial sites supplied 56% of citations against 15% from brand websites. Getting into the reviews riders already trust, with accurate and current details, now shapes what AI recommends too. Brands will also need to track this over time across every engine, because the answers move. When an engine got the same question three times, it named exactly the same brands only 20% of the time.”
The full report is free to read at manual-focus.co.uk/reports/ai-shortlist-indoor-cycling/ with every question and every engine’s answer. Brands in the study can request a free one-page AI Shortlist card. Manual Focus also runs Light Meter audits for other UK categories.
