GlossaryAI search
What is Microsoft Copilot in search?
Also called: Bing Copilot, Copilot Search, Bing AI, Bing Chat
Definition
Microsoft Copilot is Microsoft's AI assistant. In search, it writes AI-generated answers grounded in Bing's web index and cites the pages it used, both in the Copilot app and in AI summaries on Bing.
Microsoft Copilot (Bing), explained
Copilot started life as Bing Chat and now appears across Windows, Edge, the Copilot app and Bing itself. When it answers a web question, it retrieves pages from Bing's index and cites them. So the first requirement is boring: your pages need to be crawled and indexed by Bing. Many startups never check, because Google sends most of their search traffic.
Microsoft has gone further than most AI providers on measurement. In February 2026 it introduced AI Performance in Bing Webmaster Tools as a public preview, showing how publisher content appears across Microsoft Copilot, AI-generated summaries in Bing and select partner integrations. The report shows total citations, which URLs are cited, and "grounding queries": the key phrases the AI used when retrieving content that was referenced in answers. Microsoft notes the grounding query data is a sample.
In June 2026, Microsoft added Intents, Topics, Citation Share and Compare to that report, in preview. For the first time, a major AI search provider gives site owners first-party data on AI citations, which is worth far more than guessing from manual prompts.
What helps you get cited in Copilot is the same as elsewhere: indexable pages, specific answers, consistent facts. Bing also supports IndexNow for faster discovery of new and changed URLs, which is useful if you publish often.
Bing's own note in the AI Performance announcement is worth repeating: Bing respects content owner preferences expressed through robots.txt and other supported controls. If you block Bingbot, you're out of Copilot's web answers too.
Why it matters for founders
Copilot's AI Performance report is one of the few first-party windows into AI citations. Verifying your site in Bing Webmaster Tools gives you real data instead of guesses.
Example
A founder verifies their site in Bing Webmaster Tools and opens AI Performance. Two comparison pages account for most citations, and the grounding queries show buyers asking about pricing, so they expand the pricing sections.
Common mistakes
- Never verifying the site in Bing Webmaster Tools.
- Treating the grounding query sample as a complete list of prompts.
- Blocking Bingbot to save crawl load and losing Copilot citations with it.
Sources
- Bing Webmaster Blog: Introducing AI Performance in Bing Webmaster Tools (February 2026)
- Bing Search Blog: New AI visibility insights in Bing Webmaster Tools (June 2026)
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Related terms
- LLM citationAn LLM citation is a link or named source that an AI assistant shows alongside its answer to say where information came from. Being cited sends referral traffic and signals that your page was trusted.
- AI share of voiceAI share of voice is how often your brand is mentioned or cited in AI assistants' answers to a fixed set of relevant prompts, compared with competitors. It's the AI-search version of share of search.
- ChatGPT searchChatGPT search is the feature that lets ChatGPT look things up on the web and answer with current information and links to its sources, instead of relying only on what the model learned in training.
- Generative engine optimization (GEO)Generative engine optimization (GEO) is the practice of making your content more likely to be found, used and cited in answers from AI systems like ChatGPT, Perplexity, Claude, Gemini and Google's AI Overviews.