1. Large-scale contrastive pre-training and fine-tuning. By scaling the dataset size throughout both the contrastive pre-training and fine-tuning stages, we observed consistent improvements in performance.
2. Synthetic data generation. Utilizing frontier models such as GPT-5, we generated multilingual text pairs at scale, employing a variety of synthesis strategies to enhance data diversity.
3. Knowledge distillation. LLM-based re-rankers produced high-quality training signals and efficiently filter noisy data. Our smaller models benefit from knowledge distillation, receiving guidance from larger teacher models during training.

Evaluation
We evaluate on the multilingual MTEB v2 benchmark. For deployment on low-end devices, we trained two smaller models: Harrier-OSS-v1-0.6b and Harrier-OSS-v1-270m.

The table indicates that our model outperforms other open-source embedding models. The "Borda Count Rank" reflects the hypothetical ranking as of March 16 and may change with future submissions.

Compared with leading proprietary models, we are operating at the frontier of embedding quality and efficiency.

What comes next
The work behind Harrier is not just a model release. It is part of a broader effort to build the next generation of grounding systems for the agent era.

Drawing on the same core advances, we are developing a new grounding service designed to deliver better retrieval quality, stronger semantic understanding, and more robust context selection at scale. These innovations will also be coming to Bing, bringing the benefits of this new embedding foundation into real user experiences.

The future of capable agents will depend not only on reasoning and generation, but on how effectively they are grounded in the world. Harrier is a meaningful step toward making that possible — and we're just getting started.

Authors: Xiaolong Huang, Liang Wang, Furu Wei, Jingwen Lu, Knut Risvik, Jason Li 

We've completed the worldwide rollout of TomTom Orbis Maps Addresses — capping a nine-month effort that began in June 2025. This is the largest upgrade to Bing Maps address data in years!

Starting with key European markets, we gradually rolled out Orbis data worldwide. Today, the majority of the addresses on Bing Maps come from Orbis. At a scale of over a billion user queries in the past year, that means better API results in Azure Maps  and improved location experiences on Bing Maps , in Bing Search , and in Copilot .

Why Orbis?

This update builds on our longstanding partnership with TomTom, whose address data powered Bing Maps for years. TomTom Orbis Maps represents the next generation of their mapping platform — a single, continuously updated dataset designed for modern mapping. By transitioning to Orbis Addresses, we gain access to:

• Greater address coverage — many more address points worldwide.
• Improved positional accuracy — address points that land closer to their true geographic locations.
• Fresher data — Orbis Maps is built on a continuous update model, so address data stays current as the real world changes.

To learn more about Orbis Maps, visit the TomTom Orbis Maps information page .

How We Got Here: A Phased Rollout

Rather than a single global cutover, we took a deliberate, phased approach — starting with key European markets where the density and completeness of the new data delivered immediate, measurable improvements. From there, we expanded region by region until the rollout was worldwide.

This strategy was essential for an operation at Bing Maps' scale. Each phase followed the same playbook:

• Ingest and index the new address data for the target region.
• Compare coverage using address point counts and query resolution rates versus the existing corpus.
• Evaluate quality of positional accuracy and regression detection versus the existing baseline.
• Promote to production only when the new data met or exceeded the existing quality bar.

A Real-World Example

Here's what that looks like in practice. Microsoft Development Center Serbia is at Bulevar Mihajla Pupina 6a, Belgrade. Previously, searching for this address on Bing Maps returned a partial match to Bulevar Mihajla Pupina 6 — close, but not the right building. With Orbis address data, the same query now resolves to the exact address at 6a.

We have also chosen a fitting example, as the Bing Maps team in Serbia played a key role in this rollout.

Bulevar Mihajla Pupina 6A on Bing Maps.

What's Next?

The rollout is done, but the work isn't. We will continue working with TomTom to onboard additional Orbis data layers and to refine address quality as new Orbis releases become available. The goal hasn't changed: deliver the best mapping experience we can, everywhere.

If you have any questions or feedback, feel free to reach out via the feedback option on Bing Maps  or the Bing Forums on Microsoft Q&A .

If you have an issue with any Bing Experience, please follow the guidance at How to report a concern or contact Bing .

Bogdan Bebić is a Software Engineer on the Bing Maps team at Microsoft, where he works on the foundational data that powers the map, focusing on data quality and the metrics that keep it accurate.

And that’s just the top of the drop. Every single day, thousands of Instant Win prizes are up for grabs. Many of these chances come from something you already do: searching on Bing. Each search gives you another shot at an Instant Win, and another way to earn bonus entries.

This is where the fun really begins. Everyday things you’re already doing could turn into real chances to win. Search for what you love. Check out what’s trending. Play Jewel on Xbox. Test‑drive Microsoft 365. Browse with Edge. Keep Copilot close by when you download the app. Explore the newest PCs. Real actions, real prizes, real people. Just ask Ivan from Singapore, our most recent winner, who scored the $1 million prize in the Ultimate Giveaway. Could you be next?

The Total Prize Drop is only here for a limited time. If you’re already a Microsoft Rewards member, your first entry is FREE and waiting for you. Not a member yet?? Signing up takes just a moment. Do it now and grab that free entry.

Why join Microsoft Rewards?
With Microsoft Rewards, it’s easy to earn points for doing things you already enjoy, like searching, gaming, and shopping. You can redeem your points for gift cards, subscriptions, bonus entries into sweepstakes, and much more. And remember, with the Total Prize Drop, you could even win $1,000,000 USD cash or a customizable Mercedes‑Benz car.

Enter today. Total Prize Drop ends May 21, 2026.

<sub>Sweepstakes + Instant Win: United States, Puerto Rico, United Kingdom, Germany, Canada, Japan, France, Spain, Mexico, Austria, Norway, Ireland, New Zealand, Switzerland, South Africa, Czech Republic, Greece, Peru, Ecuador, Costa Rica, Guatemala, Finland, Romania, Luxembourg
NO PURCHASE NECESSARY. Instant Win and Sweepstakes: Ends 5/21/26 at 11:59:59 PM PT. Must be age of majority to enter. For Official Rules, including odds, and prize descriptions, see Instant Win rules: https://aka.ms/win-IW-Rules and Sweepstakes rules: https://aka.ms/win-Sweeps-Rules. Sweepstakes open only to legal residents of the 50 United States, D.C. & P.R., Canada, the United Kingdom, France, Germany, Ireland, Austria, Greece, Finland, Luxembourg, Spain, Switzerland, Norway, Mexico, Peru, Ecuador, Costa Rica, Guatemala, New Zealand, Japan, the Czech Republic, Romania and South Africa. Sweepstakes Grand Prize: one (1) prize of $1,000,000 USD in cash (equivalent to approximately $1,380,000 CAD / £740,000 GBP / €860,000 EUR / Fr. 800,000 CHF / kr 10,100,000 NOK / $18,000,000 MXN / S/ 3,400,000 PEN / ₡498 000 000 CRC / Q7,000,000 GTQ / $1,730,000 NZD / ¥157,000,000 JPY / Kč 20,800,000 CZK / lei 4,350,000 RON / R 16,500,000 ZAR). Grand Prize will be awarded in USD dollars. Free Entries into the Grand Prize Draw with Microsoft Rewards Account: print full name, address, phone number (with area code), date of birth, and email address on a 3 x 5-inch card and mail it to “Microsoft Rewards Prize Drop Sweepstakes, Free to Enter” at the address corresponding to your country of residence in the Sweepstakes Official Rules. Requests must be postmarked by 5/21/26 and received by 5/29/26. Additional Sweepstakes entry opportunities will be available, see terms here. These additional entry methods are subject to the Sweepstakes Official Rules for the Sweepstakes including (but not limited to) any and all eligibility and registration requirements, as well as any limitation on the total number of entries which may be earned across all entry methods. Connect time charges may apply. Canadian and Mexican residents: Skill-testing question applies. Void where prohibited.

Instant Win only:
Netherlands, China, Hong Kong, Singapore, South Korea
NO PURCHASE NECESSARY. Ends 5/21/26 at 11:59:59 PM PT. Must be age of majority. Open to U.S. + D.C./P.R., CA, UK, FR, DE, NL, IE, AT, GR, FI, LU, ES, CH, NO, MX, PE, EC, CR, GT, NZ, JP, SG, KR, CN, HK, CZ, RO, and ZA. To enter and for Official Rules, including odds, and prize descriptions, see Rules: https://aka.ms/win-IW-Rules. Connect time charges may apply. Canadian and Mexican residents: Skill-testing question applies. Void where prohibited.</sub>

At Microsoft, we’ve been steadily advancing grounding technology for a while, building on decades of operating large‑scale search and information systems through Bing and focusing on scale, reliability, and trust. 

And today, Microsoft grounding powers nearly every major AI assistant in the market. 

While much of our work happens behind the scenes, it plays an essential and profound role in today’s AI ecosystem, providing users with answers that are fluent, factually correct, and genuinely helpful. 

Since the early days of the Internet, users have been browsing with typical patterns: typing queries, clicking on results, and selecting content that best shapes their needs. However, as AI assistants do more of the work, it’s the agents doing the browsing – and with far more precision – acting more as retrievers, drawn to structured, verifiable, and applicable content. This changes the needs of the web’s infrastructure, and therefore the infrastructure it’s built on. Enter grounding.

This is driving the emergence of Generative Engine Optimization (GEO): the practice of understanding how content participates in AI-driven experiences. In an AI‑first world, visibility is no longer defined only by rankings or clicks. It’s about how content contributes to answers, citations, reasoning, and ultimately, outcomes. 

To help content owners navigate this shift, we are introducing new visibility through updates to Bing Webmaster Tools. These capabilities provide early insight into how content contributes to AI-generated experiences, including citation and grounding signals. Think of this as a first window into a broader GEO toolset, one that will continue to evolve as AI becomes a more central interface to information.  

This moment matters because it sets the context. Grounding is becoming a foundational layer of the AI ecosystem – the connective tissue between generative models and the world’s information.  As that layer becomes more important, transparency and collaboration with the web community matter more, not less. 

Our goal is to keep strengthening this infrastructure while giving publishers clearer insight into how their content participates in AI-driven experiences, and how they can benefit from it.  

There is much more coming in the months ahead. Stay tuned. 

Jordi Ribas
Corporate Vice President, Search & AI

Extending Search Insights to AI Answers

Bing Webmaster Tools has long helped website owners understand indexing, crawl health, and search performance. AI Performance extends those insights to AI-generated answers by showing where and how content from your site is referenced as a source across AI experiences.

As AI becomes a more common way people discover information, visibility is not only about blue links. It is also about whether your content is cited and referenced when AI systems generate answers. This release is an early step toward Generative Engine Optimization (GEO) tooling in Bing Webmaster Tools, helping publishers understand how their content participates in AI-driven experiences.


 

AI Performance Dashboard: Visibility Across AI Experiences

The AI Performance dashboard provides a consolidated view of when your site is cited in AI answers.

What the dashboard measures

Total Citations

Shows the total number of citations that are displayed as sources in AI-generated answers during the selected time frame. This highlights how often your content is referenced by AI systems, without indicating placement or presentation within a specific answer.

Average Cited Pages

Shows the average number of unique pages from your site that are displayed as sources in AI-generated answers per day over the selected time range. Because the data is aggregated across supported AI surfaces, average cited pages reflect overall citation patterns and does not indicate ranking, authority, or the role of any page within an individual answer.

Grounding queries

Shows the key phrases the AI used when retrieving content that was referenced in AI-generated answers. The data shown represents a sample of overall citation activity. We will continue to refine this metric as additional data is processed.

Page-level citation activity

Shows citation counts for specific URLs from your site, making it easy to see which individual pages are most often referenced across AI-generated answers during the selected date range. This reflects how often pages are cited, not page importance, ranking, or placement.

Visibility trends over time

The timeline shows how citation activity for your site changes over time across supported AI experiences, making it easier to spot trends at a glance.

Important Note: Bing respects all content owner preferences expressed through robots.txt and other supported control mechanisms.

Using AI Performance Insights in Bing Webmaster Tools

By reviewing cited pages and grounding query phrases, AI Performance insights help clarify your content visibility in AI-generated answers.

These insights can help you:

• Validate which pages are already being used as references in AI answers.
   
• Identify content that appears frequently across AI answers.
   
• Spot opportunities to improve clarity, structure, or completeness on pages that are indexed but less frequently cited.

Using These Insights to Improve Content

Once you understand which pages and topics are being cited, you can use those signals to guide content improvements.

• Strengthen depth and expertise
  Pages cited for specific grounding query phrases often reflect clear subject focus and domain expertise. Deepening coverage in related areas can reinforce authority.
   
• Improve structure and clarity
  Clear headings, tables, and FAQ sections help surface key information and make content easier for AI systems to reference accurately.
   
• Support claims with evidence
  Examples, data, and cited sources help build trust when content is reused in AI-generated answers.
   
• Keep content fresh and accurate
  Regular updates help ensure AI systems reference the most current version of your content.
   
• Reduce ambiguity across formats
  Align text, images, and video so they consistently represent the same entities, products, or concepts.

For deeper guidance on structuring content to improve inclusion in AI-generated answers, see Optimizing Your Content for Inclusion in AI Search Answers.

Keeping Content Fresh with IndexNow

Accurate and up to date content is important for inclusion and citation in AI-generated answers. IndexNow helps keep information fresh across search and AI experiences by notifying participating search engines whenever content is added, updated, or removed.

By enabling faster discovery of content changes, IndexNow helps ensure that AI systems reference the most current version of a page when generating answers. If you’re not already using IndexNow, go to https://www.indexnow.org to get started.

Local Business Information and AI Visibility

For local businesses, accurate business information is especially important when AI experiences surface answers to location-based queries.

In addition to using Bing Webmaster Tools, businesses can register with Bing Places for Business to help ensure that key details such as address, hours, and contact information remain current and eligible for inclusion in AI-generated responses.

Evolving AI Performance with the Webmaster Community

AI Performance in Bing Webmaster Tools marks an important step toward greater transparency between AI systems and the open web. As we expand these insights, we’ll continue working with publishers and the webmaster community to improve inclusion, attribution, and visibility across both search results and AI experiences.

We look forward to partnering with you as we evolve these capabilities and continue building tools that support discovery in the next generation of search and AI experiences.

Krishna Madhavan, Meenaz Merchant, Fabrice Canel, Saral Nigam
Product Managers, Microsoft AI

It also creates a confusing user experience when visitors encounter inconsistent or outdated versions of the same content. With clear canonical tags, consistent metadata, and IndexNow, you can reinforce which version matters and help search engines and AI systems surface the correct page.  

But what counts as duplicate content?  

Duplicate or near‑duplicate pages can arise from syndicated articles, campaign variants, localization, or technical URL differences that are easy to generate accidentally. These copies can exist on your own site or across domains you don’t control, which is why visibility problems often go unnoticed. 

Why does duplicate content hurt SEO?  

The real challenge with duplicate content is how it distorts the signals search engines rely on to choose the right version of a page, which directly affects how often and where your content appears. Duplicate and near-duplicate URLs do not harm a site by themselves, but they can blur the information search engines use to understand your content and evaluate relevance.  

Duplicate content dilutes authority. 

When several URLs contain the same content, signals such as clicks, links, impressions, and engagement are often diluted. Instead of strengthening one high-performing page, those signals are divided, which reduces the overall ranking potential of your content. 

It creates uncertainty for search engines. 

When several similar URLs attempt to satisfy the same topic or intent, search engines must determine which one should appear. If your signals are unclear or inconsistent, the version that ranks may not be the one you intended, or visibility may be limited across all versions. 

It slows down discovery and indexing. 

Crawlers may spend time revisiting duplicate or low-value URLs instead of finding new or updated content.  

Duplicate or similar pages can also lead to unnecessary crawl costs. Search engines spend extra resources crawling multiple versions of the same content, which can slow down the rate at which your new or updated pages are discovered and indexed. This inefficiency may result in delayed updates appearing in search results and could limit the overall visibility of your site as search engines prioritize crawling unique, high-value pages. 

IndexNow helps Bing identify preferred URLs faster, but duplication still reduces clarity and adds unnecessary work as the site grows. 

For SEO, less is more. Clean, consolidated signals help search engines and AI systems understand your intent and surface the right version of your content. 

How Duplicate or Similar Content Affects Visibility in AI Experiences 

AI search builds on the same signals that support traditional SEO, but adds additional layers, especially in satisfying intent. Many LLMs rely on data grounded in the Bing index or other search indexes, and they evaluate not only how content is indexed but how clearly each page satisfies the intent behind a query. When several pages repeat the same information, those intent signals become harder for AI systems to interpret, reducing the likelihood that the correct version will be selected or summarized. 

Duplicate content blurs intent signals.  

When multiple pages cover the same topic with similar wording, structure, and metadata, AI systems cannot easily determine which version aligns best with the user’s intent. This reduces the chances that your preferred page will be chosen as a grounding source. 

AI systems often cluster similar pages.  

LLMs group near-duplicate URLs into a single cluster and then choose one page to represent the set. If the differences between pages are minimal, the model may select a version that is outdated or not the one you intended to highlight. 

Similarity limits where your content can appear.  

Campaign pages, audience segments, and localized versions can satisfy different intents, but only if those differences are meaningful. When variations reuse the same content, models have fewer signals to match each page with a unique user need. 

Duplication can delay updates appearing in AI-generated results. 

AI systems favor fresh, up-to-date content, but duplicates can slow how quickly changes are reflected. When crawlers revisit duplicate or low-value URLs instead of updated pages, new information may take longer to reach the systems that support AI summaries and comparisons. Clearer intent strengthens AI visibility by helping models understand which version to trust and surface. 

Does syndicated content create duplicate content? 

Yes. When your articles are republished on other sites, identical copies can exist across domains, making it harder for search engines and AI systems to identify the original source. 

How to fix it:  

• Ask partners to add a canonical tag pointing to your original URL when agreements allow:: <link rel="canonical" href="https://www.example.com/original-article/" /> 

• When possible, syndicate excerpts instead of full articles, with a clear link back to the source. 

This helps consolidate authority and improves the likelihood that your original page is used in search results and AI answers. 

Do campaign pages count as duplicate content? 

Yes. Campaign pages can become duplicate content when multiple versions target the same intent and differ only by minor changes, such as headlines, imagery, or audience messaging. 

How to fix it: 

• Select one primary campaign page to collect links and engagement. 

• Use canonical tags on variations that do not represent a distinct search intent, for example: <link rel="canonical" href="https://www.example.com/campaign/" /> 

• Only keep separate pages when intent clearly changes, such as seasonal offers, localized pricing, or comparison-focused content. 

• Consolidate or 301 redirect older or redundant campaign pages that no longer serve a unique purpose. 

Can Localization Create Duplicate Content? 

Yes. Localization creates duplicate content when regional or language pages are nearly identical and do not provide meaningful differences for users in each market. 

How to fix it: 

• Localize with meaningful changes such as terminology, examples, regulations, or product details. 

• Avoid creating multiple pages in the same language that serve the same purpose. 

• Use hreflang to define language and regional targeting, for example: <link rel="alternate" hreflang="en-gb"   href="https://www.example.com/uk/page/" /> 

Can technical issues create duplicate URLs? 

Yes. Technical configurations can create multiple URLs for the same content, even when the page appears identical to users. 

Common causes include: 

• URL parameters 

• HTTP and HTTPS versions 

• Uppercase and lowercase URLs 

• Trailing slashes 

•  Printer-friendly versions 

•  Staging or archive pages that are publicly accessible 

How to fix it:  

• Use 301 redirects to consolidate variants into a single preferred URL. 

• Apply canonical tags when multiple versions must remain accessible. 

• Enforce consistent URL structures across the site. 

• Prevent staging or archive URLs from being crawled or indexed. 

How does IndexNow support faster updates when fixing duplicate content?  

IndexNow notifies participating search engines when URLs are added, updated, or deleted. When you consolidate pages or update canonicals, IndexNow helps ensure all your changes are reflected more quickly in all IndexNow search engines. 

What it helps with:  

• Faster discovery of your preferred page. 

• Reduced time for outdated duplicates to drop out of the index. 

• Improved accuracy in AI answers when content changes. 

• Less crawler activity spent on duplicate or outdated versions.  

How content audits help prevent duplicate content 

Content audits help identify overlapping or outdated pages early and maintain a site structure that sends clear signals to search engines and AI systems. By reviewing content regularly, you can spot pages that unintentionally compete for the same intent and consolidate them so one stronger page carries links, engagement, and relevance signals. 

Audits also help verify that technical signals remain accurate over time, including metadata, internal links, redirects, canonical tags, and hreflang relationships. Keeping these signals aligned prevents new duplicates from forming, allows crawlers to focus on high-value content, and improves how both traditional search engines and AI systems interpret and surface your pages.  

In Bing Webmaster Tools, the Recommendations tab can surface potential duplication, such as too many pages with identical titles, and lets you export affected URLs to Excel or CSV for further analysis. 

What is the most important thing to know about duplicate content? 

Duplicate content doesn't trigger search penalties on its own, but it does reduce visibility by diluting authority, confusing intent, and slowing how updates reach both search engines and AI-powered discovery systems. The strongest results come from a structure where each page has a clear purpose and adds distinct value. 

This is why less is more. When you reduce overlapping pages and allow one authoritative version to carry your signals, search engines can more confidently understand your intent and choose the right URL to represent your content. Canonical tags, redirects, hreflang, noindex, and IndexNow all support this clarity, but the foundation is a streamlined site that avoids unnecessary duplication. 

By reviewing your content regularly and consolidating where appropriate, you help both traditional search and AI systems surface the pages that best reflect your message, your audience, and your goals. 

Fabrice Canel – Krishna Madhavan  
Principal Product Managers 
Microsoft Bing
Microsoft AI

Instead of scrolling through lists of blue links, people now explore through conversations, ask follow-up questions, and build confidence long before they reach a website. This new path to conversion means brands and content owners must stop chasing clicks and focus on the signals that truly drive outcomes.

But how do we know which conversion signals are most important?

While the specific goals of every business or publisher differ, AI search is making one thing clear: the most valuable signals are the ones connected to visibility. By tracking impressions, placement in AI answers, and citations, brands can see where content is being surfaced, trusted, and considered, even before a visit occurs. More importantly, these signals reveal where interest is forming and where optimization can create lift, helping teams double down on what works to improve visibility in the moments when decisions are being shaped.

It's not that people are no longer clicking. They’re just clicking at later stages in the journey, and with far stronger intent. In fact, current industry research shows that visits from AI-search environments are not just matching but often exceeding traditional conversion rates, reinforcing a simple truth: quality matters more than volume. The priority now is to understand user actions and guide people toward high-value outcomes, whether that is a subscription, an inquiry, a demo request, a purchase, or other meaningful engagement.

This shift applies not only to commercial sites but also to news and information publishers, where visiblity in AI answers can shape deeper forms of engagement such as read-depth, recirculation, or return visits rather than immediate clicks.

The objective for publishers is to align with user intent and deliver clarity, credibility, and value at every stage of discovery, so that when someone is ready to act, your brand or content becomes the natural choice.

How the Path to Conversion has Changed

Before AI search, a typical customer might start with a broad query like “best dishwashers for small spaces,” then scroll through pages of blue links, piecing together details from reviews, spec sheets, and reseller sites. It was a manual, time-consuming process.

Today, AI-powered search experiences understand intent and surface richer, more relevant results instantly.  Instead of sending users through multiple clicks and sources, the system embeds high-quality content within answers, summaries, and citations, highlighting key details like energy efficiency, noise level, and smart home compatibility. This creates clarity faster and builds confidence earlier in the journey, leading to stronger engagement with less friction.

In the dishwasher example, the customer quickly realizes that a quiet, energy-efficient model with smart features best suits their open-concept kitchen. They refine their query and AI search responds with a more detailed summary drawn from brand sites, reviews, and resellers, surfacing purchase options and rebates alongside recommendations with more relevant links. 

In fewer steps than ever, the customer reaches a confident decision, guided by intent-aligned, multi-source content that reflects brand and third-party perspectives. This behavior shift, where discovery, research, and decision happen continuously within one environment, is redefining how site owners understand conversion. 

With journeys becoming shorter and more connected, content clarity is critical. When information is not easily interpreted by LLMs, key details may be missed, reducing opportunities to appear in influential moments.

As these shifts play out, the signals generated inside AI experiences become even more valuable, helping content teams see what resonates and where improvements can strengthen visibility.

                                             
 

How AI Search Understands and Responds to Evolving Intent 

AI systems refine their understanding of user intent across each follow-up question, chat turn, and contextual signal, including proactive moments where the system surfaces relevant content based on context or inferred needs.

 According to Microsoft internal research, data from Microsoft Copilot sessions show a 22% increase in unique chat turns per session¹, reflecting that search has evolved into an ongoing conversation rather than a single query. Each follow-up clarifies intent and brings the user closer to conversion, whether that means clicking a product link, making a purchase, or taking another high-value action.

Microsoft Advertising reports that Copilot-assisted customer journeys are 33% shorter on average than traditional search, and high intent conversion rates (users showing clear readiness to act) are 76% higher for AI-powered experiences compared to traditional search surfaces².

For marketers, publishers, and SEOs, this means moving beyond traditional metrics to track new engagement signals that reflect influence, trust, and readiness to convert.  

AI-powered search builds on retrieval to generate contextual, conversational answers. Structured content, like schema-marked product pages, FAQs, and comparison tables, helps AI systems interpret and summarize your content more effectively. This increases the chances of your being cited, clicked, and engaged with in multi-source answers.

            

The New Conversion Journey in AI Search 

As AI-powered search reshapes how people explore information, more of the journey now happens inside the experience itself.

 Across the industry, AI-powered search is changing how users interact with search results. Users now spend more of the journey inside AI experiences, shaping visibility and engagement in new ways. As a result, engagement is shifting upstream (pre-click) within summaries, comparisons, and conversational refinements, rather than through multiple outbound clicks.

 Zero-click visibility is one clear example of this change. When structured content such as FAQs, product specs, or schema-marked reviews appear in AI summaries or side-by-side comparisons, it can help shape brand awareness and preference before a user ever clicks through. A well-structured product page might have its key features surfaced in an AI-generated summary, while a retailer’s support content could appear in an answer box explaining setup or compatibility. 

 But zero-click outcomes are only part of the picture. In AI search, users also refine and narrow intent within a single session, asking follow-up questions, comparing brands, or filtering by features like “quietest dishwasher with smart home integration.” Each interaction creates engagement that moves the user closer to purchase, subscription, signup, or other meaningful action, even if the final action happens later or on another device.

The strategic challenge is that many of these signals, including visibility in summaries, cited content, or follow-up query engagement, are not captured in traditional analytics as it exists today. Yet they strongly influence trust, familiarity, and downstream conversions (on-site actions). 

For marketers, visibility itself is becoming a form of currency. If your content is surfaced in summaries or comparisons, you’re shaping preference before a click ever happens. 


                                         

Does AI Search Traffic Convert?  

The latest research from multiple independent sources points to the same trend: AI-search visits may be smaller in volume but are producing more qualified traffic and higher conversion rates than traditional organic search.

Amsive found that 56% of sites saw higher conversions from AI-driven sessions, with high-traffic sites converting at 7.05% compared to 5.81% for organic³. Similarweb reported a similar pattern, with AI referrals converting at 11.4% versus 5.3% for organic across global ecommerce⁴.

Additional industry data supports the same direction. Adobe Digital Insights shows AI-referred retail conversions improving steadily year-over-year⁵, while Microsoft Advertising reports that Copilot-powered journeys are 33% shorter and 76% more likely to lead to lower-funnel conversions⁶. And though BrightEdge notes that AI search still represents less than 1% of referral traffic, each visit carries notably higher intent and stronger engagement⁷.

Microsoft Clarity’s latest platform data confirms this pattern. Analyzing traffic across 1,200 publisher and news sites, Clarity reports that AI-driven referrals grew 155% over eight months and converted at up to three times the rate of traditional channels such as search and social. Even though AI referrals still represent under 1% of total visits, these users consistently display higher intent and engagement, signing up, subscribing, or purchasing at far greater rates⁸. Clarity now tracks AI referrals directly, distinguishing between organic AI platform visits and paid AI placements to help publishers see where their content performs best within AI experiences.

These findings suggest that AI search is not replacing organic traffic but improving the quality and outcome of each visit. Users arrive with clearer intent, encounter content that meets their needs faster, and move through the conversion path in fewer steps.

For marketers, publishers, and content owners this shift means success should be measured not just by visit volume but by quality of engagement, visibility, and downstream conversion readiness.

As more of the journey happens upstream inside AI experiences, understanding those early signals has become essential. Brands need visibility into where content is being surfaced, how users interact with it, and how those interactions translate into on-site behavior.
 

What This Means for News and Information Publishers

News and information publishers often measure value differently than commercial sites. Rather than focusing on product-driven actions, success may depend on signals such as read depth, article completion, returning reader patterns, recirculation into related stories, and newsletter sign-ups or registrations.

AI search can surface authoritative reporting earlier in the journey, bringing in readers who are more inclined to engage deeply with coverage or return for follow-up stories. As these upstream interactions grow, publishers benefit from visibility into how their work appears across AI answers, summaries, and comparisons, even when user journeys are shorter or involve fewer clicks.

Connecting Visibility to Real Engagement

Bing Webmaster Tools continues to evolve to help site owners, publishers, and SEOs understand how content is discovered and where it appears across traditional search results and emerging AI-driven experiences. Paired with Microsoft Clarity’s AI referral insights, these tools connect upstream visibility with on-site behavior, helping teams see how discovery inside summaries, answers, and comparisons translates into real engagement. As user journeys shift toward more conversational, zero-UI-style interactions, these combined signals give a clearer view of influence, readiness, and conversion potential.

                                                   
 

Rethinking Success Metrics in the Age of AI Search 

AI search is changing not only how users discover content but also how and when they demonstrate intent to act. Conversion is now a distributed journey influenced by every touchpoint, from summaries and comparisons to high-intent clicks. 

Success depends on connecting traditional key performance indicators (KPIs) with emerging AI search visibility signals. Rather than only tracking clicks or last-touch conversions, brands and content owners should align their analytics with signals like impressions, citations, query refinements, and answer inclusion that reflect how influence builds throughout the journey.  

Ultimately, AI search provides new opportunities to connect more directly with user intent and deliver solutions that feel immediate, relevant, and personalized, whether the goal is commercial or informational. 

Just as the dishwasher shopper formed confidence through AI-generated summaries, refinements, and comparisons before ever clicking, today’s conversions are increasingly shaped upstream inside the AI experience.  Those early evaluation moments, before a click ever happens, are where preference forms and intent solidifies.

To adapt, marketers should define which new visibility and engagement signals matter most for their business and map them to existing performance metrics. Tools like Bing Webmaster Tools and Microsoft Clarity can help surface insights into how users engage with your site, navigate to key content, and interact after discovery. By optimizing for intent, structure, and responsiveness, site owners can better capture and act on the most meaningful results that show how visibility and engagement now drive performance in AI search.

Fabrice Canel and Krishna Madhavan 
Principal Product Managers 
Microsoft Bing 

To stay updated on the latest AI search strategies, continue to follow the Bing Webmaster Blog.   

1. Microsoft. (2024). First-Party Data – Copilot Chat Turns (Aug 2023–Aug 2024). Internal Microsoft dataset, cited in The New Search Advertising Landscape: How to Win When AI Is Changing Everything. https://about.ads.microsoft.com/en/resources/discover/insights/the-new-search-advertising-landscape-how-to-win-when-ai-is-changing-everything
2. Microsoft. (2025). 73% Higher CTRs and 33% Shorter Journeys in Copilot Search. Microsoft Advertising Blog. https://about.ads.microsoft.com/en/blog/post/august-2025/73-higher-ctrs-why-advertisers-need-to-pay-attention-to-conversational-ai
3. Amsive. (2025). LLM-Driven Traffic Performance vs. Organic Sessions. https://www.amsive.com/insights/marketing-strategy/ai-search-conversion-performance/
4. Similarweb. (2025). Global Ecommerce Report: Growth Shifts to Apps and AI. https://ir.similarweb.com/news-events/press-releases/detail/132/similarwebs-3rd-annual-global-ecommerce-report-growth-shifts-to-apps-and-ai
5. Adobe Digital Insights. (2025). AI-Driven Traffic Surges Ahead in Q2. https://business.adobe.com/blog/ai-driven-traffic-surges-ahead-in-q2
6. Microsoft. (2025). Copilot Conversion Rates Higher for Lower-Funnel Ad Types. Microsoft Advertising Blog. https://about.ads.microsoft.com/en/blog/post/april-2025/psst-the-valuable-consumers-are-over-at-microsoft-medias-ai-powered-experiences
7. BrightEdge. (2025). AI Search Visits Surging in 2025. AI Search Visits Surging in 2025—But Organic Search Remains the Cornerstone of Digital Growth. https://www.brightedge.com/resources/research-reports/ai-search-visits-in-surging-2025
8. Microsoft Clarity. (2025). AI Traffic Converts at 3× the Rate of Other Channels [Study]. https://clarity.microsoft.com/blog/ai-traffic-converts-at-3x-the-rate-of-other-channels-study/

This selective visibility helps creators maintain their presence across Bing Search and Copilot experiences powered by Bing, and ensures that paywalled, sensitive, or non-essential content remains protected from being displayed.

Why Should You Use the data-nosnippet HTML Attribute?

Using data-nosnippet in Bing-supported environments gives creators and SEOs more control over how their content appears in Bing Search and AI-powered experiences. It can help you:

• Protect premium or paywalled content: Keep subscriber-only text, and tables out of previews while the page stays discoverable and eligible for inclusion in search and AI-powered experiences.
• Manage brand reputation: Exclude comments and volatile reviews from previews to keep messaging on-brand.
• Remove legal boilerplate from previews: Hide disclaimers, licensing, and cookie notices so snippets focus on value.
• Suppress outdated or irrelevant sections: Hide legacy notices and expired promotions to prevent stale summaries.
• Exclude sponsored or promotional content: Keep ads, affiliate blurbs, and promotional FAQs out of neutral previews.
• Stabilize A/B tests and experiments: Hide variant copy to avoid snippet churn during testing.
• Balance visibility and discretion: Surface high-value content while keeping sensitive sections behind the click.

How Does the data-nosnippet HTML Attribute Work?

The data-nosnippet attribute allows you to mark specific sections of a webpage’s HTML so they don’t appear in Bing Search snippets or AI-generated answers.

When Bing crawls your site, any content marked with data-nosnippet is still indexed normally, but it will be excluded from snippets and AI summaries. The content tagged as data-nosnippet is available for ranking. This lets creators keep control over what is shown in previews without limiting their page’s visibility or ranking potential.

How to Add data-nosnippet in HTML

You can apply the data-nosnippet attribute to any HTML element you want to exclude from Bing Search snippets or AI summaries.

When Bing crawls your site, the marked content remains fully discoverable but won’t appear in snippet text or AI-generated previews.

<h2>Overview</h2>

<p>This section may appear in Bing Search and Copilot answers.</p>

<div data-nosnippet>
  <h3>Subscriber Content</h3>
  <p>This section does not appear in Bing Search and Copilot answers.</p>
</div>

After implementation, use Bing Webmaster Tools to verify your pages. You can use URL inspection to check the last crawl time. Depending on Bing’s crawl schedule, it can take anywhere from a few seconds to up to a week for your latest content changes to be reflected in search results.

How Does data-nosnippet Compare to Other Bing Robots Directives?

The data-nosnippet attribute complements Bing’s broader suite of meta tags and HTTP headers that manage how content is indexed, cached, and displayed in search results.

Common directives include:

• noindex: Prevents a page from being indexed.
• nosnippet: Blocks all text and preview thumbnails from appearing in snippets.
• max-snippet, max-image-preview, max-video-preview: Limit the size or duration of preview content.

For more technical details and scenario-based examples (such as protecting paywalled content or managing user-generated sections), visit Bing Webmaster Help.

Putting Control in Your Hands

The data-nosnippet attribute represents another step in Bing’s commitment to giving creators meaningful control over how their content is represented across search and AI experiences. By offering flexibility without limiting discoverability, it helps ensure that the web remains both open and creator driven.

• We need to make Bing Places for Business more discoverable to help business owners to claim their business in Bing
• The portal needs to be simplified and built with the same design principles as the rest of our products.
• Importing should be seamless. Business owners wanted to seamlessly import all their businesses to Bing without spending a lot of time by claiming or adding their business manually.

We took these insights to heart and rebuilt the experience from the ground up.

A Unified Experience Under Bing.com
One of the most significant changes is the migration of the entire business owner’s experience into the Bing.com domain. This move simplifies access, improves trust, and aligns Bing Places with the broader Bing ecosystem. Whether you're claiming a listing, updating business hours, or uploading photos, everything now lives in one cohesive space.

As part of this transition, the domain will change from www.bingplaces.com to www.bing.com/forbusiness, making it easier for business owners to find and manage their listings directly within the Bing experience.

The new experience is now live and will continue adding further features in the following months to ensure a complete and polished rollout. Our current users and their business listings will be automatically migrated to the new account and current users will be redirected to this brand-new experience when they login with their Bing Places for Business credentials.

Smarter Imports, Smoother Management
We’ve made major improvements to how business owners import listings from Google. The new import flow is faster, more reliable, and better at preserving key attributes like business name, hours, and contact details. Once imported, managing listings is easier than ever—with intuitive dashboards, bulk editing tools, and real-time status updates.

Introducing the Recommendation Tool
Launching alongside the new experience is our Recommendation Tool, designed to help new business owners enrich their listings with high-impact information that can help drive more engagement with your listing. Using listing health signals and the segment of the business, the tool suggests business owners:

• Add Photos that attract attention
• Add key missing Business details that drive engagement like website link, hours of operations, social media links
• Segment specific suggestions like adding a menu link or online order link for restaurants

This feature is especially helpful for owners who are new to local SEO and want to stand out in Bing search results.

What’s Next
This launch is just the beginning. We are continuing to invest in features that make Bing Places for Business more powerful and accessible—from deeper integrations with Bing Maps and Copilot to expanded support for agencies and other partners.

We invite all business owners to explore the new Bing Places for Business and see how easy it is to claim, manage, and grow your presence on Bing.

👉 https://www.bing.com/forbusiness

Please use our support channels to share your feedback. It will help us plan and prioritize future features and enhancements.

How Do You Enter?
Every member can claim one free entry from the Sweepstakes landing page at aka.ms/win-promo. To redeem your free entry via the landing page, you will need to log into your Microsoft account or create a new one, then you will be prompted to enter additional information via the entry page. The Microsoft Rewards Ultimate Giveaway features two chances to win:

• Daily Instant Win:** Complete one (1) search in the Bing app each day during the promotion period for a chance to win one of 650 daily cash prizes, valued from $500 to $5,000. Each day, perform at least 1 search in the Bing app. Then, tap “Check if you’re a winner” to use that day’s chance. Unused chances do not carry over to future days.
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Track your entries
You can track all your entries by logging into your Microsoft account and visiting your entry tracker. Or you can sign into the Rewards page with your Microsoft account, select “Redeem” and then select "Order history.” On the Order history page, find your order and then look under “Status.” It can take up to 72 hours for entries to post.

Also, you can share your entry link with friends to earn up to 20 extra entries if it’s their first time entering the sweepstakes. For each person you refer to who enters the Sweepstakes, you will receive 5 entries. Terms apply, see terms here.

Need help?
If you encounter issues submitting your entry or your entry hasn’t posted after 72 hours, contact Rewards customer service. Once you’ve submitted the form, a member of the support team will contact you within 24 hours.

Why Join Microsoft Rewards?

• Earn points doing things you already enjoy, like searching, gaming, and shopping.
• Redeem points for gift cards, subscriptions, and charitable donations.
• And now, with this sweepstakes, you can even win cash prizes!

Start entering now—the Instant Win and Sweepstakes end on October 17, 2025.



A huge congratulations to Nate from the USA, who walked away with the life-changing grand prize of $1,000,000 USD in our last major sweepstakes! We were excited to welcome Nate to tour the Microsoft campus in Redmond, WA and personally present him the check. As Nate said, “I would give it a try. You’re not losing anything, you’re only gaining from using Microsoft Rewards.”

In addition to the grand prize, several lucky participants won $10,000 USD each in the weekly drawings.

The Microsoft Rewards Ultimate Giveaway is your chance to win big while enjoying everything you already love about Microsoft Rewards. Don’t miss out—claim your free entry, complete daily activities, and invite friends to increase your chances. Every entry brings you closer to becoming our next millionaire. Start participating today and let the excitement begin!

*NO PURCHASE NECESSARY. Instant Win and Sweepstakes: Ends 10/17/25 at 11:59:59 PM PT. Must be age of majority. To enter and for Official Rules, including odds, and prize descriptions, see Rules: https://aka.ms/win-IW-Rules (Instant Win) and https://aka.ms/win-Sweeps-Rules (Sweepstakes). Connect time charges may apply. Canadian and Mexican residents: Skill-testing question applies. Void where prohibited.

**Instant Win: Open to U.S. + D.C./P.R., CA, UK, FR, DE, NL, IE, NO, AT, ES, MX, NZ, JP, SG, KR, and CN.

***Sweepstakes: Open to U.S. + D.C./P.R., CA, UK, FR, DE, IE, NO, AT, ES, MX, NZ, JP, and SG. Sweepstakes Grand Prize: one (1) prize of $1,000,000.00 USD in cash (equivalent to approximately $1,368,780.00 CAD / £741,440.00 GBP / €856,200.00 EUR / kr10,139,100.00 NOK / $18,643,500.00 MXN / $1,662,780.00 NZD / ¥147,325,000.00 JPY / $1,280,150.00 SGD). Grand Prize will be awarded in USD dollars. Free Entries into the Grand Prize Draw with Microsoft Rewards Account: print full name, address, phone number (with area code), date of birth, and email address on a 3 x 5-inch card and mail it to “Microsoft Rewards Ultimate Giveaway Sweepstakes, Free to Enter” at the address corresponding to your country of residence in the Official Rules. Requests must be postmarked by 10/17/25 and received by 10/24/25. Additional Sweepstakes entry opportunities will be available, see terms here. These additional entry methods are subject to the Official Rules for the Sweepstakes including (but not limited to) any and all eligibility and registration requirements, as well as any limitation on the total number of entries which may be earned across all entry methods.