If you have Bing Webmaster Tools set up, you will see a tab called “AI Performance”. This report shows how often Microsoft Copilot and Bing cite pages from your site in AI generated answers across Bing, Edge and selected partner experiences. It is first‑party data from Microsoft and it is free for website owners to use.
Short context, especially if this is the first Bing piece you are reading. Copilot and Bing use search results as sources when they answer questions. AI Performance is Microsoft’s way of showing you which of your pages have been used as those sources, how often it happens and which queries triggered it. No other major search engine currently offers this level of detail for AI answers, which is why it matters if you care about being visible when people search with AI tools.
To make this useful, start by understanding what the AI Performance report actually measures. Then look at the newer insights – Intents, Topics, Citation Share and Compare, as different ways of reading that same story. The goal is not to watch every number. The goal is to have a simple, regular way to see where your website appears inside Copilot answers and Bing’s AI summaries, and to decide which pages to strengthen next.
What the AI Performance Report Shows
Inside Bing Webmaster Tools, the AI Performance report focuses on citations and grounding queries. It includes:
- Total citations – how many times your site was cited in AI answers in the chosen period.
- Cited pages – which URLs were used most often as sources.
- Grounding queries – the short Bing search queries Copilot and Bing generated based on user prompts to retrieve your content.
Microsoft’s announcement notes that AI Performance currently covers Microsoft Copilot, AI summaries in Bing and selected partner experiences. This means the report reflects how your content appears not only on bing.com, but also in Copilot responses inside Edge and Microsoft 365 apps.
Recent updates added four insight types: Intents, Topics, Citation Share and Compare. These sit on top of the raw counts and help you understand context and change.
Intents: Seeing the Role Your Content Plays
Intents classify grounding queries into categories including Informational, Commercial, Research, Learn & Solve and Local.
Examples:
- Informational – “what is payroll tax threshold in SA”
- Commercial – “best payroll software for small business”
- Learn & Solve – “how to set up payroll in Xero step by step”
- Local – “accountant near Norwood for small business”
If your AI citations are mostly Informational and Learn & Solve, your content is acting as a teacher and problem‑solver. If Commercial and Local intents are strong, you are closer to buying and booking decisions.
This matters for B2B and consumer audiences. Staff using Copilot at work may ask Informational and Learn & Solve questions around industry topics, systems and compliance. If your content is cited there, you are quietly shaping how teams understand those topics.
How Topics Group Your Queries Into Themes
Topics group related queries into broader themes, much like how modern AI search organises knowledge. Instead of analysing each query separately, you can see clusters such as:
- “Cash flow management”, “small business budget template”, “improve cash flow”
- “Pilates for beginners”, “reformer pilates benefits”, “pilates for back pain”
Seeing your top Topics helps you identify where you already have momentum and where you may want to deepen your content. Microsoft’s SEO guidance notes that search engines favour sites that consistently publish relevant, accurate, useful content and become authoritative sources in their area.
By focusing on a handful of Topics that match your core services, you build that authority in both search results and AI answers.
Checking Your Business Presence Via Citation Share
Citation Share shows how often your site appears as a source for a specific query compared with other websites. It’s a simple way to see your presence in AI answers, without turning it into a competition.
Search industry coverage describes Citation Share as a way for publishers to see whether their representation in AI answers is growing or shrinking over time. It is not a trophy. It is a prompt.
Use Citation Share to ask:
- Are we present enough for the queries that matter to our business?
- For queries where our share is low, is that because the topic is outside our focus, or because our content needs work?
This keeps attention on depth and alignment rather than trying to “win” every possible question.
Compare: Learning from Change Over Time
The Compare feature lets you overlay a previous period (for example, the last 30 days versus the prior 30) to see how citation activity and queries have shifted.
This is useful when you:
- Publish a new guide around a key Topic.
- Update a main service page.
- Improve an FAQ or resource that answers a high‑volume question.
After a few weeks, use Compare to see whether citations for that Topic or Intent have increased, decreased or stayed flat, and whether new grounding queries have appeared. This helps you learn which changes make a difference, without guessing.
A Simple Monthly AI Performance Review Rhythm
To keep numbers in their place, create a short monthly AI Performance review. It only needs to take 20–30 minutes.
Each month:
- Check your top cited pages – note which URLs show up most often and what they have in common (depth, clarity, structure).
- Review your main Intents and Topics – identify which categories and themes line up with your core services and values.
- Use Compare for one or two key Topics – see how citations and queries changed versus the previous period.
- Decide one improvement action – improve an existing page, add an FAQ, update examples or create a new piece around a recurring grounding query.
Remember, you are not trying to react to every dip or spike. Microsoft reminds small businesses that SEO is a long‑term project and that overpromised fast gains are warning signs. Treat AI Performance insights as helpful feedback to reflect and recalibrate when necessary.
Keeping AI Metrics Tied to Real Business Outcomes
Bing and Copilot are turning up everywhere in the Microsoft ecosystem. The AI Performance numbers are useful, but they only matter if they connect back to real outcomes like better enquiries, stronger relationships and calmer marketing decisions.
Success is not only higher citation counts or bigger shares. It is:
- Better educated customers and prospects.
- More qualified enquiries that reference your content.
- Stronger trust from teams who discover you through Copilot answers.
- A calmer, more confident marketing rhythm.
If you have not yet set up Bing properly, start with my guide on setting up Bing for sustainable, purpose‑led visibility. If you need a refresher on why Bing and Copilot matter in the first place, read my breakdown of where Bing and Copilot show up in everyday search. Together, these pieces form a practical path: understand, set up, then refine.
