Microsoft launched a new AI Performance dashboard inside Bing Webmaster Tools on February 10, 2026, and the implications for online marketing are significant. For the first time, website owners can see how often their content is cited as a source in AI-generated answers across Microsoft Copilot, Bing’s AI summaries, and select partner integrations. Google has nothing comparable.
“We just dropped the AI Performance report into public preview in Bing Webmaster Tools,” wrote Fabrice Canel, a principal product manager at Microsoft, on X. He hinted at further expansion: “It’s just a preview, you will get more in 2026”. SEO professionals and publishers responded immediately. Aleyda Solis, a prominent SEO consultant, called it “the first official AI search visibility” tool. Wil Reynolds noted that Bing is now surfacing “grounding queries” — the key phrases AI systems use when pulling content for answers. In this article, Hassan Taher assesses GEO and the impact of this breakthrough.
What the Dashboard Actually Measures
The AI Performance report introduces four core metrics. Total citations tracks how many times a site’s content appears as a source in AI-generated answers during a selected period. Average cited pages shows the daily average of unique URLs from a site referenced across AI experiences. Page-level citation activity breaks down which specific URLs get cited most frequently. And grounding queries reveal the phrases AI used when retrieving content for its answers.
Microsoft described this data as sampled rather than comprehensive, and emphasized that citation counts do not indicate ranking, authority, or the role of any page within a specific answer. A timeline view shows how citation patterns change over time across supported AI surfaces.
Search Engine Land’s analysis noted a critical gap: the dashboard does not yet include click data. “It’s good to know where and how your content gets cited, but Bing Webmaster Tools still won’t reveal how those citations translate into clicks, traffic, or any real business outcome,” the publication wrote. Without click metrics, publishers cannot determine whether AI visibility delivers measurable value.
Why This Matters for Content Strategy
Traditional search engine optimization focused on rankings and click-through rates for “blue links” — the ten organic results on a search results page. AI-generated answers change that equation fundamentally. When a chatbot or AI summary answers a user’s question directly, the user may never click through to any source website. Content can influence millions of interactions without generating a single pageview.
Microsoft framed the AI Performance launch as “an early step toward Generative Engine Optimization (GEO) tooling”. That phrasing signals a new category of optimization work — one focused not on where a page ranks in a list, but on whether AI systems reference it at all.
Hassan Taher, a Los Angeles-based AI consultant and author, has written about how AI is reshaping information discovery across industries. Through his firm, Taher AI Solutions.
The Bing Ecosystem Is Bigger Than Most Realize
Bing’s reach extends well beyond its own search engine. Microsoft’s infrastructure powers search for Yahoo, DuckDuckGo, and Microsoft Start. It also serves as the search backbone for AI tools including ChatGPT and Inflection.ai. When a user asks ChatGPT a question and the system searches the web to answer it, the underlying search layer is Bing. That means content visibility in Bing’s AI ecosystem affects reach far beyond Bing.com.
Microsoft Clarity, a separate analytics product, reported in late 2025 that AI-driven referrals to publisher sites grew 155% over eight months. Though those referrals still constituted less than 1% of total visits, users arriving from AI surfaces converted — signing up, subscribing, or purchasing — at up to three times the rate of users from traditional search and social channels. AI referrals may be small in volume but disproportionately valuable.
What Publishers and Marketers Should Do Now
Microsoft’s guidance to publishers echoed familiar best practices with an AI-specific emphasis: use clear headings, support claims with evidence, keep information current, and maintain consistent entity representation across formats. Local businesses received additional advice to register with Bing Places for Business to ensure that details like address, hours, and contact information remain accurate for AI-generated local answers.
Search Engine World’s analysis was blunt about what the dashboard signals for the industry: “Bing is doing what Google still largely avoids, acknowledging that AI answers need first class reporting”.
Hassan Taher has written about the broader shift toward AI-mediated information consumption in several of his books, including The Rise of Intelligent Machines.
The Competitive Context
Google has been rolling out its own AI Overviews feature but has not released comparable analytics tools for publishers. Google Search Console still focuses on traditional rankings, impressions, and clicks. D3 Alpha News framed Microsoft’s release as a calculated competitive move: “Bing’s decision to launch dedicated AI performance tracking before a comparable tool from Google suggests a strategic effort to court publishers early”.
For marketers, the practical implication is that optimizing for AI citation — not just traditional search ranking — is becoming a measurable discipline. Bing’s tool is the first instrument for tracking that performance at scale. Whether Google follows with its own version, and how quickly, will shape how the industry allocates resources between traditional SEO and the emerging field of generative engine optimization.
Microsoft’s product managers closed their announcement with a forward-looking statement: “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”. For website owners who haven’t logged into Bing Webmaster Tools recently, the new dashboard is available now at bing.com/webmasters/aiperformance.
