With the evolution of search engines toward systems increasingly based on artificial intelligence, Microsoft is redefining the role of search through Bing and Copilot.
The latest official communications highlight a key change: it’s no longer just about page ranking, but about the ability of content to support AI-generated answers.
From traditional search to AI-generated answers: the role of grounding
Microsoft describes an evolution of the search engine in which the model no longer simply returns links, but builds answers based on information retrieved from the web and reliable sources.
In this context, the concept of grounding comes into play, namely the direct connection between AI models and content present in Bing’s index. Grounding serves to ensure that results are supported by real, updated, and verifiable data.
According to Microsoft, this mechanism is becoming increasingly central because it allows AI systems to rely on the real web, reducing errors and unreliable references.
In fact, the web is no longer just an archive of indexed pages, but an active source from which models continuously draw to build more precise and contextualized results.
AI Performance in Bing Webmaster Tools
With the release of AI Performance within Bing Webmaster Tools, Microsoft introduces a new form of visibility for publishers.
This tool allows you to understand how content is used within AI-generated answers, showing for example:
- how many times pages are cited in AI suggestions;
- which URLs are most frequently used as sources;
- which queries lead to content citations;
- visibility trends over time.
This is a first step toward a new form of online presence analysis, which is no longer based solely on impressions or clicks, but also on citations within AI-generated answers.
What changes for those doing SEO
The message emerging from Microsoft’s communications is clear: SEO is not disappearing, but is shifting to a different level.
It’s no longer just about optimizing a page to rank in search results, but about making it a reliable and usable source for artificial intelligence systems in building answers.
Optimization activities therefore continue to revolve around fundamental principles: quality and depth of content, clarity in information structure, authority of sources, and technical solidity of the site. However, the context in which these elements are evaluated is changing.
Today it’s no longer enough to be “found” by search engines: it’s becoming increasingly important to be chosen as a source. Content is no longer just pages to rank, but elements that can be extracted, reworked, and integrated into AI-generated answers.
In this scenario, the value of a page is no longer measured exclusively by its position in SERPs, but by its ability to be understood, interpreted, and reused by AI systems.
The web thus transforms into a dynamic knowledge system, on which new methods of search and answer generation are based.
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