A new tab for AI citations
Bing Webmaster Tools has had the “AI Performance” report since 10 February, when it launched as a public preview. It shows how often pages of a website are named as a source in Copilot and in Bing's AI answers. On 13 October the “Topics Portfolio” tab was added, as a beta for now. It groups the queries where a website serves as a source into topics and shows approximate values per topic for the size of the topic, the sites cited and the queries. Below that it lists queries where other websites are named and yours is missing.
Bing says itself that the tab only appears with sufficient data and that smaller sites may see a shorter list or no tab at all. For a local business that is likely. The report on cited pages sits next to it regardless, and signing up is free. A website verified in Google Search Console can be imported into Bing Webmaster Tools.
Copilot only with an account
Krishna Madhavan of Microsoft wrote on X at the end of August: “Going forward we are requiring all Copilot users to login.” Search Engine Roundtable reported it on 31 August. An official Microsoft page on this is still missing, and one help page even still describes using Copilot without an account.
Our own measurements match Madhavan's sentence. On 10 October, opening Copilot signed out led only to a start page with a “Sign in” button and no input field. In our measurements such a page therefore counts as a failed query.
Copilot Search in Bing still works without signing in, according to a second Microsoft employee. Michael Schechter, who says he focuses on Bing, wrote: “Copilot Search doesn't require sign in.” Copilot grounds its answers in Bing's index, and so Bing matters as much for a business's visibility as before.
What this means for a local business
Next to Search Console, Bing Webmaster Tools is the second place where a business sees first-hand whether it appears in AI answers. If you want to check yourself whether Copilot names your business, you now need a Microsoft account for it. How such a self-test works with the other AI services is covered in How to check whether AI already recommends your business.