Bing Tests AI Performance Report

For more than a year, Microsoft has been telling website owners that it plans to provide better insight into how their content performs inside its AI-powered search tools. These tools include Bing’s AI search experience and Microsoft Copilot, both of which rely heavily on summarised answers rather than traditional blue links.

Despite these promises, one key piece of information remains missing. Website owners still cannot see how many clicks they receive from AI-generated results, which makes it impossible to calculate a proper click-through rate from these experiences.

Microsoft first made commitments to share this kind of data in February 2023 and then repeated them again in April of the same year. At the time, many publishers hoped this would lead to a new level of transparency around how AI search affects website traffic.

Instead, Microsoft chose to group AI-related data together with standard web search queries. This approach made it difficult for site owners to separate normal search performance from AI-driven visibility.

As a result, publishers have been left without a clear picture of whether their content is truly benefiting from being cited in AI answers or if it is simply being displayed without generating visits.

Recently, however, there have been reports that Bing is quietly testing a new feature inside Bing Webmaster Tools called the AI Performance report. This tool is currently in a very limited beta and has not yet been officially announced by Microsoft.

According to early sources, the report focuses on showing citation activity from Microsoft Copilot and its partner AI services. It provides daily data on how often a website is referenced and how many individual pages are included in those references.

This allows site owners to see whether their content is being used by AI systems at all, which is a step forward compared with having no visibility into AI citations.

The report also separates information by “grounding queries” and by pages. Grounding queries appear to represent how Bing interprets the user’s question rather than the exact wording typed into Copilot.

In addition to this, the report classifies each query by intent. These categories may include informational searches, navigational requests, or other types of user needs.

Another useful feature is the ability to view which specific pages were cited by Copilot. This can help publishers understand which articles or resources are being picked up most often by the AI system.

However, even with these new insights, a major gap still remains. The report does not show how many users actually clicked from those AI citations through to the website.

This missing data makes it difficult to judge the real value of appearing in AI responses. Being cited may look positive, but without knowing whether people are visiting the site, publishers cannot measure return on effort.

Microsoft has not yet made any public announcement about the rollout of this feature. Some users are starting to notice it appearing inside Bing Webmaster Tools under the Search Performance section labelled “AI Performance”.

There is still no confirmed timeline for when this report will be made available to everyone. Many site owners may have to wait weeks or even months before they can access it.

From a broader industry perspective, the introduction of AI performance reporting is a welcome development. It shows that Microsoft recognises the need for greater transparency around how AI search interacts with website content.

Even so, frustration remains high. Publishers, bloggers, and digital marketers all want to understand how AI-driven search compares with traditional web search in terms of traffic and visibility.

Without click data, the picture is still incomplete. Site owners are left guessing whether AI is helping or hurting their websites.

At the same time, there is a growing sense that search engines are reluctant to reveal the full impact of AI on user behaviour. This lack of clarity fuels concerns about how much control content creators really have over their performance in AI search.

Until more detailed data is provided, especially around clicks and engagement, many will continue to feel that important information is being withheld.

For now, the AI Performance report represents a small but meaningful step forward. However, it also highlights how much more transparency is still needed in the age of AI-powered search.