Microsoft has updated Bing Webmaster Tools with additional AI Performance reporting features aimed at showing how websites appear in AI-driven search experiences. According to the reported update, the tool now groups cited queries into topics and highlights queries where other websites are cited while your own site is not.

For European businesses that depend on organic visibility, the change matters because AI search is shifting how users discover brands, products and information. Better reporting can help marketing and web teams understand where their content is being surfaced in AI answers and where competitors are gaining visibility instead.

What happened

According to Search Engine Journal's report, Bing's AI Performance report in Webmaster Tools now includes a topic-based view for cited queries. Instead of reviewing AI search visibility only at the individual query level, users can reportedly see queries organised into broader themes.

The update also reportedly includes a view showing queries where other sites are cited but your site is not. That can help identify missed opportunities in areas where Bing's AI-generated answers are referencing competitor or third-party content.

The report concerns Bing Webmaster Tools, which businesses and site owners already use to monitor search performance, indexing and technical website issues. The new functionality appears focused specifically on AI search visibility rather than traditional search rankings alone.

Why it matters for European businesses

AI-generated search results are becoming a more important part of how users find information online. For businesses, that creates a new visibility challenge: a brand may have strong conventional SEO performance but limited presence in AI-generated summaries or cited answers.

Topic-based reporting could make that easier to manage in practice. Instead of analysing large numbers of individual search terms, teams can review broader subject areas and identify where their website is consistently being cited or overlooked.

This may be particularly useful for SMEs and lean marketing teams that do not have large in-house SEO resources. A topic view can support faster decisions on content priorities, product page improvements, informational content and supporting documentation.

The competitor-citation view may also be commercially useful. If businesses can see where rival sites are being cited in AI results, they may be able to identify content gaps, missing product information, weak category coverage or insufficient expert guidance on their own sites.

For European companies selling across multiple markets, this also reinforces a broader shift in search strategy: optimisation is no longer only about ranking for blue links. It increasingly includes whether content is clear, structured and useful enough to be selected as a source in AI answers.

Who may be affected

• E-commerce companies that rely on organic search for product discovery and category traffic.
• Marketing teams tracking SEO performance and adapting to AI search behaviour.
• Website and content teams responsible for product information, help content, guides and structured site content.
• SMEs and founders looking for practical ways to assess whether their business is visible in AI-driven search without investing in complex enterprise tooling.
• Digital agencies managing search visibility and content strategy for clients.

What companies should consider

• Review Bing Webmaster Tools to determine whether the AI Performance report is available for your site and what types of queries and topics are being surfaced.
• Use topic groupings to prioritise content work rather than reacting only to isolated keywords. Look for themes where your business is frequently cited and themes where visibility is weak.
• Compare cited and non-cited queries to identify where competitors are appearing in AI answers. This may reveal missing landing pages, thin content, unclear product detail or weak supporting information.
• Strengthen content clarity and structure so search systems can more easily understand products, services, expertise and supporting evidence.
• Treat AI search reporting as complementary to traditional SEO. Businesses still need technical website health, crawlability, metadata, internal linking and high-quality content, even as AI answer visibility becomes more important.
• Monitor changes over time before making major conclusions. As AI search products continue to evolve, reporting methods and traffic patterns may change as well.

While this is a platform reporting update rather than a regulatory or security development, it has practical relevance for businesses adapting to AI search. For companies already investing in content, SEO and digital visibility, better reporting on AI citations could help turn a broad trend into more measurable action.