Bing's AI Search Revolution: Your Site's Secret Performance Data Unlocked NOW in Webmaster Tools

Bing Introduces Groundbreaking AI Performance Dashboard in Webmaster Tools

Microsoft has just delivered a seismic shift in how content creators understand their presence in the evolving landscape of search. On Feb 10, 2026, at 8:40 PM UTC, industry observer @aleyda highlighted the rollout of a crucial new suite of performance insights within Bing Webmaster Tools, confirming that Microsoft is finally providing publishers with direct, official data on how their content fares within the generative AI ecosystem. This is not merely an update; it represents the debut of the first official, platform-provided dashboard specifically designed to track content visibility across the Microsoft stack, including integration points like Copilot, AI-generated summaries directly within Bing search results, and select partner channels utilizing Microsoft's foundational models. For years, publishers have been flying blind, guessing at the impact of conversational AI on their traffic and authority. This dashboard aims to shine a concrete light on that dark corner of performance measurement.

This landmark introduction formalizes the measurement of "AI visibility," acknowledging that traditional click-through rates and impressions are no longer the sole metrics of success. By placing this data directly into the hands of site owners, Microsoft is signaling a commitment to transparency in the age of summarization and synthesis. The implications for content strategy are profound; knowing precisely how, when, and why your content is being sourced by an AI agent offers an unprecedented competitive edge in optimizing for these new answer surfaces.

Key Metrics Unlocked for Site Owners

The true value of this new dashboard lies in the granular data points it offers—metrics specifically engineered to decipher the usage of a site's content by Bing's generative AI features. These are metrics that transcend standard organic search reporting, focusing instead on the direct attribution of knowledge within synthesized answers. Publishers can now move beyond speculation and begin data-driven optimization tailored for machine consumption and citation.

Total Citations

This fundamental metric tracks the aggregate number of times a site’s content is explicitly referenced as a foundational source within AI-generated answers. It provides an immediate, high-level view of your authority footprint across the Bing AI sphere. A rising citation count suggests that your pages are consistently meeting the criteria the AI uses for grounding its responses.

Average Cited Pages

Diving deeper, the Average Cited Pages measure shows the mean count of distinct pages from your site that are displayed as sources on a daily basis over the selected reporting period. This is critical for understanding content diversity in citations. Are you relying too heavily on one or two cornerstone pages, or is the AI finding authoritative signals across your entire site architecture?

Grounding Queries

Perhaps one of the most revealing insights for SEO professionals is the "Grounding Queries" section. This feature provides the specific key phrases or prompts the AI used when it decided to retrieve and subsequently reference your site’s content. Analyzing these queries helps publishers reverse-engineer the intent that triggers a citation, offering direct keywords that resonate with the AI summarization engine, rather than just the traditional 10 blue links.

Page-Level Citation Activity

For tactical optimization, the Page-Level Citation Activity is invaluable. This offers a detailed breakdown identifying which specific URLs from your site achieve the highest citation counts within AI answers. It transforms the broad concept of site authority into actionable, page-specific data, allowing webmasters to prioritize updates or enhancements for the pages most frequently tapped by Copilot and Bing AI.

Limitations and Future Expectations

While celebrating this massive leap forward, it is important to temper excitement with a clear-eyed view of the current limitations. As @aleyda noted in her announcement on Feb 10, 2026, the initial iteration of the dashboard is focused purely on attribution and visibility—it is a measurement of how often you are cited, not how well you are cited.

The current dashboard excludes sentiment analysis, meaning you cannot tell if the AI used your content in a positive or negative context. It also omits intent analysis and, crucially, does not provide an extract of the actual AI-generated answer where your content appeared. Furthermore, this view is strictly siloed: it only reports on your site’s data and offers no comparative insights against competitors or other domains. This is undeniably an MVP (Minimum Viable Product) for AI performance reporting, but the industry needs more context to fully optimize for these new surfaces.

Despite these initial constraints, this release sets a monumental precedent. The industry now has a benchmark for official AI reporting. The anticipation is palpable that this initial step by Bing will pressure rivals to follow suit. The consensus among experts is that tools providing similar, dedicated AI visibility metrics from Google and primary LLM providers like OpenAI (ChatGPT) are not a matter of if, but when. This Bing dashboard forces the hand of the entire search ecosystem.

Acknowledgment and Platform Availability

The swift delivery of this dedicated reporting capability warrants significant praise from the content community. @aleyda extended gratitude to the development team, specifically thanking @facan and team for their "fantastic effort in the right direction" to furnish sites with official AI search data. This collaborative spirit, resulting in tangible tools, is precisely what the SEO and content world has been advocating for.

Site owners are strongly encouraged to waste no time. The feature is live now. Publishers should immediately navigate to their Bing Webmaster Tools dashboard, locate the new AI reporting section, and begin benchmarking their content performance against this new set of crucial metrics. Understanding these initial citation patterns will define content strategy for the remainder of the decade.

Source: Shared by @aleyda on Feb 10, 2026 · 8:40 PM UTC via X: https://x.com/aleyda/status/2021323481992802415