On October 13, 2026, Microsoft added a beta feature called Topics Portfolio to the AI Performance report in Bing Webmaster Tools. It sorts the AI searches that cite your site into topics, and it lists searches where other sites get cited and yours does not. For a local business, that second list is the closest thing any search engine offers to a free view of who AI answers name instead of you.
It comes with real limits, and small sites may not see it at all. Here is what Microsoft announced and what is worth doing with it.
What Microsoft announced
Some background first. Bing’s AI Performance report launched in public preview in February 2026. It counts how often your pages are cited as sources “across Microsoft Copilot, AI-generated summaries in Bing, and select partner integrations.” It also shows grounding queries, which Microsoft defines as the “key phrases the AI used when retrieving content that was referenced in AI-generated answers.” In June, Microsoft previewed a first version of topic grouping, along with intent labels, citation share and period comparisons.
From the October 13 post, written by Krishna Madhavan, Saral Nigam and Vivek Jain of the Bing team:
- A new Topics Portfolio tab. It sits next to Citations & Pages in the AI Performance report. Microsoft says “it groups the grounding queries where your site appears into broader thematic clusters.”
- Four numbers per topic. Topic is the cluster itself. Topic Size is the approximate total citations across all sites for that topic over the period you pick. Sites Cited is roughly how many sites appear for the topic’s queries, which tells you how crowded it is. Queries is the approximate number of distinct grounding queries in the topic.
- Top Opportunity Queries. Microsoft describes these as “the strongest queries across your whole portfolio where other sites appear and yours does not.” Citation volumes for them are shown as ranges, not exact counts.
- A detail page for each topic. It shows Topic Size, your citations in that topic and the query count, plus two tables: queries where you already appear and opportunity queries where you do not.
- Short date ranges. You “choose a one-, two- or three-month window.”
Microsoft also listed the beta’s limits. “Topic classification is AI-generated and can occasionally be imperfect.” The size and count figures are approximate. Topics with too little activity are hidden, “so smaller sites may see a shorter list or may not even see this feature.” And “branded queries can appear as opportunity queries.”
What it means for a local service business
The topic examples Microsoft gives (football, taxes, AI chatbots) are broad. Two parts of it still matter if you run an HVAC company, a law office or a dental practice.
Set it up now, even if the tab is empty
The feature only appears when Bing has enough data on your site. A small local site may see nothing in the Topics tab for a while. That is not proof that no AI answer mentions you. It means the activity is below what Microsoft shows.
The rest of the AI Performance report is worth having anyway. If your site is not verified in Bing Webmaster Tools, verify it. Then look at the grounding queries that already cite your pages. They tell you, in the AI’s own words, what it thought your page answered. If those phrases do not match the services you sell or the towns you serve, your pages are being read differently from how you meant them.
Read the opportunity list for your own name and your core services
Microsoft warns that branded queries can show up as opportunities. For a local business, that warning is the useful part. By Microsoft’s definition, an opportunity query is one where other sites appear and yours does not. If your business name, or your name plus your town, shows up there, then Microsoft’s AI answers are responding to questions about your business using someone else’s pages. Those might be directories, review sites or a competitor’s comparison page.
What to check when the list appears:
- Any query containing your business name. Find which pages are likely being used instead of yours, and make sure your own site answers the same question plainly: what you do, where, hours, how to book.
- Queries that pair a service you sell with a place you serve. If they are opportunities rather than citations, your service pages probably do not say clearly enough that you do that job in that area.
- Topics with a high Sites Cited count. Those are crowded. A local business usually has a better chance in narrow topics that match its actual trade and service area.
Treat the numbers as direction, not scores. Microsoft calls them approximate, and the February post says grounding query data “represents a sample of overall citation activity.”
What did not change
This report covers Microsoft’s AI surfaces: Copilot, Bing’s AI summaries and partner integrations Microsoft does not name. Microsoft does not say it covers ChatGPT, Gemini or Google’s AI Overviews, so do not read it as a measure of those.
It also does not measure traffic. Search Engine Roundtable’s Barry Schwartz noted there is “No click data yet.” The February post says none of the AI Performance metrics indicate ranking, authority or where in an answer you appear. A citation count tells you that your page was used, not whether anyone clicked through to call you.
And Topics Portfolio is a beta, inside a report Microsoft launched as a public preview. No AI engine can be bought or guaranteed, and a report like this does not change that. It only shows more of what is already happening.
For the full picture across assistants, the method has not changed: a fixed set of buyer questions re-run every month, across the major assistants, with a record of which businesses get named.
The short version
Bing Webmaster Tools now groups the AI searches that cite your site into topics and lists searches where competitors get cited and you do not. Small sites may not see it yet, and it only covers Microsoft’s AI products. Verify your site in Bing Webmaster Tools now, and when the opportunity list appears, look first for your own business name and the services you sell in the towns you serve.