Microsoft has released an upgrade to Copilot, bringing what it calls “the best of AI Search” to its AI engine – Copilot. Microsoft said its Copilot responses “will now include more prominent, clickable citations and the option to see aggregated sources.” Plus, Microsoft added a new dedicated search experiment within Copilot.
Prominent citations. Microsoft said “Copilot’s responses will have more prominent citations to show you the publisher content that it was sourced from” in this new experience. The Copilot responses will not just give you a summary response but now also include “exactly where the information comes from, with relevant, clear, and clickable sources.”
Here is a video overview:
Consolidated lists of sources. Part of this is where Copilot now shows a consolidated list of the sources used to generate Copilot’s response in one place. To see this, click “Show all” to see the full list of references, including related results, in the right pane. Copilot will curate a response side-by-side with the sources themselves so you can find the information you’re looking for.
Here is a screenshot of this:
Dedicated search in Copilot. Also, Microsoft is rolling out a dedicated search experience directly in Copilot. To access this click the drop-down and select “Search”. “Responses are adaptive, delivering concise answers for simple queries or in-depth summaries for analytical, or more complex queries,” Microsoft added.
Dedicated navigational links. Also, there are now dedicated navigation links at the top of responses. This should make clicks to publishers more likely in this AI search experience.
Ecosystem. I love it how Microsoft specifically said they made these choices to drive a better and healthier ecosystem between the publisher and the AI engines. Microsoft wrote:
“We’ve designed these changes to Copilot and the new Search experience within Copilot with publishers and content owners in mind to support a healthy web ecosystem. Cited sources are easily accessible in-line, highlighted prominently at the bottom of the response, and all references are available in the right pane. This allows you to be just a click away from the publisher and content owner sources that were used.”
Why we care. This is a nice improvement for publishers within AI Search features. It is not only nice to hear Microsoft talk about how important publishers are to the success of search and AI engines, but also to see them implement user experience details that actually convey their messaging.
What this means for Bing, Microsoft’s main search engine – is not clear.
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