Microsoft separates Bing’s AI training and answer-grounding controls

Microsoft is introducing separate Bing controls for whether publishers’ content can train AI models and appear in AI-generated answers. The distinction lets a site block training while still allowing its pages to be used as sources for answers, or limit grounding to Microsoft’s own AI products.

Microsoft AI Watch analysis

What happened

Microsoft has announced new preferences for site owners, Search Engine Roundtable reports, citing Bing principal product manager Krishna Madhavan. The controls cover AI training, AI grounding and a limited-grounding option that excludes third-party grounding services. The report says traditional Bing search rankings will be unaffected.

The reported schedule gives publishers time to configure the settings: temporary grounding controls are due in Bing Webmaster Tools on 15 December 2026 for eligible sites using older directives. Microsoft is due to begin honouring the new preferences as it crawls pages from 1 February 2027. Publishers relying on the older directives have until 1 March 2027 to configure new preferences if they want to maintain restrictions. Temporary preferences expire on 30 September 2027.

Why it matters

Publishers have often faced an awkward choice: keep content discoverable in search and AI answers, or restrict how it is used. Separating training from grounding gives them more say over that trade-off, while the limited option distinguishes Microsoft’s own AI services from third-party ones.

That is useful control, but not a magic switch for every AI product on the internet. The dates and options reported here concern Bing, and publishers will need to check which settings apply to their sites and existing directives.

Our read

This is a more practical approach than treating all AI use as one undifferentiated yes or no. Publishers can make a narrower choice without automatically giving up ordinary Bing visibility. The real test will be whether the controls are clear to configure and consistently honoured when Bing crawls a site.

What to watch

• Whether Microsoft publishes documentation explaining exactly how each preference is applied.
• Which sites qualify for the temporary controls available from 15 December.
• Whether publishers find the distinction between Microsoft and third-party grounding useful in practice.

Discussion spark: Should publishers be able to block their content from AI answers without losing search visibility, or is that still too much control left to the platform?

not affiliated with or endorsed by Microsoft