Microsoft Clarity introduces AI Citations (currently in beta), a tool designed to provide end-to-end visibility into how content is discovered, cited, and drives AI-referred traffic across AI-generated answers. This feature addresses the challenge of measuring influence in zero-click AI experiences, where content shapes responses without traditional traffic metrics reflecting that impact.
Understanding AI Citations in Microsoft Clarity
AI Citations unify data from Bing Webmaster Tools and Microsoft Clarity to show how content participates in AI-driven experiences. It tracks the entire process from bot crawling and indexing to citation in AI-generated answers, helping brands and publishers understand their content’s role in the AI ecosystem. This marks an initial step toward Generative Engine Optimization tooling, aimed at optimizing content for AI visibility.
Grounding: The Technology Behind AI Answers
Grounding connects generative AI models to current, authoritative web content, ensuring AI answers are accurate and relevant by retrieving up-to-date information rather than relying solely on pre-trained data. Microsoft’s grounding leverages Bing’s search expertise and powers both Microsoft AI and partner platforms, making it crucial for content creators to understand their participation in this grounded ecosystem.
AI Citations Dashboard: Metrics and Insights
The AI Citations dashboard in Microsoft Clarity consolidates citation activity across supported AI experiences, providing key metrics such as:
- Queries Cited: Number of queries where the domain was cited at least once.
- Query Volume: Total queries where the domain was eligible to appear.
- Citation Rate: Frequency of citations relative to eligibility.
- Page Citations: Total citations to specific pages, including multiple references per query.
- Share of Authority: Distribution of citations between the domain and other sources.
- Grounding Queries: Key phrases used by AI to retrieve cited content.
- Pages: URLs cited and their citation frequency.
Data is refreshed daily with some delay and is designed for trend analysis rather than exact counts of individual AI answers.
Using AI Citations to Enhance Content Strategy
AI Citations shift the focus from traffic metrics to understanding how content contributes to AI-generated answers. This enables:
- Aligning content with user intent based on grounding queries.
- Identifying topics where the domain gains visibility.
- Enhancing content depth and subject focus.
- Keeping content accurate and current for AI inclusion.
- Monitoring changes in AI visibility over time.
Access and Future Developments
Currently available by invitation in limited preview, AI Citations can be accessed in Microsoft Clarity under Dashboards → AI Visibility → Citations. The feature will expand to cover more AI platforms and citation signals as it evolves, further connecting visibility from retrieval and grounding to citation and AI-referred traffic.
This new capability builds on previous AI bot activity insights in Clarity, extending visibility to how and why content appears in AI-generated answers, supporting brands and publishers in optimizing their presence in an AI-first digital landscape.
