Bing now shows the AI queries you're missing. That's a gap list, not a fix.

A search engine just handed site owners a list of AI-answer queries where other sites get cited and theirs doesn't. That is new. It is also the easy half.

On October 13, 2026, Microsoft Bing published Introducing Topics Portfolio (Beta) in AI Performance (HTTP 200 this fire; authors Krishna Madhavan, Saral Nigam, Vivek Jain, Microsoft Bing). The opening:

"Today we are announcing a new beta feature inside the AI Performance report in Bing Webmaster Tools. It is called Topics Portfolio, and it groups the grounding queries where your site appears into broader thematic clusters – for example, football, taxes or AI Chatbots – so you can see the shape of your presence across those clusters rather than one query at a time."

The part that matters for anyone who sells something:

"Below the topic table you will find Top Opportunity Queries: the strongest queries across your whole portfolio where other sites appear and yours does not. It is a fast, cross-topic read on where you could grow. Citation volumes there are shown as ranges rather than exact numbers."

And the sentence every report built on this screen should carry:

"Treat the numbers as directional signals for planning, not as a precise ledger."

Source: Microsoft Bing Blog, "Introducing Topics Portfolio (Beta) in AI Performance," October 13, 2026 (opened this fire).

The short version

• New tab, beta label. Topics Portfolio sits inside AI Performance in Bing Webmaster Tools, next to Citations & Pages, and only shows up "If there is sufficient data for your site."
• Topics, with ecosystem context. Each topic gets three measures: Topic Size, Sites Cited, and Queries. All approximate.
• Opportunity queries are the headline. Queries where other sites appear and yours does not, with citation volumes shown as ranges.
• Personalized. Surfaced from your own AI Search presence, "not from a generic ecosystem list."
• Small sites may not see it. No threshold published.
• Monitoring is not execution. The list tells you where the gap is. A first-party page that answers the query with proof is what closes it, if anything does.

What the tab actually shows

Microsoft's column definitions, verbatim from the post:

Column	What Microsoft says it tells you
Topic	"A broad thematic cluster of related grounding queries where your site appears."
Topic Size	"The approximate total citations across all sites for this topic over the selected period – a measure of how much AI Search demand the topic represents."
Sites Cited	"The approximate number of sites appearing for queries in this topic, which indicates how crowded the topic is."
Queries	"The approximate number of distinct grounding queries in this topic."

Click into a topic and you get three KPI cards (Topic Size, your own citations in the topic, number of queries), then two tables. Microsoft:

"Your Grounding Queries lists the top queries in this topic where your site already appears, aligned with the data you already know from Citations & Pages. Opportunity Queries lists the top queries in the same topic where other sites appear and yours does not, with citation volumes shown as ranges. Together they give you the two halves of a topic: what you already own, and what is still open."

You pick a one-, two- or three-month window. Every topic row and opportunity query has a thumbs up / down control.

"Grounding" is Bing's word for the evidence behind an AI answer. The June 16 post defines it: "grounding refers to the source material and web evidence the system uses to support and cite its response." A grounding query, per the February launch post, is "the key phrases the AI used when retrieving content that was referenced in AI-generated answers."

How we got here (three Bing posts this year)

1. February 10, 2026: AI Performance public preview. Introducing AI Performance in Bing Webmaster Tools Public Preview (HTTP 200 this fire). Citations, cited pages, grounding queries, and trends across "Microsoft Copilot, AI-generated summaries in Bing, and select partner integrations." Microsoft called it "an early step toward Generative Engine Optimization (GEO) tooling in Bing Webmaster Tools." (Post page says February 10; some related-story cards show February 11.)
2. June 16, 2026: Intents, Topics, Citation Share, Compare. New AI Visibility Insights in Bing Webmaster Tools (HTTP 200 this fire). Four capabilities "available in preview globally." Citation Share came with a hard boundary: "Citation Share is designed as an observational metric – not a ranking system or a competitive scoreboard. It does not expose competitor domains, represent traffic share, or assign quality scores to content."
3. October 13, 2026: Topics Portfolio (Beta). Topics get ecosystem size and crowding, and the report starts naming queries you are absent from.

In February, the report told you where you were cited. In June, how big your slice was. In October, where you are not. That reads a lot like a content brief, and it comes from the engine itself.

Why this is a gap list and not a strategy

An opportunity query is a row. It says other sites get cited for a phrase Bing's AI retrieved on, and yours does not. It does not say why.

Sometimes the reason is fixable: you never wrote the page, or the page doesn't answer the question plainly, or it's thin on proof. Sometimes it isn't: the query is someone else's brand, or the cited sites are reference sources you won't displace.

Microsoft flags one of those itself:

"Branded queries can appear as opportunity queries."

Its example: a running shoes site seeing another company's branded query as an opportunity. That's not a gap to chase. Thumb it down.

The screen sorts. It doesn't decide. You still pick which rows match what you sell and where you have real proof. "Every tool shows a dashboard. Ask who ships the fix." That applies to a free first-party report too.

What to do with the list (one sitting, this week)

1. Check whether you have the tab. Bing Webmaster Tools → AI Performance → Topics Portfolio, next to Citations & Pages. If it isn't there, skip to the next section.
2. Start where you already win. Microsoft's own advice: "start with the topics where your citations are already concentrated, then work down the opportunity queries." That's right. Adjacent queries in a topic you already own are the cheapest gaps to close.
3. Screenshot the opportunity rows with the date and window. That's your before state. Record ranges as printed.
4. Strike the rows that aren't yours to win. Competitor brand names, off-topic misclassifications, queries for things you don't sell. Thumb them down so the classifier learns.
5. Map each surviving row to one first-party URL. Either an existing page that should answer it, or a page that doesn't exist yet. One query cluster, one canonical answer.
6. Write the answer like you'd say it to a buyer. Direct answer up top, then conditions, then proof a customer can verify. Microsoft's February post lists the same basics: clear headings, tables, FAQ sections, "Examples, data, and cited sources," and keeping content "fresh and accurate."
7. Tell Bing the page changed. Microsoft's February post points to IndexNow (HTTP 200 this fire) for notifying participating search engines when content is added, updated, or removed.
8. Re-open the same topic in the same window later. Record what moved. Don't credit one page for a topic-level change you didn't isolate.

That is the proof loop. The list is the input. The shipped page and the dated before-and-after are the output.

If you don't see the tab

A lot of local businesses won't. Microsoft says the tab appears only "If there is sufficient data for your site," and:

"Topics with insufficient site presence or insufficient ecosystem activity are not shown, so smaller sites may see a shorter list or may not even see this feature."

What that does mean: Bing didn't have enough presence or activity for your site's topics to build the view.

What it does not mean, on anything Microsoft published: a penalty (the post ties it to data, not quality), invisibility in every AI answer, or that a competitor with the tab is winning your buyers. Microsoft didn't publish the threshold. Anyone quoting a citation count that "unlocks" the tab made it up.

The job doesn't change. You just don't get a free list. Write down the questions buyers actually ask (sales calls, intake forms, reviews), check whether a real page answers each one, and fix the ones that don't. For local businesses, Microsoft's February post also points at Bing Places for Business (HTTP 200 this fire, redirects to bing.com/forbusiness) "to help ensure that key details such as address, hours, and contact information remain current and eligible for inclusion in AI-generated responses."

Cloud AI cites who it can see. A business with no page that answers the question gives it nothing to see.

What this is not

Not a ranking report: Microsoft's June post says these tools "do not turn AI visibility into a single ranking or score." Not a confirmed competitor spy tool: Sites Cited is a count, and the October post doesn't say whether opportunity queries reveal which sites are cited. Not a ChatGPT or Google report: Microsoft names Copilot, Bing, and unnamed "select partner" experiences. For Google, use Search Console's generative AI report (Search Console's AI report is worldwide now); our write-up found Google doesn't document a query breakdown there. Different engines, different data. Don't merge them into one number.

What this means for a New Reward operator

Search Console gives Google-side impressions. Trackers give sampled prompts. Now Bing gives a first-party list of grounding queries where others are cited and you aren't. Use it. It's still monitoring. The list looks the same next quarter if nobody writes the pages.

New Reward's job is the second half: rank the gap list against what you sell, ship first-party pages that answer each query with proof you can inspect, and keep the dated before-and-after.

If you want a baseline on what AI systems can currently see about your business, start with a free AI visibility scan. It's a free check, not a strategy. Then read GEO measurement is noisy, so build a proof loop.

Honesty block

• Microsoft did not publish the "sufficient data" threshold for seeing the tab, or for a topic to appear. No citation count, traffic level, or site size is given.
• Microsoft did not say whether opportunity queries name the competitor domains being cited. The June post says Citation Share "does not expose competitor domains"; the October post is silent on opportunity queries.
• Microsoft did not name the "select partner" AI experiences included beyond Microsoft Copilot and Bing. Nothing on the pages opened ties this data to ChatGPT, Google AI Overviews, AI Mode, Perplexity, Gemini, or Claude.
• Microsoft did not state rollout scope for Topics Portfolio (the June features were "in preview globally"; the October post says nothing about regions or a rollout schedule).
• Microsoft did not say acting on opportunity queries raises citations. It says "where you could grow."
• Microsoft did not explain how "the strongest" opportunity queries are selected, or how wide the citation ranges are.
• Topic Size, Sites Cited and Queries are "approximate," classification is AI-generated and "can occasionally be imperfect," and the February post says grounding query data "represents a sample of overall citation activity."
• The post calls it both the "Topics Portfolio tab" and "the Topics tab." We treat them as one feature.
• We have not opened the live tab on a client property for this piece. Everything above is from Microsoft's published posts.
• Nothing here guarantees rankings or citations. No one can honestly promise AI will mention you.

Related New Reward pages (live, 200 this fire)

• GEO has a measurement layer now
• GEO measurement is noisy, so build a proof loop
• Search Console's AI report is worldwide now. Impressions aren't clicks.
• Track ChatGPT and Perplexity visibility
• ChatGPT's share of AI prompts fell. Visibility work still has to cover Gemini and Claude.
• Why good brands disappear from AI search
• New Reward vs. Profound
• SEO / AEO / GEO offering · Scan · FAQ