AI-powered Bing generative search rolls out to US users
Bing’s ‘Generative Search’, rolled out by Microsoft, is an AI-powered feature that provides detailed summaries alongside search results, aiming to compete with Google’s AI Overviews. The feature, now available to U.S. users, promises to offer more effective responses to informational queries.
Microsoft has officially launched ‘Bing Generative Search,’ a new AI-powered feature that generates summaries of search results, aiming to enhance how users interact with search engines. After a pilot in July, the feature is now being rolled out to US users. To try it, users can search “Bing generative search,” or trigger it through informational queries. Bing generative search uses a blend of AI models to compile information from across the web, offering an easy-to-read summary alongside traditional search links.
This feature evolves from Bing’s AI chat integration launched in February 2023, but now provides search results in a fresh, AI-generated format that aims to better fulfill user intent. For example, a search like ‘What’s a spaghetti western?’ would display a detailed overview of the genre’s history and examples, accompanied by relevant sources. However, users can opt out of the AI summaries if they prefer traditional search results.
While Microsoft promises that Bing’s AI-powered search still maintains website traffic, concerns have risen across the industry. Competitor Google’s AI Overviews have already been criticized for diverting traffic from publishers and, at times, delivering inaccurate results. Although Bing holds a smaller portion of the global search market compared to Google, Microsoft is keen to monitor the impact of generative AI on web traffic.
