The Shark Tank

With the popularity of AI technology growing, Microsoft is further embedding the software into their Bing search results by introducing Bing Chat. The company is merging the two products to create search engine results that are partly generated by AI technology. In the past several months, Microsoft has released updates that display AI-generated details on questions asked in the search engine. It allows explicitly AI-generated responses to questions.

Optimizing Search Results

Need help visualizing this change? Let’s use a real-life example. Say you are looking up how to fix a leaky sink pipe. If you are using Bing Search, you may type in the search box, “How to fix a leaky sink pipe.” When you click enter, the most specific response will appear in a large box with a summary of instructions. With the Bing Chat technology, there will be a chat box underneath that original description where you can ask follow-up questions and get AI-generated answers. For example, you could type in “what tools to use on a link sink,” and Bing Chat could automatically give you an answer so that all the information is in one place.

How Will This Affect SEO?

AI technology is revolutionizing how people can gather and publish information. While there are many upsides to this advancement, this may have adverse effects for SEO and marketing professionals. This is because the traffic on websites from the Bing search engine will now be powered by AI and Bing Chat, which is consolidated information from many different sources as opposed to one website. Instead of Bing coming up with an answer specifically from one website, which would lead to website traffic, a user will get a synopsis from AI containing footnotes from all their different sources. The footnotes linked to the websites used would only gain traffic if the user specifically clicked on them.

Looking Ahead

It may still be too early to know the full effect of Microsoft’s updates and Bing on SEO. Currently, the new Bing Chat feature only works when a user is logged into their Microsoft account, and the feature only appears on some searches.

Beyond the technological challenges that Microsoft faces with this new feature, it is also essential to consider the limitations of AI. Even with its technological capabilities, it only sometimes generates a correct or logical answer to questions. The quality of work by humans currently stands firm against AI. For more information on how AI technology may affect you and your online marketing, reach out to BluShark Digital today.