Say what you want about Bing, but Microsoft's search engine has come a long way since it first appeared. Sure, Google may still have it beat in terms of popularity, but Microsoft has been working hard at making Bing a unique experience instead of merely copying what its competitors are doing. And one area I think Bing really nails it is in the AI department.

When you think of "AI-powered web searching," it may invoke memories of when Google first rolled out its AI Overview feature. The end result was hilariously bad, and it likely set back the public's confidence in the tool by quite a bit. Which is a shame, because Microsoft has been silently doing Bing AI right, and things are only looking better from here on out.

Microsoft Bing's AI implementation is already pretty good...

No embarrassing results, and no obtrusive AI

To prove my point, I'm going to need you to open up Bing. Yes, I know, there's a good chance you've relegated Bing to the forgotten halls of your browsing history and replaced it with something else, but if you want to see search AI done right, you have to see what Bing is up to.

There's a good chance that, when you search for something, an overview box appears at the top, kind of like Google's search results. This will feature a website result with some data pulled from it to answer your query. However, underneath that will be some queries you can click on. When you do, it opens up Copilot, which then goes into detail as to what the top result meant when it made the claims that it did.

For example, check out the gallery I added above. In it, I asked Bing for the "Best places to travel in October," and the top search result pulled up a National Geographic article. The top result used data from the website to populate the answer, but I could then click on the question "What are the local delicacies?" and Bing would take that data and combine it with its own knowledge to tell me more about the destinations. I could then hone in on one destination and ask it even more questions.

This is something I always admired about Bing's AI search. While Google's AI Overview just threw the query at an AI and asked you to trust it, Copilot's search always bases its replies on sources and cites them as it generates an answer. It's a genuinely helpful tool that helps narrow down what you're looking for.

...and it's about to get even better

Microsoft knows it's onto something good

The inspiration for this piece began when I reported on Microsoft enhancing Bing's search AI. I was impressed, because it seems that Microsoft knows how to balance between AI-generated results and using traditional search methods to give the user what they want to find.

The example they gave (which you can see in the GIF above) involves searching the origins of the Spaghetti Western genre. On the main feed, you have what looks like a results page that uses a lot of AI to generate, such as the explanation at the top and the table that was generated midway through the search results. All of these have the familiar Copilot sourcing that makes the information a lot more reliable and trustworthy.

But check out what's on the right, too. It seems that Microsoft isn't just throwing the search query to the AI and hoping it can do the job right - it's also supplying search results based entirely on indexing and not AI. This is a smart move, as Microsoft isn't forcing users to embrace one tech and leave the other; it's allowing people to have the best of both worlds. After all, why throw away all the work Microsoft has done on its search engine algorithm when it can instead complement the AI results?

Love it or hate it, Microsoft Bing is AI searching done right

I know some people would prefer that search engines go back to the traditional algorithm-based results and scrap the AI, but I have a nasty feeling that those days are long behind us. As long as AI exists, search engine companies are going to find ways to leverage it to give the user better, more accurate, and more in-depth results.

So, if AI-powered search engines are on the cards, I at least want them to be done right. And I think a lot of competitors can learn from how Microsoft does it with Bing, with helpful AI that can be invoked without sacrificing the algorithm-based search results. Because if the alternative is a system that advises users to use glue to thicken their cheese pizzas, I know which side I'm on.