Microsoft Copilot: How It Works, Features, and Tips to Get Cited

Microsoft Copilot is one of Microsoft's AI tools that can help users find information, create content, analyze data, and complete a wide range of tasks. Copilot's AI features are available across several Microsoft products, from Windows, the web, and mobile to Microsoft 365.

Besides making business operations easier, AI platforms like Microsoft Copilot can also affect a business's digital presence. This is because millions of Microsoft Copilot users often look for answers or product/service recommendations on this AI platform.

That is why it's important for businesses to understand how it works and which optimization strategies can earn their brand AI mentions and recommendations from AI. This article covers what Microsoft Copilot is, the components behind how it works, how the citation process happens, and how your brand can get cited by Microsoft Copilot. So, let's dive into the discussion below!

What Is Microsoft Copilot?

Microsoft Copilot is an AI technology developed by Microsoft to help users meet a variety of needs through chat-based interaction. Copilot uses Large Language Models (LLMs), search, and context to understand questions, then generates relevant responses.

In practice, Copilot can be found across Microsoft's various app ecosystems. So, what does Microsoft Copilot do? For needs related to public information on the web, Copilot uses Microsoft's search infrastructure, including Bing. Meanwhile, Microsoft 365 Copilot can also work with databases according to the access permissions the user has.

Copilot usage itself has reached a wide range of platforms. There are at least around 33 million active users across Windows, Microsoft 365, web, and mobile, along with more than 36 million downloads since its launch.

The sheer scale of this usage is part of the reason why businesses need to pay attention to their visibility in AI Search. Besides focusing on creating content that wins in search engines, you now also need to make sure it is easy to find and cited by AI platforms, one of which is Microsoft Copilot.

Main Components of Microsoft Copilot

Do you know what components support how Microsoft Copilot works? In general, there are three main components that play a role in this process, namely:

• Microsoft Graph: Helps Copilot retrieve information from the Microsoft ecosystem, such as documents, files, conversations, and other data available to the user.
• Semantic Search Engine: Helps the system understand the context and intent of a search, rather than only matching the words used in the question. This approach can use tenant-wide and personalized semantic indexes.
• Large Language Models (LLMs): Process information obtained from relevant sources and then compose it into answers in a conversational format.

Read also: AI Visibility: Definition, Measurement & Optimization Tips 

Pros and Cons of Copilot AI

Here are the pros and cons of Copilot AI that you should know.

Advantages of Microsoft Copilot

• Integrated directly with Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook, Teams, and Windows, so there's no need to switch apps.
• Can quickly summarize long documents, emails, and Teams meetings.
• Can help draft documents, emails, and presentation slides from short prompts.
• In Excel, it can create formulas, tidy up data, and perform simple analysis.
• Can search for up-to-date information on the web, complete with sources.
• For the Microsoft 365 version, it can access work data (files, emails, calendar) while still following existing access permissions.
• Enterprise-grade data protection is available for work or school accounts.
• A free version is available for chat and basic features.

Disadvantages of Microsoft Copilot

• The full features in Microsoft 365 apps require an additional subscription at a separate cost.
• Answers can be wrong, so they still need to be double-checked.
• Results in Excel and PowerPoint are sometimes untidy and need manual editing.
• Most useful if you already use the Microsoft ecosystem, and less appealing to users outside it.
• Features and capabilities vary depending on the account type (free, personal, or work).
• The quality of results depends on how clear the prompt is.
• The quality of Indonesian is sometimes not as good as English.
• There are privacy concerns if it is used with sensitive data without proper settings.

How Does Copilot Find and Cite Information Sources?

For questions that require complete information from a website, Copilot can collaborate with Bing to support the grounding process. 

This means the system does not rely only on knowledge from its database or what it acquired during training, but can also search for relevant information to support its answers.

In simple terms, the process can be understood through the following stages:

• Receiving the question: Copilot receives the prompt and performs an initial evaluation of the request.
• Forming search queries: The system can expand the question into several search queries to find the information needed.
• Performing retrieval: The search results are used to find relevant sources.
• Composing the answer: The information obtained is processed by the language model to form a response.
• Displaying citations: The sources used can be shown through citations or source links in the answer.

How Copilot Searches for Information

Besides using keywords and matching them to the user's question, Copilot also uses a search approach that takes into account the user's context and access. Some of the main approaches include:

• Tenant-Wide and Personalized Semantic Indexes: The tenant-wide index helps find information available in the Microsoft ecosystem, while the personalized index tailors results to the user's context and activity.
• Permissions-Based Search: The information found is still matched to the user's access rights. As a result, Copilot should not display organizational information that falls outside those permissions.
• Intent-Based Results: The system tries to understand the intent behind the question, so the results given are based not only on word matches but also on contextual relevance.

Understanding these approaches is important so you can use Copilot more optimally, especially in work environments that involve various sources and levels of information access.

On the other hand, for businesses that want to increase visibility in web search, optimization also needs to cover aspects such as indexing, content relevance, page structure, and the quality and credibility of sources.

Read also: AI Citation: Definition, How It Works, and How to Get It

Content Signals Prioritized by Microsoft Copilot

So, what kind of content is likely to be used as a source by Copilot? In fact, Microsoft has not published any specific formula or strategy to guarantee that a page will get a citation.

However, you can pay attention to the following signals in the AEO (Answer Engine Optimization) process, or more precisely, if you want to make content appear in AI Search:

How to Optimize for Microsoft Copilot to Earn Brand Mentions & Citations 

After understanding how Copilot finds information, the next step is to learn how your business can increase its chances of getting mentions and citations. Here are some optimization strategies for a brand to get AI mentions and citations from Microsoft Copilot:

1. Make Sure Your Website Is Indexed in Bing

Bing is one of the requirements for retrieval when Copilot pulls information from the web. Therefore, the first step is to make sure the business pages you want to optimize can be found and indexed by Bing.

Check pages such as products, services, pricing, and informational content through Bing Webmaster Tools. If a page has not been indexed, fix any crawlability and indexing issues first.

2. Improve Your Page Visibility on Bing

Once a page is indexed, optimization can continue by improving its visibility on Bing Copilot. However, a good ranking on Bing does not automatically guarantee that your website page will be cited by Copilot.

Focus your optimization on topic relevance, information quality, page structure, and user needs. That way, the page has a better foundation to be found when the system performs retrieval.

3. Provide Direct and Structured Answers

When creating content, place the main answer at the beginning or in an easy-to-find spot. Use descriptive headings, concise paragraphs, tables, or lists when those formats help explain the information.

This answer-first approach also makes the information easier for users to understand and helps the system find the relevant parts of the page.

4. Strengthen Factual Information and Entities

Make sure information about the business, products, services, and related parties is written consistently. Add data or evidence that supports important claims so the content has stronger context.

This entity consistency will also help clarify the business's identity when information about your brand appears across various sources.

Read also: What Is Sentiment Analysis? Learn About Its Types and Functions

5. Add Relevant Q&A Section

Identify the questions or FAQs that are likely to come up during the user's information search journey. Then, answer those questions directly and keep them within the context of the page's topic.

This approach can also help businesses cover a broader range of information needs when AI systems expand a question into several related search queries.

6. Use Language Your Audience Understands

Choose terms that your audience commonly uses when searching for information. Avoid creating content just for machines by stuffing in terms excessively.

Content still needs to be written for humans first, with information that is clear, specific, and relevant to business needs.

7. Build Authority Through Relevant Sources

Citations are not only tied to a business's own pages. A brand's presence on relevant external sources can also help strengthen the business's context and authority.

For that reason, strategies such as digital PR, third-party publications or backlinks, and brand mentions can be part of the effort to build your business's authority visibility.

8. Update Your Content and Use IndexNow

Information that changes needs to be updated regularly, especially for pages related to products, services, data, or fast-changing information.

Bing also provides IndexNow to help search engines learn about changes to pages that have been updated.

9. Monitor Citations Regularly

Monitoring is needed to find out whether the brand already appears in AI answers, which pages are cited, and what kinds of questions trigger citations.

Bing Webmaster Tools now provides AI Performance, which is now called Bing AI, that can help website owners see AI-generated answers, citations, referenced pages, and the grounding queries related to those citations.

10. Understand How Citation Works at the Content Level

Copilot does not always use a page in its entirety. The retrieval process can select specific sections or chunks that are considered relevant to the question.

Therefore, the way to get cited by Microsoft Copilot is not just to create a single page with a complete topic. Every important section needs to have information that is clear, factual, and able to stand on its own as an answer to a specific need.

Start Optimizing Your Business in the Era of AI Search with cmlabs!

Understanding how Microsoft Copilot works is only the first step toward improving your brand's visibility in the era of AI Search. To make your strategy more targeted, businesses also need to know where their brand currently stands, which sources the AI uses, and which areas still have a citation gap.

As a first step, you can take a FREE AI Visibility Audit from cmlabs to find out how visible your brand is across various AI platforms. This audit is free, has no contract commitment, and the results can be obtained in about 3 business days.

Now, cmlabs offers AI Search Optimization (GEO/AEO) Services to help your business optimize its visibility on the various targeted AI platforms, including Microsoft Copilot. At cmlabs, we design our AI Optimization strategies in a targeted way because each AI platform has different treatment and ways of grounding information. In addition, the scope of the service can also be adjusted to the business's conditions and needs.

If you still want to find out which strategy or service is the most suitable, you can contact our team to ask further questions, learn about our services, and request a customized service scope that fits your business needs.