Search isn’t what it used to be and neither is search advertising. With ChatGPT pulling from Bing’s index, Google rolling out AI Overviews across millions of queries and AI-generated answers replacing traditional blue links, marketers are asking a new kind of question:
“If AI tools like ChatGPT use Bing data, should we shift more budget to Bing?”
It’s a fair question, but the reality is a bit more complicated. To decide where your ad dollars should go, you need to look beyond indexes and into how AI is actually surfacing content and how Google and Microsoft are positioning themselves in this new discovery ecosystem.
AI has fundamentally changed the way people discover information online. Google’s AI Overviews (AIOs) now appear on a significant portion of queries estimates range from 45% to 60%, depending on vertical and location. As of 2025, ChatGPT's web browsing (especially in ChatGPT Plus) still uses Bing’s infrastructure, but OpenAI has layered more of its own retrieval and ranking mechanisms. This means Bing is a foundation, but not the entire pipeline.
Not necessarily. It’s important to clarify what kind of performance we’re referring to, whether paid or organic. Paid performance, such as ads, does not influence your organic rankings, and it’s your site’s organic visibility that matters to Bing’s index.
Even then, the connection isn’t direct. While Bing’s index informs some of ChatGPT’s responses, OpenAI applies its own ranking and selection logic. Research and real-world tests have shown that AI-generated answers often reference pages that don’t appear in the top 100 results of traditional search engines.
Bing indexing is only one factor. AI models like ChatGPT rely on a broader set of signals including domain authority, semantic relevance, topical depth, and content freshness.
Understanding how each platform fits into the broader picture helps advertisers plan smarter.
Feature |
Microsoft | |
Browser & User Access |
Chrome: Remains the most-used browser globally, giving Google strong distribution power and deep user data access. |
Edge: Microsoft’s browser usage is gradually increasing but remains behind Chrome and Safari in global market share. |
Search Engine |
Google Search: Still holds over 83% of global market share, dominating both desktop and mobile search. | Bing: Holds approx 9–10% U.S. desktop search share; significantly lower on mobile.. |
SERP Experience (AI-Enhanced) |
AI Overviews (Powered by Gemini): Now appearing on a large share of queries (45–60%) and increasingly integrated with shopping, local intent, and featured snippets. | Copilot (Powered by OpenAI): AI assistant integrated across Windows, Microsoft Edge, and Microsoft 365. It leverages OpenAI models and Bing’s index but produces responses that differ from traditional Bing rankings. |
Paid Media Capabilities |
Google Ads: Performance Max (PMax) Campaigns automatically serve ads across Search, Display, YouTube, Gmail and Maps. These campaigns are now being integrated into AI Overviews for commercial and high-intent queries.. | Microsoft Ads: Offers automated, multi-channel campaign formats similar to PMax. Delivers ads across Bing Search, Microsoft Audience Network, Microsoft Start, Outlook, and other native placements. Uses AI to optimize across channels and placements based on conversion goals. |
Takeaway: Google currently leads in scale and ad monetization, while Microsoft’s advantage lies in its deep AI integration across productivity tools and operating systems.
Together, Google and Microsoft define the dominant ecosystems shaping AI-driven search and advertising. Yet there’s a third force connecting—and in some ways redefining—both: OpenAI.
While Microsoft has exclusive cloud rights and product integration, OpenAI’s technology also powers independent discovery tools like ChatGPT, introducing a new layer of search behavior that neither company fully controls.
Microsoft has a major investment and deep product integration with OpenAI. While Microsoft Azure provides cloud infrastructure, the exact terms of exclusivity are not publicly disclosed. ChatGPT’s built-in search experience, sometimes called “SearchGPT,” leverages Bing for crawling and indexing but curates and ranks content differently from Bing’s traditional search results.
AI assistants like ChatGPT are increasingly shaping the start of the consumer journey, helping users explore options, gather insights, and evaluate information. However, data still shows that traditional search engines like Google and Bing remain the primary channels where most users make their final purchase decisions. Platforms like Perplexity.ai are also emerging as niche but influential AI-first discovery tools for research, news, and technical queries. As Perplexity expands into advertising and publisher partnerships, its momentum reflects broader changes in how digitally native audiences discover, evaluate, and interact with information.
Even if your site ranks well on Bing, it may not appear in ChatGPT answers. AI models pull from multiple sources such as URLs, forums, PDFs and knowledge bases. They use their own logic to decide what to show. This is different from traditional search engines like Google.
Google is already testing AI Overview ad placements, especially for high-commercial-intent queries. Microsoft has begun testing ad formats within Copilot and Bing Chat experiences, though scale and targeting capabilities remain behind Google’s AI Overview monetization. Expect this to evolve rapidly in late 2025 and beyond.
Microsoft’s integration of AI tools into Windows and Office is expanding Bing usage behind the scenes. However, this doesn’t always translate to qualified traffic or conversions.
If your audience skews toward enterprise users, B2B buyers, or Microsoft-heavy environments, Bing is worth deeper investment. If your users are mobile-first or younger, Google (and increasingly YouTube) likely offers more reach.
Bing is benefiting from its partnership with OpenAI and it's playing a central role in many AI-powered experiences. But current Bing market share and monetization lags behind Google and AI-driven traffic is still inconsistent and hard to measure.
That said, Microsoft Ads often have lower CPCs and less competition, especially in niche B2B and professional services markets. If you haven’t tested Bing in the last 12 months, it’s worth revisiting. Just don’t shift significant budget without ROI validation.
Search is no longer just about “ranking #1,” it’s about earning a spot in AI-generated experiences, ads and contextual content across a fragmented digital ecosystem.
In 2025, the smartest strategy is still about balance:
The AI era of search is here but the rules are still being written. Stay agile, test constantly and focus on where your audience actually is, not just where the buzz is.