# What is Copilot? Microsoft Copilot, explained

> Bing's AI answer surface.

Microsoft Copilot is the AI assistant built on top of Bing Search — it returns synthesized answers with citations across Bing, Edge, Windows, and Microsoft 365. Optimizing for Copilot is the Bing slice of GEO and AEO; the underlying signals overlap heavily with Google AI Overviews and ChatGPT Search.

## How Copilot differs from AEO, GEO, Answer Engine

Copilot uses Bing's index. ChatGPT Search uses OpenAI's retrieval stack. AI Overviews use Google's. The content shape that wins all three is similar; the bot allowlist and sitemap submission differ.

## How Mentionwell handles Copilot

- Bingbot allowed in robots.txt; Bing Webmaster sitemap and IndexNow enabled where applicable.
- AEO patterns Mentionwell already enforces (lead-with-the-answer, FAQ schema) cover Copilot's answer surface.
- Citation-friendly structure for the GEO-style synthesized responses.

## Frequently asked questions about Copilot

### What is Microsoft Copilot?

Microsoft's AI assistant — surfaces in Bing, Edge, Windows, and Microsoft 365. Returns synthesized answers with inline citations, grounded in Bing's index.

### How do I optimize for Copilot?

Allow Bingbot, submit a sitemap to Bing Webmaster, use IndexNow for fast indexing, and apply standard AEO/GEO patterns. The content work is mostly shared with Google AI Overviews.

## See also

- [AEO — Answer Engine Optimization](https://mentionwell.com/aeo): Be the answer.
- [GEO — Generative Engine Optimization](https://mentionwell.com/geo): Be the cited source.
- [Answer Engine — Answer Engine](https://mentionwell.com/answer-engine): Returns answers, not links.


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Canonical URL: https://mentionwell.com/copilot
Live HTML version: https://mentionwell.com/copilot
Site index for AI ingestion: https://mentionwell.com/llms.txt
Full reference: https://mentionwell.com/llms-full.txt