Krishna Madhavan - Solid Ground: What AI Agents Stand On, and Why It Shifts

1. TECHSEO CONNECT 2026 Solid Ground: What AI Agents Stand On, and Why It Shifts Dr. Krishna Madhavan Microsoft Bing | Web Data and Agentic Platform I'm shopping for Pixel. The box remains a strong contender. TECHSEO CONNECT 2026 · SOLID GROUND 01
2. ABOUT THE SPEAKER About me Dr. Krishna Madhavan Principal Product Manager Web Data and Agentic Platform, Microsoft Bing Serving verticals and applications across Bing, Copilot, and beyond. CRAWL INDEX UNDERSTAND Discover and revisit the changing web. Turn pages into retrievable information. Understand the web's facts and context. TECHSEO CONNECT 2026 · SOLID GROUND 02
3. MEET PIXEL Meet Pixel, the AI cat I'm shopping for I ask a shopping agent to help: "Find a quiet toy for Pixel, my indoor cat. Under $30, delivered before the weekend. Ask me before buying." White flamepoint. Box enthusiast. TECHSEO CONNECT 2026 · SOLID GROUND 03
4. 01 / AGENTS AI agents: how I define them An AI assistant built for a purpose. It can work with you, or on your behalf. Specialized Able to act Within limits Knows the task and relevant information. Uses connected tools to get work done. Works with the access and permissions given. TECHSEO CONNECT 2026 · SOLID GROUND 04
5. THE STORY Follow the request from a page to a decision Goal Evidence Decision Action What do I need for Pixel? What can the agent establish? Do those facts meet the limits? What may the agent do? TECHSEO CONNECT 2026 · SOLID GROUND 05
6. 01 / INTRODUCING AGENTS The parts that make an agent work Model + instructions Knowledge + state Tools + permissions Interpret the request. Choose the next step. Supply facts. Keep results and unresolved questions. Get information or act. Enforce allowed access. TECHSEO CONNECT 2026 · SOLID GROUND 06
7. 01 / AGENTS How the agent shops for Pixel Goal + limits Plan the checks Read + use tools Check + respond Quiet. Under $30. Ask before buying. Noise, full price, arrival date. Gather evidence. Check delivery. Recommend, ask, or stop. Missing facts or changed results send the agent back for another check. TECHSEO CONNECT 2026 · SOLID GROUND 07
8. AGENT RELIABILITY What an agent must get right 01 FIND Can the agent retrieve the fact? 02 SUPPORT Does the evidence justify the claim? 03 FINISH Can it complete the permitted task? TECHSEO CONNECT 2026 · SOLID GROUND 08
9. 02 / GROUNDING Grounding connects AI search and agents Support an answer AI search Question: Quiet on tile? Shopping agent My goal: Quiet toy for Pixel. Web grounding Retrieve current facts + sources. Supply context to the model. TECHSEO CONNECT 2026 · SOLID GROUND Answer the question. Show the sources. Support a next step Check limits. Ask or act if allowed. 09
10. 02 / GROUNDING Grounding vs. regular web search BASIC RETRIEVAL WEB IQ Returns matching pages or snippets Returns task-relevant evidence Exact query orientation Understands underlying evidence needs Application manually sequences calls Orchestration can adapt retrieval Context can be noisy or duplicated Evidence is selected for token efficiency Freshness may not match the claim Freshness is part of evidence quality Source links Provenance plus decision-relevant passages TECHSEO CONNECT 2026 · SOLID GROUND 10
11. 02 / GROUNDING How one request becomes several searches Noise What do credible reviews report? "Find a quiet toy under $30." Fit Does it suit this cat and setting? Availability What can the retailer confirm now? TECHSEO CONNECT 2026 · SOLID GROUND 11
12. 02 / GROUNDING What Web IQ does for Pixel's request 1 / INTERPRET Map the request to evidence needs: noise on tile, total price, arrival date. 2 / RETRIEVE Fan out, semantic first; exact matches constrain price or SKU. 3 / SELECT PASSAGES Passages, not pages: query-focused segments, plain text, original order. 4 / ADD PROVENANCE Keep url, title, crawledAt and lastUpdatedAt with each passage. 5 / RETURN EVIDENCE Compact evidence for the agent's decision, within token + latency budgets. TECHSEO CONNECT 2026 · SOLID GROUND 12
13. 02 / GROUNDING How embeddings retrieve related passages no motor or bell Meaning helps find candidates. Negation can change the decision. quiet cat toy not for kittens wireless mouse TECHSEO CONNECT 2026 · SOLID GROUND Identity + freshness still need checks. 13
14. 02 / GROUNDING A shorter passage must keep the condition For Pixel's toy, 'quiet on carpet' does not mean 'quiet everywhere'. WHOLE PAGE Navigation Offers + ads Product facts Reviews Cookie banner EVIDENCE THAT CHANGES THE DECISION No motor or bell. Quiet on carpet. Audible on tile. QuietLoop QL-6 / product-test page Keep source update time and retrieval time separate. TECHSEO CONNECT 2026 · SOLID GROUND 14
15. 02 / GROUNDING The evidence object, as Web IQ returns it Illustrative: real Web IQ field names, fictional values. WEB SEARCH API / PASSAGE FORMAT {"webResults": [{ "title": "QuietLoop Roller – Quiet cat toy", "url": "https://quietloop.example/toys/quietloop-roller", "content": "...Quiet on carpet and rugs; audible on tile and hardwood... Price $32.00. Standard shipping $5.00...", "crawledAt": "2026-11-02T14:05:00Z", "lastUpdatedAt": "2026-11-01T09:30:00Z", "language": "en", "isAdult": false }], "querySignals": {"freshness": true} } AGENT CAN USE Noise: by floor. $32 + $5 shipping. Source: url + title. Crawl + update dates. Passage, source and timestamps travel together. TECHSEO CONNECT 2026 · SOLID GROUND 15
16. 02 / GROUNDING Freshness matters: Why the price must be current YESTERDAY'S PAGE CURRENT PRICE AGENT DECISION $18 $32 STOP Looks compatible with a $30 limit. + $5 shipping = $37 before tax. This item no longer fits the budget. TECHSEO CONNECT 2026 · SOLID GROUND 16
17. 03 / TRADE-OFFS Web IQ balances quality, latency and token use GROUNDING QUALITY Complete, fresh, authoritative evidence. LATENCY Does the next check fit the wait budget? TECHSEO CONNECT 2026 · SOLID GROUND TOKEN EFFICIENCY Useful evidence per token, with qualifiers intact. 17
18. 03 / TRADE-OFFS Compare answer usefulness with AI run cost HOW USEFUL IS THE ANSWER? UP = BETTER UP A more useful answer. RIGHT More AI work to pay for. COST TO PRODUCE IT / RIGHT = MORE MONEY TECHSEO CONNECT 2026 · SOLID GROUND 18
19. 03 / TRADE-OFFS What the Pareto frontier shows PARETO FRONTIER The set of choices where no other available option can improve one objective without making another worse. HOW USEFUL IS THE ANSWER? UP = BETTER SAMPLE TOY-SEARCH OPTIONS Pareto frontier B E Same usefulness as B, more cost CHOOSING A TOY FOR PIXEL A / One checked recommendation B / + useful comparison C / + broader noise evidence C D A A, B, C: on the frontier Same cost as B, less useful D, E: dominated choices COST TO PRODUCE IT / RIGHT = MORE MONEY TECHSEO CONNECT 2026 · SOLID GROUND 19
20. 03 / TRADE-OFFS How better evidence can reduce AI run cost HOW USEFUL IS THE ANSWER? UP = BETTER Less irrelevant text. Fewer duplicate checks. Current evidence, reused safely. Test the answer again. Same useful answer Less cost COST TO PRODUCE IT / RIGHT = MORE MONEY TECHSEO CONNECT 2026 · SOLID GROUND 20
21. 03 / EVALUATION How to evaluate an agent's answer LAYER QUESTION TOY FOR PIXEL Retrieval Did the needed evidence arrive? Find noise, price and delivery facts Groundedness Does evidence support each claim? Do not turn estimate into guarantee Completeness Were important requirements covered? Do not omit shipping or destination Task + safety Did the allowed job actually finish? No order without exact approval Economics What did the whole run consume? Time, calls, tokens, retries and cost TECHSEO CONNECT 2026 · SOLID GROUND 21
22. 04 / GEO Diagnose the failure before changing the page AGENT FAILURE GEO LEVER USEFUL PUBLISHER ACTION Misses the requirement Intent + coverage Answer the actual constraint Changes the meaning Factual fidelity Keep qualifiers beside the claim Uses an old fact Freshness Update + notify; verify processing Cannot establish support Authority + provenance Show sources, method and limits Drowns in irrelevant text Evidence per token Use clear, self-contained HTML Cannot reach the source Dependable access Fix failures and primary content TECHSEO CONNECT 2026 · SOLID GROUND 22
23. 04 / PUBLISHERS Five crawler mistakes to avoid 1 2 3 4 5 Unintended robots blocks CDN / WAF blocks real Bingbot Unintended noindex Duplicate and trap URLs Treating crawl logs as proof of indexing Content drops out of AI visibility. TECHSEO CONNECT 2026 · SOLID GROUND 23
24. 04 / PUBLISHERS IndexNow tells engines what changed Publish a change Send with IndexNow Engine evaluates Add, update or delete. Price, stock or availability. Send the changed URL. Shared across participants. May crawl + update. Normal rules still apply. Make it part of publishing: check existing CMS, plugin, hosting or CDN support. TECHSEO CONNECT 2026 · SOLID GROUND 24
25. 04 / PUBLISHERS Can the tool actually see the answer? The shopper can see the test results; this text-only tool cannot. PAGE VIEW WHAT THIS TEXT-ONLY TOOL RETURNS QuietLoop QL-6 noise test SURFACE FINDING Carpet Quiet Tile Audible These results are inside an image. TECHSEO CONNECT 2026 · SOLID GROUND QuietLoop QL-6 Noise test Missing: Carpet: quiet Tile: audible 25
26. 04 / GEO Put the answer where the tool can read it Fix the missing evidence on the previous slide: put test findings in visible HTML. PUBLISHER FIX / VISIBLE HTML <h2>Is QuietLoop QL-6 quiet?</h2> <p>No motor or bell. In our carpet test it was quiet; audible on tile. Supervise play.</p> <dl> <dt>Diameter</dt><dd>6 cm</dd> </dl> NOW READABLE Quiet on carpet. Audible on tile. 6 cm diameter. Supervise play. The fix is access to the facts, not a special AI markup. TECHSEO CONNECT 2026 · SOLID GROUND 26
27. 04 / PUBLISHERS Reduce unsupported and repetitive AI content Do not invent Tests, authors, sources or expertise. Do not multiply Near-identical pages with no added value. Do publish Useful facts, honest limits, real review. NOT ANOTHER TOP 10 LIST Bing: rank for quality + credibility. Downrank or remove policy violations. TECHSEO CONNECT 2026 · SOLID GROUND 27
28. 04 / PUBLISHER CONTROLS Publisher controls: different scopes PURPOSE SETTING SCOPE Crawl access robots.txt crawl rules Controls whether Bingbot can fetch Index exclusion noindex Page; crawler must read it AI Training ai-training: allow / disallow Site/path or page; page overrides AI Grounding ai-grounding Page only; three use choices Element-level exclusion data-nosnippet Snippets + AI-generated answers Legacy migration NoArchive / NoCache Replace before March 1, 2027 TECHSEO CONNECT 2026 · SOLID GROUND 28
29. 04 / ACCESS & USAGE Crawl access is not a usage preference 1 / CRAWL ACCESS SITE / PATH PAGE / URL Bingbot robots.txt Allow / Disallow Rules can also match one URL. Crawl: URL-specific robots.txt rules. Index: noindex (meta / HTTP header). Crawl blocks still apply; page meta tags and headers require a fetch. 2 / NEW USAGE PREFERENCES AI Training AI Grounding SITE / PATH robots.txt User-Agent: __usage_ai-training SITE / PATH Not supported PAGE Bingbot meta tag or X-Robots-Tag PAGE Bingbot meta tag or X-Robots-Tag CHOICES Allow / Disallow CHOICES Allow / DisallowExtended / Disallow Page training overrides site/path. Both default to Allow; choose independently. TECHSEO CONNECT 2026 · SOLID GROUND DisallowExtended: Microsoft-operated grounding only. 29
30. 04 / AI PREFERENCES Legacy controls: act before March 1, 2027 For sites using NoArchive or NoCache as of December 15, 2026. OCTOBER 30 ANNOUNCEMENT WHEN SETTING WHAT TO DO Dec 15, 2026 Grounding BWT temporary preferences open. Eligible legacy sites can record a choice. Before Mar 1, 2027 Training Publish AI Training in robots.txt or at page level. No BWT training bridge. Before Mar 1, 2027 Grounding Publish page-level AI Grounding AND record the temporary choice in BWT. Mar 1, 2027 Legacy tags NoArchive / NoCache no longer govern training or grounding preferences. FEB 1, 2027 New preferences honored as pages are crawled. RECRAWL OR SEP 30, 2027 Temporary grounding ends at whichever comes first. No temporary BWT choice: grounding defaults to Allow until the page is recrawled. TECHSEO CONNECT 2026 · SOLID GROUND 30
31. 04 / PUBLISHERS AI Performance: citations and cited pages 1 / How often cited? 2 / Which pages? 3 / What changed? TECHSEO CONNECT 2026 · SOLID GROUND 31
32. 04 / PUBLISHERS Topics Portfolio: themes and opportunity queries BETA / OCT 2026 Themes + demand. Where others appear. Questions worth answering. Not a page quota. TECHSEO CONNECT 2026 · SOLID GROUND 32
33. 04 / PUBLISHERS The right decision may be: not this toy Noise: quiet on carpet; audible on tile. Price: $37 before tax. Reject this candidate. Arrival: unverified. Do not promise it. Purchase: not approved. Do not place an order. Publishers: usable facts + clear preferences. Builders: verified tools + honest outcomes. TECHSEO CONNECT 2026 · SOLID GROUND 33
34. Thank you! TECHSEO CONNECT 2026 · SOLID GROUND 34