--- title: "What Google and Bing actually say about schema and AI" url: https://seomadman.com/news/structured-data-ai-citation-priority section: news published: 2026-06-14T00:00:00.000Z modified: 2026-06-14T00:00:00.000Z author: Adam Hafez topics: ["Structured data", "AI search"] --- # What Google and Bing actually say about schema and AI ## The short answer Schema.org's vocabulary reached 823 types and 1,529 properties with the version 30.0 release on 19 March 2026. Google's own documentation states no special schema.org markup is required for AI Overviews or AI Mode. Microsoft has separately said structured data helps its Copilot systems understand content, though no verbatim quote confirms the exact wording used. ## Key takeaways - Schema.org's vocabulary now counts 823 types and 1,529 properties as of the version 30.0 release on 19 March 2026. - Google's own AI features documentation states plainly that no special schema.org markup is required for AI Overviews or AI Mode. - Microsoft Bing's Fabrice Canel was reported in March 2025 as confirming schema markup helps its LLMs understand content, though no verbatim quote survives in the public record. - Sites should not chase a specific performance lift statistic for schema and AI citations, because no verifiable, named study currently supports one. - Google and Bing currently take different public positions, with Google downplaying structured data's necessity for AI while Bing frames it as an understanding aid. Two search companies, two different public positions on the same question. Google's developer documentation says plainly that structured data is not required to appear in AI Overviews or AI Mode. Microsoft has been reported, separately, as saying schema markup helps its Copilot systems understand content. Neither statement is the sweeping "schema equals AI visibility" story that circulates in SEO blogs, and schema.org's own release notes show the vocabulary keeps growing for reasons that have little to do with AI search specifically. Here is what each party has actually said, and what has not been verified. ## What schema.org's own numbers say Schema.org's documentation states the vocabulary "currently consists of 823 Types, 1,529 Properties, 19 Datatypes, 96 Enumerations and 535 Enumeration members." The most recent major release, version 30.0, shipped on 19 March 2026 and added a Credential class and an Error class with an errorCode property, among other additions logged in the project's own release notes. That is a durable fact anyone can check today by opening the release history. It is not, on its own, evidence that AI systems weight structured data more heavily than they did before the release. ## What Google says, and does not say Google's "AI features and your website" documentation, last updated 10 December 2025, addresses the structured-data question directly: "There's also no special schema.org structured data that you need to add" to appear in AI Overviews or AI Mode. The same page still recommends existing structured-data practice as part of general SEO, but it stops short of claiming schema markup earns a site AI citations specifically. That distinction, required for rich results eligibility versus optional for AI features, is the one worth keeping straight before adding markup on the strength of an AI promise. ## What Bing has said, and what remains unverified Search Engine Land and Search Engine Roundtable both reported in March 2025 that Fabrice Canel, principal product manager at Microsoft Bing, confirmed on stage at SMX Munich that schema markup helps Microsoft's LLMs, including Copilot, understand web content. Neither outlet published a verbatim quote of Canel saying that specific sentence: the confirmation traces back to a LinkedIn post summarising his talk, which Canel then engaged with in the comments rather than issuing his own written statement. Treat the underlying claim, that schema aids comprehension, as credibly sourced but not independently quotable, and treat any number attached to it (a lift percentage, a citation-rate multiplier) as unverified until a named study says otherwise. ## Why we care The honest version of this story is smaller than the one making the rounds: one company says structured data is optional for AI features and always has been, the other has a reported, not directly quoted, statement that it helps their models understand a page. Neither has published a number connecting schema completeness to citation frequency. A publication that repeats an unsourced lift statistic because it sounds plausible has stopped doing the one thing that separates reporting from marketing copy, tracing every figure back to where it came from. ## Frequently asked questions ### Does adding schema markup guarantee an AI citation? No. Neither Google nor Microsoft has published a mechanism that ties structured data to citation odds. Google's own documentation says no special schema.org markup is needed to appear in AI Overviews or AI Mode at all. ### Is there a real study behind the "schema sites get cited more" claims circulating in SEO blogs? We could not find one. Every version we traced led back to an uncited blog post or a paraphrase of a paraphrase, not a named study with a methodology. Until one surfaces, treat the figure as marketing copy, not data. ### Why does Google's guidance sound more cautious than Bing's? The two companies have published different things. Google's is a standing developer-documentation page that explicitly rules out a special AI schema. Bing's is a reported confirmation from one product manager at a conference, without a published follow-up document of its own. ## Sources 1. [Releases - Schema.org](https://schema.org/docs/releases.html) - Schema.org (primary) 2. [Schemas - Schema.org](https://schema.org/docs/schemas.html) - Schema.org (primary) 3. [AI features and your website](https://developers.google.com/search/docs/appearance/ai-features) - Google Search Central (primary) 4. [Microsoft Bing/Copilot use schema for its LLMs](https://searchengineland.com/microsoft-bing-copilot-use-schema-for-its-llms-453455) - Search Engine Land 5. [Schema Helps Microsoft's LLMs (Copilot) Understand Your Content](https://www.seroundtable.com/schema-llms-copilot-bing-microsoft-39093.html) - Search Engine Roundtable