Context
Microsoft Bing explained how XML sitemaps, accurate lastmod timestamps and IndexNow complement one another to support URL discovery and indexing for AI-powered search.
What changed
Bing connected existing sitemap and IndexNow practices explicitly to AI-powered search freshness, and clarified that changefreq and priority are ignored and lastmod should reflect actual content changes.
Why it matters
Crawl coverage and freshness can make updated content retrievable in Bing-powered AI experiences, but do not guarantee AI citation.
Visibility OS interpretation
Visibility OS interpretation: publisher freshness engineering is foundational to retrieval and should be measured separately from downstream answer source selection.
What remains uncertain
What measurable effect does accurate lastmod have on recrawl latency and AI citations?