MC1247902 - SharePoint: AI citations analytics for documents and pages

Updated August 14, 2026: We have updated the timeline. Thank you for your patience. 

Introduction

We are adding AIcopilot citations analyticsto SharePoint to help site owners understand how their SharePoint documents, news posts, and pages are referenced by Microsoft Copilot and other AI agents.365 Copilot. These insights will help organizations track content value, identify high‑impact information, and understand how AI‑powered workflows use SharePoint content. UsersTenants must have the appropriate Microsoft 365 Copilot licenses, and these insights become available only for tenants with more than 50 Copilot licenses to use the AI features that may generate citations.(seats).

This message is associated with Microsoft 365 Roadmap ID 480725.

When this will happen

General Availability (Worldwide): Rollout will begin in mid‑Aprilend of August 2026 (previously start of August) and will complete by mid-Mayearly September 2026 (previously end of August).

How this affects your organization

Who is affected:

• SharePoint Online site owners, content authors, and admins.
• Users who haveTenants with more than 50 Microsoft 365 Copilot licenses for the experiences that may generate citations.(seats).

What will happen:

The following updates will appear in SharePoint:

• SharePoint Popular content in Site Usage will display documents, news posts, and pages ranked by how often they are cited by Copilot or AI agents.chat.
• SharePoint page analytics will include a new Total citations card showing the number of times a page or news post is referenced in Copilot or agentchat responses.
• SharePoint file statistics will include a new AI citations metric displayed alongside existing metrics such as views and viewers.
• A new AICopilot citations analytics page will appear under Site Usage. It will provide:
  • The number of users who consume site content through Copilot and AI agents.chat citations.
  • The total number of citations for the site.
  • The most frequently cited documents, news posts, and pages.

Supported agents includeIn this release, citations are counted only from Microsoft 365 Copilot,Copilot chat on desktop and web (Microsoft 365 Copilot chat at m365.cloud.microsoft/chat and the Microsoft 365 Copilot app on desktop). All other Copilot experiences and agents are out of scope, including Copilot in Word, Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Teams, Loop, Planner, SharePoint Knowledge Agent, andCowork, Copilot in SharePoint, SharePoint custom agents.agents, Copilot Studio agents accessed outside Copilot, custom engine agents, and agents that use a custom orchestrator. This scope may expand in future releases.

This feature will be on by default and will not require admin action to enable.

Screenshot 1 - AI citations aggregated across site content in the Site analytics view: 

Screenshot 2 - AI citations shown for an individual SharePoint page or news post in Page analytics:

What you can do to prepare

No admin action is required before the rollout.

You may want to:

• Inform site owners and content authors about the new analytics.
• Review your SharePoint usage and analytics processes to understand how the new AI citation metrics may support governance, content lifecycle planning, and content strategy.
• Update internal documentation or training materials.
• Provide guidance to users on Copilot licensing requirements if your organization centrally manages those licenses.

Compliance considerations

No compliance considerations identified. Review as appropriate for your organization.