glossary
Grounding
Connecting an answer to external information or context.
Scope
Editorial guidance for English-language marketing teams. Examples are illustrative, not measured results. No citation, ranking, traffic, or revenue outcome is guaranteed.
Meaning
Grounding describes connecting a generated answer to information supplied or retrieved for the task. It is not a synonym for factual correctness: the underlying information can be wrong, stale, incomplete, or misinterpreted.
Use the provider’s definition
Different products expose different details. Microsoft’s AI Performance announcement uses “grounding queries” for phrases involved in retrieving cited content and describes that reporting as sampled. Do not treat that list as a complete record of every user question.
Practical review
Check both the evidence and the answer’s use of it. Ask whether the source applies to the stated version, population, or time window. An answer can be connected to a source and still overstate what that source establishes.
Sources
Read the original material. A source link is not, by itself, proof of a claim.