On Friday, Oct 30, 2026, the biggest AI companies announced the same thing on the same day. Google, Microsoft and OpenAI each said they'll honor one shared signal that lets a website say "don't use my content to train AI models." Search Engine Roundtable reports Anthropic (the company behind Claude) joined too.
That sounds like a story for newspapers and big publishers. It's actually a story for the plumber, the dentist and the cleaning company down the street. Here's why.
What changed
One opt-out instead of a dozen. Until now, a website that didn't want its words used for AI training had to block each company's bot by name. The new signal comes from a draft standard at the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF), the group that sets internet rules. It's one line in a site's robots.txt file that participating AI companies agree to respect. OpenAI says it will start honoring it "in the coming months." Google says it aims to support it in 2027.
Microsoft added a second, separate switch. Microsoft now treats two things as different:
- AI Training: using your content to teach future AI models.
- AI Grounding: using your content to answer a question right now, in Copilot and Bing's AI answers, usually with a link back to you.
You can say no to one and yes to the other. Microsoft's new settings take effect Feb 1, 2027. Older settings some sites use today (called NoArchive and NoCache) stop counting as AI preferences after Mar 1, 2027.
Microsoft spelled out the cost of saying no. In its own words: "If you select DisallowExtended or Disallow for grounding, you will see reduced brand visibility in AI experiences."
Google added a catch. If a site uses the new shared "no training" signal and doesn't separately mention Google's own AI setting (called Google-Extended), Google plans to treat it as a "no" to Google-Extended too. And Google says only sites that allow Google-Extended are eligible to show up, with clicks, in answers inside its Gemini app.
Why it matters to a local business
"No training" and "don't recommend me" are now different decisions. For years, "block AI" was one blunt switch. Now the companies themselves are separating learning from your site and citing your site. Most local businesses want the second one badly: that's how you get named when someone asks Copilot or Gemini for "a good roofer near me."
A well-meaning setting can quietly hide you. Website builders, hosting companies and security plugins love one-click "block AI bots" buttons. With the new rules, a training-only opt-out can still knock a site out of Gemini's answers if it isn't set up carefully. And on Bing, the wrong grounding setting is, by Microsoft's own description, a visibility cut.
There's early evidence that opting out hurts more than AI. In a small one-site case study shared Oct 30, SEO Cyrus Shepard blocked his site from Google's AI Overviews and AI Mode. Clicks from Google's regular results dropped too. One site is a signal, not proof, but it points the same way as Microsoft's warning.
There's a deadline, and it's closer than it looks. Sites relying on the old Microsoft settings need to act by Mar 1, 2027, or their choices simply stop being read. Most small business owners won't hear about this from their web person until something breaks.
The bigger picture
AI tools are becoming a front door for local customers, and the companies running them are finally drawing a clear line between "we learn from you" and "we send customers to you." That's good news for businesses that want to be found. But it means the settings on your website are no longer a background detail. They decide whether AI can recommend you at all.
What we're not covering here
This post is the what. The how (what your site is telling each AI tool today, whether any plugin or host setting is blocking you, and what to change before the 2027 dates) depends on how your website was built. That's exactly what our check looks at.
Sources
- Google Search Central Blog, "Supporting a shared AI training control for websites" (Oct 30, 2026): developers.google.com
- Microsoft Bing Blog, "Your content, your choice: clearer preferences for training and grounding" (Oct 30, 2026): blogs.bing.com
- OpenAI, "Making it easier for websites to express AI training preferences" (Oct 30, 2026): openai.com
- Search Engine Roundtable, "Google Adopts New AI Training Control" (Oct 30, 2026): seroundtable.com
- Search Engine Roundtable, "Google AI Overviews & AI Mode 0.9% Click-Through Rate, Opt Out Study Says" (Oct 30, 2026): seroundtable.com
- IETF draft, AI training preference signal: datatracker.ietf.org