NLWeb
NLWeb, short for Natural Language Web, is an open project from Microsoft that lets a website answer questions typed in everyday words from its own content. Microsoft launched it in May 2025. It builds on data sites already publish, like Schema.org markup and RSS feeds, and every NLWeb setup is also an MCP server that AI agents can connect to.
Source: Microsoft Source, Introducing NLWeb: Bringing conversational interfaces directly to the web, checked October 29, 2026
What NLWeb means for your business
MCP, the Model Context Protocol, is what NLWeb's GitHub page calls an emerging standard for letting chatbots and AI assistants use outside tools. With NLWeb, the same question can come from a person typing on your site or from an AI agent connecting through MCP. The project's GitHub page says the answers come back in Schema.org format.
It's early. Microsoft launched it with what it called a small cohort of early adopters, and the GitHub page describes its code as a proof of concept, one possible approach rather than the final one. We'd treat NLWeb as something to watch rather than something to build this year.
If your Schema.org markup and feeds describe your services, prices and hours correctly, you'll already have the data NLWeb is built to read if it catches on. If you're wondering whether AI agents can find and use your business at all, getting your business ready for AI agents covers that before you build anything.
Last reviewed October 29, 2026. All terms
How AI answers it today
On October 29, 2026, ChatGPT and Google's AI Overview both described NLWeb as Microsoft's open project and cited Microsoft's announcement and its GitHub page. Neither gave any measure of how many sites use it.
Our run through ChatGPT and Google's AI Overview, October 29, 2026. A sample, not what every buyer sees.
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