Category: Copilot

Agentic AI, Business Intelligence - BI, Copilot, Microsoft Fabric, Power BI

Agentic AI in Power BI and Fabric, Part 1: Concepts, Terminology, and How to Think About It

It has been a while since I published my last blog and YouTube video. Life got a bit busy, and to be honest, finding enough focused time became harder than I expected. But here I am, on the very last day of 2025.

I do not really see this blog as the final post of 2025. I see it more as an opening for what is coming next. In a couple of hours, we will be in 2026. Looking back, 2025 was a year full of ups and downs. Some very good moments, some sad ones too. But all in all, as Brian May from Queen once said, “The Show Must Go On”.

So let us start the next year with a topic that has been on my mind a lot recently. Agentic AI, and how it can realistically help us in Microsoft Fabric and Power BI projects.

If you like to listen to the content on the go, here is the AI generated podcast explaining everything about this blog 👇.

Why this topic needs a series, not a single blog

Before we go into any definitions, I want to explain why I am turning this into a multi-part series.

Agentic AI is a broad topic. It touches tooling, process, safety, productivity, and also mindset. Trying to cover all of this properly in a single blog post would either make it too shallow, or too long and hard to follow. Neither is useful.

So I decided to break it down into a series:

  • This first blog is about concepts and terminology
  • The next blog will cover initial setup and tools
  • The following one will focus on hands-on Power BI scenarios

This first part intentionally stays away from tools and demos. The goal is to build a solid mental foundation first.

What this series is and what it is not

Agentic AI is one of those topics where expectations can easily go in the wrong direction. So it is important to be very clear.

This series is not:

  • A story about replacing engineers, analysts, or architects
  • A full AI or machine learning theory course
  • A generic prompt list without context

This series is:

  • About improving productivity in real delivery projects
  • About assisting people, not replacing them
  • About using AI in a controlled and responsible way
  • Focused on Microsoft Fabric and Power BI implementations

If you are expecting magic or shortcuts, this series is probably not for you.

Where Agentic AI fits today in the Microsoft Fabric world

Before going further, one important clarification is needed.

At the time of writing this blog, Agentic AI is not available in the built-in Copilot experiences in Microsoft Fabric or Power BI. Copilot today is mainly a conversational assistant. It does not plan tasks, use external tools freely, or execute multi-step workflows in the way Agentic AI does.

Everything discussed in this series is about agentic setups, for example using tools like VS Code, external agents, and Model Context Protocol servers, which we will cover later in the series.

This distinction is important, otherwise expectations will be wrong from the start.

Continue reading “Agentic AI in Power BI and Fabric, Part 1: Concepts, Terminology, and How to Think About It” →
Copilot, Fabric Capacity, Microsoft Fabric, Power BI

Use Copilot in Power BI Desktop to Create Measures from Numeric Columns

I have been thinking about a mechanism to generate measures from numeric columns on Power BI data models. Of course, we can use Tabular Editor, but it requires some scripting, which is all right. However, the more advanced our requirements get, the more complex the C# script. In real-world development scenarios, it does not make sense to blindly create measures for all numeric columns, such as the key columns used to define relationships between tables, making C# scripting a bit more complex.

In this blog and accompanying YouTube video, I explain using Copilot within Power BI Desktop to create measures from numeric columns. This feature represents a significant advancement in Power BI’s capabilities as of April 2024, enabling data analysts and BI professionals to streamline parts of their data analysis tasks.

Prerequisites

As explained in a previous post here, we first need to enable Copilot on the Fabric Portal. Please note that Copilot in Power BI Desktop requires either Power BI Premium Capacity or AT LEAST an F64 Fabric Capacity. Unfortunately, Copilot is NOT available on PPU, Embedded capacities, Fabric capacities smaller than F64 and Fabric Trial (FT) capacities.

We also need to have the latest version of Power BI Desktop installed on our machine. With that, let’s begin.

YouTube Video

Here is the video on YouTube where I explain the same thing in less than 5 min. But if you are after more details, continue reading.

Introduction to Power BI and Copilot

As Power BI evolves, it incorporates more sophisticated AI-driven capabilities that simplify various aspects of data analytics. The integration of Copilot in Power BI Desktop enhances user interaction with data in many ways. Our focus on this blog is specifically using Copilot to create simple yet crucial measures based on numeric columns that previously required manual effort.

Use Copilot for Measure Creation

Using Copilot is straightforward and demonstrates impressive intelligence in its operational logic. The following steps explain how to do so:

Continue reading “Use Copilot in Power BI Desktop to Create Measures from Numeric Columns” →
Business Intelligence - BI, Copilot, Microsoft Fabric, Power BI, Power BI Desktop, Power BI Service

Microsoft Fabric: Use Copilot to Generate Data Model Synonyms

Microsoft Fabric: Use Copilot to Generate Data Model Synonyms

One of my older posts explains how to enable Copilot on Fabric and how to use Copilot to generate Power BI reports. In this post, I aim to explain yet another use case for Copilot that can help us to make a better and more useful semantic model in Power BI using synonyms. In an old post published in May 2016, I explained how to use Power BI synonyms to take our Power BI Q&A experience to another level. In that post, I explained how we could use synonyms to translate data model objects in different languages so the end-user could ask questions in their native language and get the results in Power BI. That was such a cool use case for synonyms, I suppose, wasn’t it? Fast track to December 2023, I believe the Q&A is still one of the coolest Power BI features that stands out when demoing the solutions to the customers; therefore, it makes absolute sense to use synonyms to improve the Q&A‘s efficiency and accuracy. This blog post explores the possibility of using Copilot to define synonyms in Power BI Desktop.

Prerequisites

As explained here, we first need to enable Copilot on Fabric Service. Please note that the technique explained in this post requires either Power BI Premium Capacity or at least F64 Fabric capacity and won’t work on PPU, Embedded capacities, Fabric capacities smaller than F64 or Fabric Trial (FT) capacities.

We also need to have the latest version of Power BI Desktop installed on our machine. With that, let’s begin.

Using Power BI Copilot to generate synonyms

While defining synonyms for the semantic model objects significantly helps with the Q&A experience, it is still a cumbersome process if done manually. So, if we meet the prerequisites, we can summon Copilot to the rescue. Follow these steps after opening a Power BI file in Power BI Desktop:

  1. Ensure you’re signed into Fabric service with your account
  2. Click the Insert tab
  3. Select the Q&A visual
  4. On the Q&A visual, click the Q&A Setup button shown with a gear icon
  5. On the Q&A Setup window, you must see a message offering to “Improve Q&A with synonyms from Copilot” on top of the window; click the Add synonyms button

The following image shows the preceding steps:

Improve Q&A with synonyms from Power BI Copilot in Microsoft Fabric
Improve Q&A with synonyms from Copilot
Continue reading “Microsoft Fabric: Use Copilot to Generate Data Model Synonyms” →
Copilot, Microsoft Fabric, Power BI, Power BI Premium Capacity, Power BI Service

Microsoft Fabric: Generating Reports with Copilot

Microsoft Fabric Generating Reports with Copilot on Fabric

In Nov 2023, Microsoft announced Microsoft Fabric’s general availability and Public Preview of Copilot in Microsoft Fabric. In a previous post, I explained what Copilot means to Power BI developers, which is valid for other Fabric developers such as data engineers and data scientists as Copilot for Fabric helps with those experiences as well. But the main focus of this blog post is to discuss the requirements, how to enable Copilot, and how to use it from a Power BI development point of view. So, this blog will not discuss other aspects of Copilot in Microsoft Fabric. With that, let’s begin.

Requirements

Right off the bat, Copilot is only available on Power BI Premium capacities or their equivalent Fabric capacities. So, NO it is NOT available on Power BI Pro or Premium Per User or Power BI Embedded Analytics. So the Power BI items you want to use Copilot on must be in a Workspace assigned to a Power BI Premium P1 or Microsoft Fabric F64 capacities or higher.

You also need to have a Contributor role on the premium workspace.

To use Copilot, your Microsoft Fabric Administrator must enable it from the Fabric Admin Portal. This setting is not available in all regions yet, but Microsoft is gradually rolling it out to more regions.

Useful links:

Enabling Copilot on Fabric Admin Portal

As mentioned before, your Fabric Administrator must enable Copilot features within the Admin Portal. Follow these steps to enable Copilot on your tenant after logging into Microsoft Fabric:

  1. Click Settings (the gear icon on the top right of the page)
  2. Click Admin portal
  3. Ensure that the Tenant setting tab is selected
  4. Scroll all the way down to the Copilot and Azure OpenAI Service (preview)​ section

Note

You can also use the search box and search for OpenAI to find the Copilot and Azure OpenAI Service (preview)​ section.

  1. Enable the Users can use a preview of Copilot and other features powered by Azure OpenAI
  2. Click the Apply button
  3. Enable the ​​​Data sent to Azure OpenAI can be processed outside your tenant’s geographic region, compliance boundary, or national cloud instance
  4. Click the Apply button again

That is it. You enabled the Copilot capabilities on your tenant.

The following image shows the preceding steps:

Enabling Copilot for Power BI in Fabric Service Admin Portal
Enabling Copilot in Fabric Admin Portal
Continue reading “Microsoft Fabric: Generating Reports with Copilot” →