Tag: PowerBI

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” →
Power BI, Power BI Desktop, Power BI Desktop RS

Power BI Desktop Versions Demystified: Part 1, Power BI Desktop and Power BI Desktop RS

If you are a Power BI power user, you may have wondered: how many versions of Power BI Desktop are there? The quick answer is: it depends!

Depending on your organisation’s preferences, data governance requirements, and the platforms you intend to use for report deployment you may use either Power BI Desktop, the “standard version”, or Power BI Desktop RS (Report Server). Power BI Desktop has variations tailored to meet specific needs, such as cloud-based analytics or on-premises reporting. While many users might only encounter the standard version, there’s another important variant for specialised scenarios.

Power BI Desktop comes in two primary versions:

  1. Power BI Desktop:
    This is the standard version most users rely on. It’s the go-to tool for transforming data, creating semantic models, and building interactive reports. This version is designed to seamlessly integrate with the Power BI Service hosted on Microsoft Fabric, enabling cloud-based sharing, collaboration, and advanced features like Direct Lake, AI-driven insights, and more. Regular updates ensure that this version includes the latest features and innovations, such as new Power Query and DAX functions, enhanced visuals, and cutting-edge integrations.
  1. Power BI Desktop RS (Report Server):
    This is a specialised version of Power BI Desktop designed to work exclusively with Power BI Report Server, a locally hosted reporting platform. It is tailored for organisations that prefer to keep their data and reports on-premises due to regulatory, security, or strategic reasons, avoiding reliance on cloud services like the Power BI Service on Microsoft Fabric. Although the two versions look nearly identical in functionality, they serve distinct purposes. Power BI Desktop RS is specifically aligned with the capabilities of Power BI Report Server, supporting features available up to the latest release cycle of the server. For instance, Power BI Desktop RS updates are less frequent; typically released every few months, in line with Power BI Report Server’s update schedule; making it slightly behind the standard version in terms of cutting-edge features. However, it ensures stability and compatibility for on-premises deployments.
Continue reading “Power BI Desktop Versions Demystified: Part 1, Power BI Desktop and Power BI Desktop RS” →
Fabric Administrator, Microsoft Fabric, On-premises Data Gateway Personal Mode, Power BI, Power BI Governance, Self-Service BI, Synapse Data Engineering, Synapse Data Science, Synapse Data Warehouse

Microsoft Fabric Connections Demystified

Managing data connections in Microsoft Fabric can be challenging if you’re unsure where to start. This blog post and its detailed YouTube video will help you find, manage, and share the existing data connections, making your workflow more efficient and streamlined. A meaningful use case for this feature is to reuse the existing connections leading to more controlled connections to the data sources. More on this later in this blog.

Understanding Data Connections in Microsoft Fabric

In Microsoft Fabric, a data connection links the platform to various data sources, whether in the cloud or on-premises. Different items in Microsoft Fabric, such as Data Factory Pipelines, Dataflows, Paginated reports, Semantic Models, KQL databases, and Mirrored Azure SQL databases (currently in preview), create these data connections.

Finding Data Connections

To find data connections in Microsoft Fabric:

  1. Click on Settings at the top right of the page.
  2. Select Manage connections and gateways.
  3. Navigate to the Connections tab.

This tab displays all the connections shared with you or created by you. From here, you can check the status of each connection, remove old connections, and manage them as needed.

Manage connections and gateways in Microsoft Fabric
Manage connections and gateways

This page used to be called Manage Gateways where we could configure and manage on-premises data gateways. I have a very old blog post explaining the gateway setup and configuration in the cloud and on your local server here. While it’s an old post, the topics are still relevant, so check it out if you are interested in the gateway configuration.

Note

As the preceding image shows, the Data page is currently in public Preview, hence, it is subject to change. It is also worthwhile to mention that not all connections are currently accessible via this page such as connections that are natively created by KQL databases within Fabric.

Check Connection Status

To check the connection status, click the status button of each connection. The result shows if the connection is online or offline.

Check connection status
Check connection status
Continue reading “Microsoft Fabric Connections Demystified” →
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” →