Microsoft Fabric: Power BI and Copilot

Copilot Capabilities in Power BI

1. What is Copilot in Power BI?

What if someone writes a Complex SQL or DAX query when you analyze your business data or try to make a vital decision for your business? Or if someone can help you figure out the necessary steps to achieve your business goal so that you can focus on the other part of your business. I can assure you that it would be great to have things like that. That thing is exactly the Copilot, available in Power BI.

Microsoft’s idea for Copilot stemmed from the increasing need to enhance productivity and streamline workflows using AI. Inspired by the success of AI tools like GitHub Copilot, which assists developers by suggesting code, Microsoft sought to apply similar AI capabilities across its suite of products. By integrating advanced AI, like OpenAI’s GPT models, Microsoft aimed to empower users with intelligent assistance for tasks such as data analysis, document creation, and customer relationship management, ultimately improving efficiency and decision-making.

In this article, I will walk you through the end-to-end scenario of Copilot for Power BI.

2. Enable Fabric Copilot for Power BI:

To enable Copilot for Power BI within Microsoft Fabric the following points are needed:

Admin Portal Settings: Ensure Copilot is enabled in the Fabric Admin portal under tenant settings.

Geographic Settings: Adjust settings to allow data sharing across geographic boundaries if Azure OpenAI isn’t available locally.

Workspace Requirements: Use Copilot in Power BI service and desktop by ensuring workspaces are in Premium (P1+) or Fabric (F64+) capacities.

Capacity Admin can also provide delegated permission to enable and disable the Copilot. They can give control to the Capacity Admin.

3. How can Copilot help Power BI Report Consumers?

Copilot is a dynamic feature that can help both a Power BI report consumer and a report developer.

A report consumer can ask questions about his data, can ask analysis based on the visual and so many things. Let’s explore one by one

3.1 Know Your Data

Copilot is a dynamic feature that can help both a Power BI report consumer and a report developer.

A report consumer can ask questions about his data, can ask analysis based on the visual and so many things. Let’s explore one by one

3.2 Ask questions about a specific visual

Power BI copilot can interpret a visual in text for you. You also ask questions about the visual.

3.3 Summarize and Ask a Question about a Report page

Using Copilot in Power BI, you can automatically generate summaries for a report page in a bullet list.

3.4 Summarize and Ask a Question: Across Multiple Report Page

Copilot can summarize the whole report or answer questions based on the visuals available in the entire report. It streamlines the reporting process by offering intelligent suggestions and natural language querying.

3.5 Ask questions against your Semantic Model

If you want a visual answer to your question against your semantic model, you can leverage Copilot in Fabric. You must turn the review features on to get it.

4. How can a Report Developer leverage Copilot in Fabric and Power BI Desktop?

4.1 Create a Report Page

A developer can create a basic report by giving textual instructions on the Copilot Prompt in both Power BI Desktop and Power BI Service.

4.2 Create a Narrative Visuals

Narrative Visuals are a vital element in presenting a report. Copilot can give you a good hand in doing it very quickly. This feature is available in Power BI Service/ Fabric and Power BI Desktop.

5. What features are available only on Power BI Desktop to help developers?

We have previously seen the settings that need to be enabled at the tenant level to leverage Copilot. To get the full potential out of Copilot, we must enable the following preview features from our desktop.

Write DAX Queries with Copilot
Summary With Copilot Visual
Improve Q&A with Copilot
Measure Description with Copilot
Copilot Chat Pane in Report View

5.1 Assign The Report to Workspace with the Right Capacity

After enabling these Preview Features our first job is to assign the report with the right capacity. And of course, Copilot requires Fabric F64 or P1 capacity.

5.2 Create or Modify DAX using Copilot

Copilot is a great tool for generating or modifying DAX using the DAX Query pane in Power BI Desktop. You can also test your result in the DAX Query pane

5.3 Generate Quick DAX Measures Using Copilot

Power BI Users are already familiar with Quick Measure. Now Copilot is an extra addition over there. You can quickly generate DAX calculations, observe the functions and the result, and add it to your model.

5.4 Write Measure Description

Measure description is the text that helps a new developer to understand the logic behind a calculation. You easily generate a description for measures in the model pane.

5.5 Enhance Q&A Synonyms

Q&A itself is an AI Capability of Power BI. Now Copilot can enlarge the synonyms to make the Q&A more functional.

5.6 Nuances & Considerations for Dataset for Copilot Use

Before using Copilot with your semantic model, evaluate and clean up your data. Ensure your semantic model is well-prepared so Copilot can effectively derive insights from it.

The following table gives a guideline for updating the model

6. Limitation

Though Power BI Copilot has some great features it has a few limitations. One notable point is, it can only generate a report, but I can not edit any report. There is another vital point you must keep in mind Copilot may generate a wrong or partially wrong result. So, we must revalidate the result before using it.

Copilot in Power BI revolutionizes data analysis and reporting by leveraging AI to automate insights, visualizations, and natural language queries. Embrace Copilot in Power BI to transform how you interact with and derive value from your data.

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