Smarter Data with Microsoft Fabric & Copilot for Power BI

For a long time, AI in data analytics felt like something reserved for enterprises with big budgets or technical teams with time to experiment.

With Microsoft’s licensing updates earlier this year, Copilot for Power BI and Microsoft Fabric are suddenly accessible to a much broader set of users.

Rather than just offering shiny new features, these updates give users a practical, flexible way to work with their data more intuitively. Whether you’re a business user looking for faster answers, a report author wanting a head start, or an engineer managing complex data models - Copilot is built to support them all, giving every user the tools to move faster and make smarter decisions.

A Quick Licensing Reality Check

Previously, if you wanted to try Copilot for Power BI, you needed access to premium Fabric capacity (F64 or above). That effectively put it out of reach for smaller teams or those just getting started.

That’s no longer the case.

Microsoft now supports Copilot from F2 capacity and above, and Power BI Premium (P1 and up). This means you can access Copilot with significantly lower investment. It’s a huge win for anyone who wants to test, learn and scale up their use of AI in analytics without overcommitting upfront.

This change has led to a surge in interest- not just from technical teams, but from business units looking for faster, smarter and more contextual insights.
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So What Does Copilot in Power BI Actually Do?

Copilot turns natural language prompts into real analytics, no code or complex formulas required. You can ask a question and Copilot responds with data-driven answers, auto-generated visuals, or even full report pages.

Here’s a snapshot of what it can do:

• Summarise reports at the page, visual, or entire report level, with built-in citations
• Ask questions in everyday terms and get meaningful insights instantly
• Create visuals based on your model, even if they don’t already exist
• Build reports from high-level prompts, saving hours of layout and data prep
• Add narrative summaries directly onto the canvas to tell the story for you
• Extend across Fabric, supporting Notebooks, SQL/DAX, Data Factory, KQL and more

Copilot isn’t just a Q&A tool, it’s a productivity engine built into your data workflow. Whether you’re analysing, building, or explaining, it gives you the speed and clarity to move forward confidently.

Copilot in Action: Prompts, Features and Who Benefits

Copilot's true power shines when you put it to use. We've seen it effortlessly handle natural language prompts like:

• "What is this report page about?" – Copilot returns a bulleted summary with direct links to visuals it used for reference.
• "Show me sales by customer age and state in one chart." – Copilot builds a new visual by pulling from your semantic model.
• "What's the YoY change in monthly sales amount?" – Even without a pre-built measure, Copilot creates the DAX and visual on the fly.
• "Create a summary report page." – Generates an entire report layout, complete with slicers, that you can customise using follow-up prompts.
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A Persona-Based View

To really understand how Copilot delivers value, it helps to look at it through the lens of different types of users. Whether you're reading reports, building them, or managing the data underneath, Copilot has something for everyone. Here's how it can play out across 3 key user personas:

1. Business Users (Report Consumers)

These users often need to interpret reports quickly. Copilot makes that easy by summarising pages or visuals, highlighting key trends or anomalies. It’s a time-saver and a confidence booster - especially when you don’t have the luxury of digging into every chart.

It’s also great for data storytelling. Need to explain what’s going on to an exec? Grab a Copilot-generated summary and you're good to go.

For example, a sales leader might use Copilot to generate a quick overview of last quarter’s performance, with highlighted growth areas and flagged anomalies. The summary helps them walk into meetings with more clarity and less prep time.

2. Report Authors (Power Users & Analysts)

This is where Copilot really starts to shine. Report authors can use it to build entire pages, generate visuals, insert slicers, or even adjust chart types - all through natural language prompts.

Instead of manually writing DAX or formatting visuals, analysts can ask Copilot to generate, refine, or explain calculations. It’s a huge time-saver, especially when deadlines are tight or stakeholders expects quick answers.

Narrative visuals also make it easier to communicate insights - translating raw data into clear summaries with minimal effort.

3. Advanced Users (Data Engineers & Fabric Specialists)

For those working behind the scenes, Copilot goes well beyond Power BI. Integrated across the entire Microsoft Fabric platform, it helps with everything from writing SQL queries and building pipelines to generating Python code in notebooks or refining KQL for real-time analytics.

There are also tools like AI instructions, data schemas, and verified answers to help tailor Copilot’s behaviour, ensuring it interprets your organisational language and models accurately.

Engineers can save serious time by letting Copilot auto-generate SQL, troubleshoot pipeline errors, or help with notebook code. Even new starters on a data team can use it to familiarise themselves with existing models and contribute faster.
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Fabric Data Agent – The Hidden Hero of Integration

Beyond Power BI, the Fabric Data Agent quietly plays a crucial role in making Copilot smarter and more useful - especially in complex environments. It combines natural language questions and multiple data sources, offering:

• Integration with lakehouses, warehouses, semantic models, and SQL databases.
• Guidance for Copilot using custom instructions and business-specific terminology.
• The ability to curate example queries and control how responses are generated.

Think of it as the custom brain behind Copilot’s flexibility. For enterprise teams juggling data across different systems, the Data Agent gives you the power to fine-tune Copilot’s intelligence so that it aligns with your organisation’s logic, language, and data strategy.
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Security, Privacy & Compliance – Built In, Not Bolted On

Security, privacy, and compliance aren’t afterthoughts - they’re central to how Copilot’s architecture is designed and deployed. Microsoft has built the entire experience to ensure that their AI systems are guided by Microsoft’s AI principles and Responsible AI Standard.

• Data is processed using Azure OpenAI, within Microsoft's environment, not public OpenAI services.
• Your data stays private - it’s not used to train foundation models or shared across tenants.
• Access is governed by your existing Power BI permissions, so Copilot only sees what the user is authorised to view.
• Compliance is handled at the tenant level, with full control for admins to enable or restrict features.
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Getting Started with Copilot

With Copilot now more accessible and embedded across Power BI and Fabric, it’s a real enabler for faster, smarter decision-making. Whether you’re answering ad hoc questions, building dashboards, or engineering complex data models, Copilot is ready to help you get the most from your data

To get going, make sure you’ve got the essentials in place:

1. Your workspace must be on F2 capacity or higher (or Power BI P1+)
2. Admins need to enable Copilot at the tenant level
3. Make sure cross-region data sharing is enabled
4. You can optionally restrict access via security groups
5. Start using Copilot with existing reports or build fresh in Power BI Desktop

Have more questions on how to get started with Copilot? Seisma can walk you through setup, use cases and guardrails.