Power BI

Material Event filed 2026-09-30

If you haven't already, check out  FabCon and SQLCon 2026 in Barcelona: Building the data foundation for Microsoft Copilot and Agents for a complete look at all of our FabCon Europe announcements across Fabric and Microsoft Databases. More than a decade ago, I watched Power BI change the way users work, analyze and take action on their data. Since then, I have had the privilege of seeing it grow alongside our customers—from a tool for building reports into a platform used by millions of people to understand their businesses and make decisions every day. Now, Power BI is entering its next chapter. Introducing the next generation of report development We’re introducing a new app building experience in Power BI Desktop, powered by apps in Fabric , that enables users to create data applications using natural language. Starting from a trusted semantic model, users can generate, preview, edit, and publish purpose-built applications to Microsoft Fabric. These applications can accept inpu

As the Power BI, Microsoft Fabric, data, and analytics community gathers in Barcelona for the European Microsoft Fabric + SQL Community Conference, this month is packed with news. From new Copilot and AI experiences to reporting, modeling, data connectivity, developer enhancements, and mobile updates, we're sharing the latest innovations designed to help you build, analyze, and act on your data more effectively. Whether you're joining us in person or following along from afar, this roundup is your guide to everything new across Power BI this month.  Table of Contents General Deprecation of Old File Picker experience in Power BI Desktop Copilot and AI Power BI Agentic Experiences (Generally Available) Microsoft 365 Copilot is coming to Power BI (Preview) Power BI data answers in Microsoft Copilot Chat (Generally Available) Fabric IQ Plugin in Microsoft 365 Copilot Cowork (Generally Available) Build Fabric Apps more easily in GitHub Copilot App (Preview) Enhanced Report Consumption

The semantic model settings pane is becoming the default way to configure semantic models in the Power BI service. The pane opens alongside your workspace, so you can review and change settings without leaving the current page. It provides the same settings as the full semantic model settings page while keeping the surrounding context visible. The classic settings page remains available during this transition, but it no longer opens first. This change builds on the settings pane preview and provides a more focused experience for managing semantic models. Why it matters The pane helps you stay in context while you manage a semantic model. It opens on the right side of the browser window and keeps your workspace visible. Settings are organized into expandable sections and tabs, including refresh, data access, performance, and OneDrive and SharePoint. You can use the search box at the top of the pane to find a setting across all sections and tabs. For example, enter "re" and select View r

In December, we announced the retirement of Power BI Q&A , our legacy natural-language querying experience, with retirement planned for December 2026. To give current Q&A user's additional time to assess their dependencies and transition to newer Copilot-powered solutions, we’re extending the retirement date to February 2027. This post recaps the affected experiences and provides updates on Copilot capacity availability, embedded scenarios, and sovereign clouds. Recap of the January announcement What is being deprecated? The retirement applies to both the end-user Q&A experiences, and the associated Q&A configuration tools. Retiring experience Recommended alternative Q&A in reports Copilot with Power BI reports Q&A on a dashboard Copilot standalone experience Q&A virtual analyst in mobile app Copilot in Power BI Mobile Q&A in Power BI embedded analytics Copilot for SaaS scenarios . For embedded PaaS scenarios, refer to the updates later in this post. Q&a

Many enterprise Power BI semantic models use Azure Databricks as a data source. When building these models, developers and architects face an early and consequential decision: which storage mode to use. Cost, security, and ease of development and tuning all factor in — but report performance is probably the most important of them, because reports that are slow to load are one of the most common causes of end-user dissatisfaction. In practice, that decision is often made on intuition rather than evidence. To help change that, we've published a new white paper, Modern Power BI Architecture Choices for Reporting on Azure Databricks , benchmarking four ways of serving the same Delta tables to a Power BI report: Direct Lake on OneLake — over Delta tables in a Fabric lakehouse or warehouse Direct Lake on mirrored Unity Catalog tables — shortcuts, no copy DirectQuery — on a Databricks SQL warehouse Composite Model on Databricks — DirectQuery combined with Import-mode aggregations Figure: The

Microsoft has refreshed its Power BI sample reports with modern visual defaults, stronger semantic models, mobile-optimized layouts, and newer authoring features to help creators build clearer, more effective reports.

Calculated columns are now available in preview for Direct Lake on OneLake semantic models. This has been one of the most requested capabilities since Direct Lake launched and closes a long-standing gap with Import and DirectQuery storage modes. You can define calculated columns directly in your semantic model using DAX in web modeling and Power BI Desktop, without changing the table storage mode or modifying data upstream. The problem this solves Direct Lake combines Import-like performance with near real-time data freshness by querying Delta tables in OneLake and loading data into memory as needed. But until now, if your model needed a derived column, you had only two options: push the logic upstream into the data source or move the table to a different storage mode. Calculated columns close that gap – you can now define columns directly in the semantic model using DAX without leaving Direct Lake. What you can build Common use cases include: Derived values , such as an age calculated

Upgrading Power BI Dataflows Gen1 is now easier with the Dataflows Upgrade Wizard. Now in preview for eligible workspaces assigned to Fabric capacity, the wizard provides a guided experience to upgrade Power BI Dataflows Gen1 items to Fabric Dataflows Gen2 (CI/CD). The wizard preserves key properties of the existing dataflow and assesses each item before you begin, helping you understand the upgrade scope and expected follow-up actions.  Modernize at your own pace  Power BI Dataflows Gen1 remains supported in a legacy state, while new feature investment focuses on Fabric Dataflows Gen2 (CI/CD), as shared in a previous post about the future of Dataflows . The Upgrade Wizard gives dataflow owners a guided self-service path to start that modernization without rebuilding their Power Query logic.  You don't need to upgrade your full estate at once. Start with a representative set of dataflows, validate the results, and expand at a pace that works for your organization. For de

If your organization uses Power BI, you own something most companies chasing AI are desperately trying to build. You just may not know it by name. Let me explain. The invisible thing behind every report Every Power BI report you have ever opened sits on top of a semantic model . Every single one. No exceptions. The report is the visible part; the semantic model is the machinery underneath that makes it trustworthy. What does it do? It translates raw data into business meaning. Somewhere in your organization, someone spent weeks deciding what “revenue” actually means. Gross or net? Booked or recognized? Which currency conversion, on which date? Someone fought over what counts as an “active customer” and whether returns subtract from sales this quarter or the quarter of the original purchase. Those decisions did not stay in meeting notes. They were encoded into the semantic model: the metric definitions, the relationships between customers and orders and products, the hierarchies that le

Welcome to the August 2026 Power BI Feature Summary! This month includes updates across reporting, modeling, data connectivity, mobile, embedded analytics, and developer experiences, with a mix of generally available enhancements and new preview capabilities. Let's take a look at what's new. Table of Contents Download Power BI Desktop Events and Announcements September 15 | What a Winning Power BI Dataviz Looks Like Community Conference Tickets are Getting Low General Deprecation of Old File Picker experience in Power BI Desktop Copilot and AI Updates to required semantic model permissions for Fabric Apps Copilot Summary and Copilot Narrative can now read visuals hidden behind bookmarks Reporting Modern visual defaults and customize themes formatting panes (Generally Available) Date picker for Slicer visual (Generally Available) Center value for donut chart (Generally Available) Comments support for reports in org apps Matrix: Expand and collapse for column headers (Generally Available