Understand Copilot in Power BI

  • 3 minutes

Copilot in Power BI is an AI-powered assistant designed to enhance the report creation and data exploration experience. It uses generative AI to help you interact with your data, create reports, and gain insights more efficiently. Copilot is available in both Power BI Desktop and the Power BI Service.

Key concepts

Understanding the following fundamental concepts will help you leverage Copilot in Power BI effectively in your organization.

Natural language interaction lets you communicate with your data using everyday language. If you’ve ever struggled to remember field names or how to build a specific chart, you can ask, “Show the top categories by sales,” or “Create a summary of this report.” This reduces some technical barriers.

With report creation, Copilot can assist with building report pages. Instead of manually selecting visuals and fields, you can describe what you need, and Copilot will suggest visuals, fields, and measures. This can help when you're unsure which chart fits your data or when you want to quickly prototype a report.

Narrative visuals address the challenge of interpreting complex data. Copilot can generate narrative summaries for report pages or entire reports, providing context. This can help when presenting findings to non-technical audiences or when you need to quickly review a report.

For those who find writing DAX formulas challenging, DAX query assistance can generate DAX code from natural language prompts, making calculations more accessible and reducing time spent on syntax.

Understanding the structure of a data model can be difficult, especially in large projects. Semantic model insights summarize and document measures and relationships and can suggest synonyms to improve the Q&A experience. This can make it easier to maintain and share models with colleagues.

Finally, quick actions such as fixing errors in DAX queries or explaining the logic behind them can help with debugging and optimization. If you’ve ever been stuck on a formula or unsure why a calculation isn’t working, these actions provide support.

By understanding these concepts, you can address common obstacles in Power BI and use Copilot to support your workflow and communication of insights.

Here's an example of how you can interact with Copilot in the Power BI Desktop:

Screenshot of copilot in Power BI Desktop.

We’ll explore this topic in more detail in a later module.

Benefits

By using Copilot in Power BI, users can work on reporting workflows and focus on deriving insights from their data. Here are some areas where it can help:

  • Efficiency: Automates report creation and data exploration, saving time and effort.
  • Accessibility: Enables you to interact with their data using natural language, reducing the need for advanced technical skills.
  • Insights: Provides narrative summaries and intelligent suggestions to help you understand your data better.
  • Collaboration: Enhances the documentation of semantic models, making it easier for teams to work together.