Intelligent Reporting & Chat with Data: Power BI, Fabric data agents & Fabric IQ

A semantic model (previously called a Power BI dataset) is the layer between your raw data and your reports. It defines tables, relationships, business measures such as revenue or margin, and security rules. One governed semantic model can serve many reports, Excel users, Copilot and data agents, so everyone gets the same answer to the same question.

Fabric IQ is a workload in Microsoft Fabric, currently in preview, for describing your business in a shared semantic layer: an ontology of entities, relationships, rules and metrics bound to your OneLake data. Reports, Copilot and AI agents can then understand your data in business terms rather than table names, which makes their answers more consistent and reliable.

Yes. Copilot in Power BI and Microsoft Fabric data agents let users ask questions in natural language and get answers from governed data. How reliable those answers are depends on the quality of the semantic model, clear business definitions and correct permissions, so we build the model and the agent together.

Copilot is Microsoft’s general AI assistant across Microsoft 365 and Power BI. A Fabric data agent is a configurable conversational agent grounded in the specific data sources you choose (lakehouses, warehouses or semantic models) with its own instructions and example questions. That focus makes it better suited to precise business questions, and it can also be used by other agents and apps.

Usually because each report or spreadsheet calculates metrics in its own way, from its own extract. The fix is a single governed semantic model with agreed definitions, automated data pipelines and certified content, so ‘revenue’ or ‘headcount’ means the same thing everywhere.

Start with an inventory: many estates contain duplicate or unused reports that don’t need migrating. We then rebuild the data logic in a governed model rather than copying each report one-to-one, recreate the visuals in Power BI, validate the numbers side by side, train users and help you retire the old licences.

Yes. Power BI supports executive dashboards, mobile access, scheduled subscriptions, row-level security and paginated reports for formatted board packs. The key is designing around the decisions leaders make, with a small set of trusted KPIs rather than dozens of charts.

No, Power BI can be licensed on its own. Fabric adds the governed data foundation underneath (pipelines, lakehouse, warehouse, OneLake), and on larger Fabric capacities (F64 and above) report viewers don’t each need a paid Power BI licence. We’ll advise on the most cost-effective set-up for your organisation.