During the keynotes, impressive ways of using Copilot were introduced several times. By integrating directly into the Fabric environment, Copilot enables developers to create data flows and pipelines, generate code for complex data transformations, and perform DAX measures by simply describing what they need in natural language. I believe there is still a long way to go before Copilot can fully answer detailed business questions about our data, but I do hope Copilot can make the individual data engineer’s job more fun and efficient.
The keynote on day three introduced existing updates to Purview. New features were announced to enhance data governance, and the interface update made the user experience a lot more intuitive. Even though it did not grab a lot of people’s attention, its enhanced experience of purview was a key takeaway for me, as I often see companies struggling with data (and business!) definitions, tracking data lineage, accessing and discovering available data, and managing sensitive data (PPI), etc. I cannot wait to get to work with this more user-friendly version of Purview, as it could help many organizations better govern their data and improve data quality. As Microsoft emphasized throughout the event, “Data governance is key to leveraging the investment in AI”!
If Purview seems too much to swallow, you might start updating the info DAX functions in your semantic model. Soon, it will be possible to populate the info DAX functions as part of the semantic model. This means metadata like measure names, DAX formulas, and descriptions can be included with a Power BI report, making your model documentation easily accessible for business consumers.
One of the most exciting announcements was the ability to publish Databricks Unity Catalog datasets, including entity relationships (PK/FK), directly to Power BI Service. This eliminates the need to open Power BI Desktop and rebuild all relationships. As Unity Catalog provides a centralized governance solution for all data assets in Databricks, publishing to Power BI Service ensures consistent data governance policies across both platforms, enhancing data security and compliance.
Attending the European Microsoft Fabric Community Conference gets me excited about the future of Fabric. I can’t wait to start exploring these new AI and data governance capabilities when I get back to work with our clients at Intellishore!”
Whether you’re an expert or just starting your data journey, these new features and updates promise to make your work more efficient, secure, and scalable.
Stay tuned as we continue to explore the evolving landscape of Microsoft Fabric!
Line Arnbjørn Krogh, Manager at Intellishore.