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Copilot now answers with your Power BI numbers. What needs to be ready first

Microsoft has started connecting Power BI models to Copilot, so anyone in the company can ask questions about the numbers. How good the answer is depends on how the data is organised.

Bar chart and question bubble in dark line art on a light background, next to the glass shape with a blue core

Opening the dashboard, finding the right filter and doing the maths in your head is still routine in many companies. Microsoft wants to replace that with a typed question.

What Microsoft announced

On 28 September, at FabCon in Barcelona, Microsoft announced that Copilot now draws on Fabric IQ, the layer that brings together data, metrics and business rules. According to the company, the definitions and metrics stored in Power BI semantic models now inform Copilot's answers, and the feature is already available in Copilot Chat and Cowork.

In practice, a manager can ask "how much did we sell in the north last quarter?" without opening a single report.

Flow in which ERP, CRM, store and spreadsheets feed a model with clear rules and names, pass through role-based access and only then receive plain-language questions

Why the answer depends on what sits behind it

Copilot doesn't invent your business rules. It reads what is already in the model. If the model has flaws, the answer inherits all of them, with an air of certainty.

The problems we see most often:

  • Two definitions for the same number. Sales with or without returns, invoiced or paid. Each team uses one, and the AI picks without telling you.
  • Names only the team understands. A column called "vl_net_2" means nothing to the person asking, or to Copilot.
  • Sources outside the model. The targets spreadsheet on someone's laptop never makes it into the answer.
  • Access that is too broad. If the model doesn't separate what each role can see, a simple question shows the right number to the wrong person.

A checklist before you open the questions

  1. List the decisions the dashboard must support and the indicators for each.
  2. Write down the rule for every indicator and use the same name in every report.
  3. Bring the sources into the model, with quality checks.
  4. Set role-based access before opening the conversation.
  5. Test with real questions and compare them with numbers the team already knows.

Using Copilot with Power BI depends on specific Microsoft licences and capacities. It is worth checking what your company's agreement includes before you plan.

Dashboard first, question second

The plain-language question is the last step, not the first. In the business dashboards and BI we build, we start from the decisions, bring together ERP, CRM, store and spreadsheets, document the rule behind every indicator and check everything against numbers you already know. With that foundation in place, asking the dashboard becomes safe.