May 2025 delivered a surge of innovation across Microsoft Fabric, Power BI, and Copilot—ushering in what we’re calling the age of agentic business intelligence. From conversational AI to real-time intelligence and AI-ready data architecture, these updates signal a powerful shift in enterprise BI.
We explore these developments across our Build Smarter – BI, AI, and What’s Next blog series, including Agentic BI: how Copilot and AI agents are reshaping Power BI workflows and What Microsoft Build 2025 means for BI leaders.
Agentic BI Isn’t Coming—It’s Here
At Microsoft Build 2025, Microsoft unveiled a powerful shift in enterprise analytics: the rise of Agentic BI. No longer limited to static dashboards and one-off reports, business intelligence is becoming dynamic, collaborative, and AI-driven. With Copilot and AI agents embedded across Power BI, Fabric, and Azure, data workflows are being fundamentally reimagined.
What’s Changing
- Copilot + AI Agents: Now deeply integrated across the Microsoft ecosystem, these agents offer contextual recommendations, trigger workflows, and surface insights without users needing to ask.
- Natural Language as the New Interface: Enhanced natural language querying (NLQ) allows anyone—not just analysts—to model, explore, and act on data in plain English.
- Fabric as the Cognitive Core: With updates like Model Context Protocol and intelligent Fabric Data Agents, Microsoft Fabric is now the engine for context-aware, AI-ready BI.
These aren’t cosmetic upgrades—they represent a leap toward autonomous analytics.
Why It Matters for BI Teams
Agentic BI isn’t just more advanced, it’s more strategic. Here’s what that looks like in practice:
- From Reporting to Reasoning: BI teams are shifting from producing charts to shaping strategy. With Copilot streamlining data access and prep, teams can now focus on identifying drivers, not just metrics.
- Faster Time-to-Decision: AI agents reduce the delay between question and insight. Teams can test ideas, run forecasts, or detect anomalies with conversational ease.
- Governed Flexibility: As AI handles more tasks, centralized models and policies ensure consistency—boosting trust while empowering more users.
- Smarter Collaboration: Business users can self-serve with NLQ, freeing up analysts to partner on strategic initiatives, from scenario planning to cross-functional KPIs.
BI becomes less about tools and more about outcomes.
Fabric Data Agents: The Brains Behind Copilot
Fabric Data Agents now operate under the hood of Copilot in Power BI. When a user poses a question, Copilot intelligently routes it to the best-suited data source—lakehouse, warehouse, or KQL DB—via these agents. This unlocks frictionless exploration across the enterprise’s entire data estate.
The result? More people can ask better questions and get smarter answers without needing to know what’s under the hood.
Cosmos DB Joins Fabric
In another major move, Cosmos DB is now part of Microsoft Fabric (Preview), bringing globally distributed, AI-optimized NoSQL workloads into the fold.
With vector indexing for GenAI, ultra-low latency, and automatic scaling, Cosmos DB opens new frontiers for BI teams. Think real-time personalization, customer behavior modeling, or hybrid workloads combining structured and unstructured data.
Even better: Cosmos DB data now lives in OneLake, alongside enterprise sources. That means unified queries, unified governance, and a dramatically expanded canvas for Copilot-assisted insight.
New Visibility and Real-Time Intelligence Features
Two major updates from May reshape how data teams plan and activate modern analytics:
- Fabric Roadmap Tool: Now available, this tool provides a centralized, forward-looking view into upcoming Fabric updates and integrations. It empowers data leaders to align architectural planning with business strategy and proactively manage change.
- Real-Time Event Intelligence: New enhancements to Eventstreams and Eventhouse—including continuous ingestion from Azure Storage, Derived Stream support, and embedded OneLake catalog—make it easier than ever to route real-time data into analysis-ready environments. This significantly reduces time-to-insight for streaming and operational use cases.
Why It All Matters: The Rise of an Intelligent, Unified Data Stack
These capabilities signal a larger shift. Microsoft’s data ecosystem has matured from a fragmented set of services into a unified, AI-first platform engineered for performance, governance, and adaptability.
As a Microsoft Fabric Featured Partner, Collectiv helps organizations turn these innovations into strategic advantage. We:
- Architect intelligent data environments across Fabric and Azure
- Operationalize Copilot and agentic workflows for BI teams
- Unify planning, forecasting, and analytics into seamless experiences
This evolution is about more than features—it’s about unlocking velocity. With real-time data flows, AI-ready architecture, and built-in governance, Microsoft is giving BI teams the tools to move faster, make smarter decisions, and drive measurable business outcomes.
Let’s explore how your team can turn these innovations into impact.
Contact us to schedule a consultation.
