Prepare your data for use with Copilot in Power BI

  • 4 minutes

Before using Copilot in Power BI, you should prepare your semantic model to ensure consistency and accuracy. Copilot uses Large Language Models (LLMs), which requires accuracy and reliability of the data to be effective.

Ensure data quality

You also need to evaluate your semantic model for different aspects of data quality, or Copilot may not be effective.

Data quality is crucial when creating a Power BI report because it directly affects the accuracy and reliability of the insights you can derive from your data. Here are examples of how data quality can affect the successful creation of a Power BI report:

  • Completeness: Missing values may cause gaps.
  • Validity: Out-of-range data values can skew visuals and results.
  • Consistency: Inconsistent data can affect date-related visuals.
  • Uniqueness: Duplicates can affect data accuracy.
  • Data Relationships: Cross-table visuals may not be possible without relationships.
  • DAX Calculations: Limited calculations can result in fewer possible insights.

Prepare data with Power Query

Power Query is a key feature of Power BI Desktop to prepare your semantic model. It's the initial step in creating a Power BI report and is indispensable when using Copilot. To ensure data quality, use Power Query to:

  • Profile your data by assessing Column quality, Column distribution, and Column profile.
  • Clean your data by resolving inconsistencies, unexpected or null values, and other data quality concerns.
  • Transform your data by implementing user-friendly naming conventions for columns and queries, altering column data types, and applying data shape transformations.

Evaluate semantic model size

While there are no fixed limits for your semantic model's size, it's important to have enough data for meaningful content. However, overly complex models can lead to unclear outcomes.

Considerations and limitations

We're continuously working to improve the quality of the report pages, including visuals and summaries generated by Copilot. For instance, Copilot may not understand complex prompts like generating a multi-page report.

Tip

For full list of considerations, review the Copilot in Power BI reference documentation.