Microsoft Material: Producing Studies with Copilot

In Nov 2023, Microsoft introduced Microsoft Material’s normal availability and Public Preview of Copilot in Microsoft Material. In a earlier submit, I defined what Copilot means to Energy BI builders, which is legitimate for different Material builders equivalent to information engineers and information scientists as Copilot for Material helps with these experiences as properly. However the primary focus of this weblog submit is to debate the necessities, learn how to allow Copilot, and learn how to use it from a Energy BI growth perspective. So, this weblog won’t talk about different features of Copilot in Microsoft Material. With that, let’s start.

Proper off the bat, Copilot is just out there on Energy BI Premium capacities or their equal Material capacities. So, NO it’s NOT out there on Energy BI Professional or Premium Per Consumer or Energy BI Embedded Analytics. So the Energy BI objects you need to use Copilot on have to be in a Workspace assigned to a Energy BI Premium P1 or Microsoft Material F64 capacities or larger.

You additionally must have a Contributor function on the premium workspace.

To make use of Copilot, your Microsoft Material Administrator should allow it from the Material Admin Portal. This setting is just not out there in all areas but, however Microsoft is step by step rolling it out to extra areas.

Helpful hyperlinks:

Enabling Copilot on Material Admin Portal

As talked about earlier than, your Material Administrator should allow Copilot options inside the Admin Portal. Comply with these steps to allow Copilot in your tenant after logging into Microsoft Material:

1. Click on Settings (the gear icon on the highest proper of the web page)
2. Click on Admin portal
3. Be sure that the Tenant setting tab is chosen
4. Scroll all the way in which right down to the Copilot and Azure OpenAI Service (preview)​ part

Word

You too can use the search field and seek for OpenAI to seek out the Copilot and Azure OpenAI Service (preview)​ part.

5. Allow the Customers can use a preview of Copilot and different options powered by Azure OpenAI
6. Click on the Apply button
7. Allow the ​​​Information despatched to Azure OpenAI will be processed outdoors your tenant’s geographic area, compliance boundary, or nationwide cloud occasion
8. Click on the Apply button once more

That’s it. You enabled the Copilot capabilities in your tenant.

The next picture exhibits the previous steps:

Listed here are some vital notes to concentrate to:

Notes

1. Whereas this can be a Preview function, I might strongly suggest studying via the Phrases of use earlier than enabling it in your tenant, particularly if in your Manufacturing tenant.
2. These configurations apply tenant-wide. We presently can’t prohibit it to particular safety teams.
3. Microsoft has accomplished an incredible job in highlighting a word when enabling the Customers can use a preview of Copilot and different options powered by Azure OpenAI setting that claims:

If Azure OpenAI is just not out there in your area, your information could have to be processed outdoors your tenant’s geographic area, compliance boundary, or nationwide cloud occasion. To permit information to be processed in a area the place Azure OpenAI is offered, activate the associated setting, “Information despatched to Azure OpenAI will be processed outdoors your tenant’s geographic area, compliance boundary, or nationwide cloud occasion”.

4. Take note of one other word highlighted underneath the ​​​Information despatched to Azure OpenAI will be processed outdoors your tenant’s geographic area, compliance boundary, or nationwide cloud occasion part saying:
   Even when this setting is on, additionally, you will must activate the associated setting “Customers can use a preview of Copilot and different options powered by Azure OpenAI” for these options to work.​
5. I encourage you to learn Microsoft’s documentation round Accountable use for Copilot in Energy BI.

With that, now allow us to use Copilot on Material service and see the way it generates reviews.

Producing reviews with Copilot is tremendous simple. Comply with these steps to generate your first report with Copilot:

1. Navigate to the specified premium workspace
2. Hover over the specified semantic mannequin and click on the Extra choices ellipsis button
3. Click on Create Report

4. On the brand new report, click on the Copilot button
5. Click on the Create a web page that exhibits… button
6. Sort in to clarify the way you want the Copilot to generate the report
7. Submit your request by urgent Enter in your keyboard or clicking the submit button

There you go! You’ve it!

It appears to be like fairly cool, doesn’t it? However wait, there’s something fallacious with the report. Have you ever observed the road chart within the backside proper of the report exhibits a flat line for Web Gross sales and Web Revenue by Product Class? It can’t be appropriate. This takes us to the subsequent part of this weblog submit, the place we talk about some ideas and methods.

As Copilot appears to be like on the construction of the semantic mannequin to generate reviews for us, it’s essential to make the semantic mannequin as optimised as doable. For instance, within the earlier picture, we will shortly spot a problem mirrored within the Web Gross sales and Web Revenue by Product Class line chart on the underside proper of the report web page the place the chart exhibits a relentless line for all product classes. This means a possible lacking relationship between the Product Class and the Web Gross sales tables contributing to the connection. Let’s look into this.

The next picture exhibits the info mannequin the place I put the required tabled as a brand new structure:

As you may see, the lacking relationship is certainly between the Product Subcategory and Product tables, which led to incorrect ends in the reporting layer. Creating the connection between the 2 tables fixes that challenge as proven within the following pictures:

As you see, semantic mannequin points can result in reporting points generated by Copilot. Properly, let’s face it, that is precisely what we count on to occur even when we manually create the report, isn’t it?

The previous instance leads us to the next ideas and methods to get the most effective Copilot expertise:

• Get the relationships proper: as we noticed within the above instance, lacking or incorrect relationships will result in inaccurate information visualisation.
• Naming conference: Use extra user-friendly names within the information mannequin. For instance, Complete Gross sales as a measure identify can be extra comprehensible than TotalSales. Enjoyable reality: Nobody likes Col1 or Tble1 names for any objects, particularly Copilot.
• Create express measures: It’s higher to have express measures within the information mannequin as an alternative of implicit measures. Only a fast word for many who have no idea the distinction between express and implicit measures:
  • Implicit measures: Implicit measures are columns proven with a Sigma icon () within the Information pane in Energy BI. These columns are routinely detected as measures when utilized in a visible on the reporting canvas. In different phrases, we don’t create implicit measures.
  • Specific measures: Alternatively, the specific measures, are these ones we create inside the information mannequin utilizing DAX. The specific measures additionally seem within the Information pane in Energy BI. The icon for express measures appears to be like like a calculator ().
• Comply with star schema mannequin design: Create reality and dimension tables following the star schema design. For instance, it’s best to maintain additive, measurable and quantitative information, plus international keys of the dimension tables. In distinction, maintain the descriptive information within the dimension tables.
• Create hierarchies: Creating hierarchies in dimensions helps Copilot perceive the info grouping higher. That is useful, particularly with figuring out drill-down actions.
• Take note of information sorts: Defining appropriate information sorts for measures and columns within the information mannequin helps Copilot to generate higher reviews. For instance, utilizing Date information kind as an alternative of Textual content helps Copilot to grasp it’s coping with date values as an alternative of textual content.
• Use easier prompts: In my expertise with the report technology functionality of Copilot for Energy BI, it performs greatest when utilizing easier prompts with minimal situations, equivalent to Create a web page that exhibits Gross sales by Product as an alternative of Create a web page that exhibits Gross sales by Product the place Procust Class is “Equipment” and Calendar Date is 2012. Whereas it nonetheless generates the report, its accuracy decreases by elevating the complexity of our immediate.

The Copilot for Energy BI does a great job of producing reviews, particularly in its early levels. We are able to use this function to make reviews, however we must be conscious that there may be issues, particularly if we haven’t made our information fashions higher. We have to verify and repair the reviews.

As at all times, please share your ideas and opinions with us.