This page explains why Microsoft Copilot does not have a setup guide in this section, and what we will do when that changes.
As of September 2026, Microsoft Copilot is not integrated with Power BI Desktop to create the elements of a semantic model: tables, relationships, and measures. For this reason, the courses and the guides of this section rely on the other AI tools, which reach the model through the Power BI Modeling MCP server.
This is not a judgment on the quality of Copilot. It is a difference in what the product is allowed to do today.
What Copilot does today in Power BI Desktop
Copilot is present in Power BI Desktop, and within its scope it is useful:
- Ask data questions about the model that is open, or about a semantic model reached with a live connection.
- Write DAX queries in the DAX query view, explain a query you wrote yourself, and explain a DAX function or concept.
- Generate descriptions for measures that already exist in the model.
- Help with the report, with summaries and narrative visuals on the canvas.
What it does not do
Copilot does not act on the structure of the model. It does not create or modify tables, it does not create relationships, and it does not write a measure into the model on your behalf.
The closest thing is the DAX query view, where Copilot can define a measure inside a query it generates. Even there, the measure exists only in the query until you decide to apply it to the model, one measure at a time. There is no equivalent step for a table or a relationship.
This is the gap with the clients described in the setup guides. Those clients connect to Power BI Desktop through the Power BI Modeling MCP server, which exposes the operations of the object model: create a table, create a relationship, write a measure, set a format string, run a DAX query. An agent chains those operations and shows you the result, and you approve what it writes.
Two practical consequences for a student
- Copilot cannot follow the exercises of the courses, because the exercises ask the agent to modify the model. Use one of the clients in the setup guides instead.
- Copilot in Power BI Desktop requires a Fabric capacity. It has to be enabled at the tenant level and consumed from a workspace on a paid Fabric capacity (F2 or higher) or a Power BI Premium capacity (P1 or higher). A Pro licence alone is not enough. The other clients need an account with their own vendor, and none of them needs a Fabric capacity.
We will update this page
Microsoft is building the agentic layer of Power BI Desktop in the open: the Power BI Modeling MCP server and the Power BI Desktop Bridge are both published by Microsoft, and they are the same components the other clients use. It is reasonable to expect that Copilot will eventually reach the model the same way.
When Microsoft releases a feature that aligns Copilot with the tools of the other AI vendors, we will update this section, and Copilot will get a setup guide like the others.
Sources
- Copilot in Power BI: the capabilities and the requirements.
- Use Copilot with semantic models: what Copilot does while you develop a model, and its limits.
- Write DAX queries with Copilot: the DAX query view experience, and how a suggested measure reaches the model.
- What is the Power BI Desktop Bridge?: the preview setting and the operations it provides.
The content of this page was verified in September 2026. This is the area of Power BI that changes fastest, so the linked documentation is the authority.