Microsoft announced a set of Fabric and Azure database updates on September 28, 2026. The most immediate change for organizations using Power BI is the general availability of Fabric IQ in Microsoft Copilot Chat and Cowork. The integration can use governed metrics, relationships, and business definitions as context for answers and multistep work. When teams calculate the same business measure differently, giving Copilot a defined metric can help them inspect an answer against an agreed reporting basis. Microsoft says the connection preserves existing access controls and governance. Source
What grounding requires
A Power BI semantic model describes how data relates to business concepts and how measures are calculated. A question about a sales forecast can then draw on the same definitions that support a company’s reports. That makes the quality of the underlying model and access permissions central to an evaluation. Teams should inspect both the definition behind an answer and who is allowed to see it. Microsoft’s announcement describes the integration; it does not establish that every organization’s data is already prepared for useful answers. Source
Check each release stage
The other announced tools are at different stages. IQ Sharing, intended to share governed context across organizations, is in preview. Database Hub in Fabric is in public preview. SQL Server on Azure Local is generally available, while an option for disconnected operations is in preview. A buyer evaluating these capabilities should separate a generally available integration from a preview and check the conditions of the particular product. The announcement groups them under a data strategy, but their readiness for a production workflow depends on which feature is needed. Source