Power BI Online Service and AI - Full Day

Course Description

Take your Power BI Desktop reports into a collaborative online reporting environment. This practical one-day course builds on Power BI Desktop Essentials and develops the skills needed to publish, organise, share and maintain reports through the Power BI online service. It is suitable for report creators, analysts and staff who support reporting within their teams. Through guided exercises, you will work with reports and dashboards, explore workspace roles and Power BI apps, and learn how data refresh and access controls support reliable reporting. The course also introduces Microsoft Copilot and AI-assisted analysis, including asking questions about data, creating report content and checking generated insights against the underlying data. The full-day format provides broader coverage than the half-day option, adding data refresh, introductory security, collaboration, automation and online data preparation. Most activities take place at app.powerbi.com in a web browser, with Power BI Desktop used for publishing and selected supporting tasks. Participants may use a suitable existing account; a demonstration account will be provided where needed. Copilot, sharing and some administrative features depend on licences, capacity, permissions and organisational settings. Exercises will use the available training environment, with trainer demonstrations where participant access is unavailable. Gateway installation, row-level security, Power Automate and dataflows are introduced through explanations or demonstrations appropriate to the time available.
Full Day (7 hours)
Contact us for pricing
 

Prerequisites

Participants should have completed Power BI Desktop Essentials or have equivalent practical experience connecting to data, creating reports and visualisations, and using filters and slicers. Familiarity with basic data concepts, tables and relationships is expected. No previous experience of the Power BI online service, Copilot or Power Automate is required. The half-day course is an alternative shorter option and is not a prerequisite.

A computer with a current web browser and internet access is required. Power BI Desktop on a Windows computer is needed for publishing and selected supporting tasks; participants without Desktop can use prepared published reports for online activities. Use a suitable work or school Power BI account where available, or the demonstration account provided for training. Please check organisational access restrictions before the course.

Editing, sharing, workspace management and refresh exercises require appropriate licences and permissions. Copilot additionally requires supported paid Microsoft Fabric or Power BI Premium capacity and relevant administrator settings; a Pro or Premium Per User licence alone is insufficient. Features unavailable to participants will be demonstrated by the trainer. Use training datasets rather than confidential organisational data.

Learning Objectives

By the end of this course, participants will be able to:
Explain how Power BI Desktop, the online service, workspaces, semantic models and apps fit together.
Publish and organise reports in an authorised workspace, and create or make simple edits to online reports where permissions allow.
Create and customise a dashboard using report visualisations and pages.
Select suitable ways to share reports and dashboards, recognising workspace roles, permissions and licence requirements.
Explain how Power BI apps, Microsoft Teams and SharePoint support report distribution and collaboration.
Configure a scheduled refresh in a suitable training environment and recognise common credential, gateway and refresh issues.
Explain the purpose of row-level security and how it differs from workspace access.
Use or evaluate demonstrated Copilot features to ask data questions, summarise findings and create report content.
Explore data using key influencers and decomposition trees, and validate AI-assisted findings against the underlying data.
Identify opportunities to use Power Automate and dataflows in an online reporting workflow.

Introduction to Power BI Online Service

Understanding the Power BI ecosystem
Power BI Desktop versus the Power BI online service
Getting started at app.powerbi.com
Navigating the online interface
Understanding workspaces, reports, dashboards, semantic models and apps
Understanding Power BI licensing and AI requirements

Publishing and Managing Reports

Publishing reports from Power BI Desktop
Working with published reports
Editing reports in the online service
Creating reports online from an available semantic model
Understanding web and phone layouts
Organising and managing reports in workspaces

Creating and Managing Dashboards

Creating dashboards from published reports
Pinning visualisations and report pages
Customising dashboard tiles
Using filters, slicers and bookmarks in reports
Creating personalised report views
Creating subscriptions and dashboard data alerts where supported

Sharing Reports and Collaboration

Sharing reports and dashboards with authorised users
Creating and managing workspaces
Understanding workspace roles and permissions
Creating and publishing Power BI apps
Collaborating using Microsoft Teams and SharePoint
Understanding access and licensing requirements for embedded reports
Best practices for sharing and distributing reports

Managing Data and Refreshing Reports

Understanding semantic models in the online service
Connecting to supported data sources online
Configuring scheduled data refresh
Understanding on-premises data gateways and when they are needed
Managing data source credentials
Recognising and troubleshooting common refresh issues
Introduction to row-level security: defining roles in the model and assigning users in the service
Understanding the relationship between row-level security and workspace roles

Introduction to AI in Power BI

Understanding artificial intelligence in business intelligence
Introduction to Microsoft Copilot in Power BI
Exploring AI features in the online service
Using natural language to ask questions about data with Copilot
Using AI to summarise reports and generate insights
Understanding AI requirements, licensing and limitations
Responsible use of AI with organisational data

Using AI to Analyse Data and Create Reports

Creating report pages with Copilot
Using Copilot to suggest visualisations
Generating narrative summaries of data
Identifying trends, patterns and anomalies
Using key influencers visualisations
Using decomposition trees to explore data
Introduction to AI assistance for DAX measures and calculations, demonstrated in an appropriate supported authoring environment
Reviewing AI-generated results against report filters, measures and source data
Copilot activities use the available training environment, with trainer demonstrations where participant access is unavailable

Automation and Advanced Online Features

Introduction to Power Automate with Power BI
Demonstrating automated notifications and workflows
Using Power BI with Microsoft Teams
Introduction to dataflows and online data preparation
Best practices for managing and maintaining Power BI solutions
These topics provide an introductory overview rather than advanced administration or implementation training

Practical Exercises

Exercise 1 - Publishing and managing reports in the online service, or working with a prepared published report
Exercise 2 - Creating an interactive dashboard with multiple visualisations
Exercise 3 - Creating a workspace and sharing reports with authorised training users
Exercise 4 - Configuring scheduled data refresh using a suitable training data source
Exercise 5 - Using AI to ask questions and analyse data
Exercise 6 - Using Copilot to generate report summaries and visualisations, then checking the results
Exercise 7 - Exploring data using key influencers and decomposition trees
Exercises use prepared training data. Activities requiring additional licences, capacity, permissions or infrastructure will be trainer-led demonstrations where hands-on access is unavailable.
Power BIPower BI OnlinePower BI ServicePower BI dashboardsMicrosoft CopilotAI in Power BIPower BI sharingPower BI data refreshPower BI workspaces