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Our team spent four days at FabCon Europe in Barcelona, speaking with Microsoft product teams, partners and customers, attending sessions and exploring the latest developments across Microsoft Fabric, Power BI and AI.
There was no shortage of product news, but the most interesting story was how the announcements fit together. Microsoft is lowering the barriers to getting started with Fabric, connecting more sources of data, embedding AI throughout the platform and making it easier to move from insight to practical action.
Here are the ten developments that stood out most to our team and what they could mean for you.
1. Microsoft is making it easier to get started with Fabric and Power BI
Microsoft is lowering the barriers for organisations looking to explore Fabric. The new F0 option provides a way to get started without an upfront Fabric capacity commitment, while Microsoft is also extending Fabric capabilities to Power BI Pro and Premium Per User customers, including preview access to Fabric Apps and Fabric Database capability.
Why it matters: Teams can start smaller, test an idea and demonstrate value before making a wider Fabric investment.
2. One Copilot experience across Microsoft Fabric
Microsoft is consolidating the Copilot experience across Fabric, creating a more connected way to use Copilot throughout the data lifecycle.
The direction is towards one Copilot that can support work across the platform while retaining the context of a project. Instead of treating AI as an add-on to individual tools, it becomes part of how teams build and manage a complete data solution.
Why it matters: This should reduce the friction of switching between separate AI experiences and let users focus more on the outcome they are trying to deliver.
3. Fabric IQ brings business meaning to AI
AI needs more than access to data. It needs to understand what that data means to the organisation.
Fabric IQ connects governed data with business concepts, relationships and definitions. This is intended to help Copilots and agents work with a consistent understanding of the business rather than interpreting disconnected tables or conflicting definitions.
This represents an important shift from creating a single source of truth to creating a shared source of meaning.
Why it matters: If different teams define revenue, margin or customer value differently, AI will inherit that confusion. Shared business context is essential for answers people can understand, verify and trust.
4. Project Osmos brings agentic working to data engineering
Project Osmos, now introduced as the Fabric data engineering agent, was one of the most talked-about developments at the conference.
Rather than simply suggesting code, the agent can work on persistent data-engineering tasks, planning, executing and validating activity against authorised Fabric resources. Teams define the intended outcome and guardrails, and the agent works through the task.
Why it matters: This moves AI assistance beyond short prompts and code suggestions towards supporting more complete engineering outcomes.
5. Fabric Apps can move teams from insight to action
Fabric Apps is Microsoft’s application layer for building secure, data-rich applications on top of Fabric data and semantic models. Rayfin is the code-first framework behind the experience.
The latest developments add backend functions, built-in storage, additional data connections, PostgreSQL support and application metrics. Access through Power BI Pro and Premium Per User should also make it easier for more organisations to begin experimenting with data applications.
For business users, the significance is that an insight no longer has to end in a dashboard. It can become part of an application in which someone makes a decision, enters information or completes an action.
Why it matters: It creates a more direct path from understanding what is happening to doing something about it.
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L-R: Kevin Lynch, Katie McEntegart, Sarah Barter and Theo Isaac of The Information Lab Ireland at FabCon Partner Day 2026 in Barcelona
6. Database Hub and stronger operational visibility
Microsoft is bringing databases and Fabric operations into a more unified management experience.
Database Hub is intended to provide a central view across SQL Server, Azure SQL, PostgreSQL, Azure Cosmos DB and SQL databases in Fabric. Alongside it, Microsoft is expanding observability across workspace monitoring, Monitor Hub and operations agents.
Why it matters: As data estates become more distributed, teams need a clearer view of database health, workload performance and operational issues without treating each platform as an isolated environment.
7. Connecting and sharing data through OneLake is becoming easier
Microsoft announced further expansion of the OneLake ecosystem, including new connections, mirroring options and ways to share governed data and context.
The more important message is that organisations should not need to move and duplicate all their data before they can use it. Shortcuts, mirroring and external sharing support a more connected approach, including controlled data collaboration across teams, partners and organisations.
Microsoft also announced IQ sharing, which is intended to extend governed data and business context beyond a single team or organisation.
Why it matters: Organisations can connect data where it already lives and provide controlled access without relying on repeated exports and copies.
8. More practical pathways for moving existing workloads to Fabric
Across several sessions, Microsoft showed continued investment in making it easier to move existing data estates into Fabric.
This is broader than Azure Data Factory alone. The direction includes migration and modernisation pathways across Azure Data Factory, SQL Server, Azure SQL and other database environments.
For organisations with significant existing investments, the message is not that they need to start again. The opportunity is to assess what they have, identify the right workload and migrate in controlled stages.
Why it matters: A clearer migration path reduces risk and gives organisations a more practical route towards adopting Fabric.
9. Planning in Fabric moves into general availability
Planning in Microsoft Fabric brings planning activity closer to the data, analytics and business context already held within the platform.
This extends the Fabric story beyond reporting what happened. It supports a more connected process in which organisations use data to plan, model and make decisions about what happens next.
Why it matters: Bringing reporting and planning closer together can reduce the disconnect between insight, forecasting and action.
10. Deployment Plans provide more structure for Fabric releases
Deployment Plans introduce a way to define and coordinate the order in which Fabric items are deployed.
For example, a team can plan the sequence in which different lakehouses, warehouses and dependent components are promoted through an environment. Plans can include validation and automation around the deployment process.
Why it matters: As Fabric estates grow, organisations need repeatable ways to move changes from development into production without relying on manual steps or individual knowledge.
What we took away from FabCon Europe
The headline announcements covered AI agents, Copilot, applications, planning, connectivity and platform operations. However, the conversations our team had with Microsoft, customers and partners repeatedly came back to one issue: organisations need to be able to trust and verify the information AI gives them.
A sophisticated agent will not resolve inconsistent definitions, disconnected data or unclear ownership. It can simply make those problems appear more convincingly.
The organisations most likely to create lasting value from AI will be those that combine experimentation with strong data foundations, shared business definitions, clear governance and a practical way for users to verify AI-generated answers.
For us, that was the real story of FabCon Europe 2026.
As the Director of Technology & Consulting at The Information Lab Ireland, Kevin brings over 14 years of experience in data consulting to empower enterprise clients with actionable insights and strategic advantages. With an MSc in Development Practice focused on climate change and a BSc in Mathematics, Kevin speciaIises in delivering and implementing impactful data solutions through a blend of expert knowledge and practical expertise.