More than 5,000 attendees from 71 countries gathered at the Barcelona International Convention Centre (CCIB) to witness the European Microsoft Fabric + SQL Community Conference. The event, which kicked off with great anticipation, unveiled a series of announcements that redefine Microsoft's strategy in the realm of data and artificial intelligence. The Redmond-based company is not only looking to improve its tools but also to lay the foundations of a unified platform where business context becomes the most valuable asset for the next generation of intelligent agents.

Arun Ulag, executive vice president of Azure Data, opened the day with compelling figures: Microsoft Fabric now has over 40,000 customers worldwide, with a community of 2.6 million active users. Furthermore, certifications in this area are the fastest-growing within the company, and SQL remains the backbone of enterprise workloads, present in more than 90% of Fortune 500 companies. These data underscore Microsoft's firm commitment to integrating data, analytics, and AI into a cohesive ecosystem.

Fabric IQ: Context as a Service

The central concept of the event was "context." According to Ulag, organizations need more than AI models and agents: they require reliable data, shared business definitions, operational knowledge, security, and governance. To address this need, Microsoft introduced Fabric IQ, a shared intelligence layer that connects OneLake data, metrics from Power BI semantic models, and context from ontologies and real-time intelligence.

The integration of Fabric IQ with the new Microsoft Copilot is one of the most relevant announcements. The assistant will no longer work solely with generic information but with a shared view of the business built on data and knowledge specific to each organization. Fabric IQ is now generally available in Copilot Chat and Cowork, at no additional token cost, and its integration with the new Code experience will arrive soon through the Frontier program. For Power BI users, business definitions, metrics, and insights embedded in their semantic models can be used directly as the basis for Copilot's responses and actions.

This move changes the traditional role of the data platform: it's no longer just about storing, integrating, and analyzing information, but about turning data into business context that is understandable for both people and AI agents. The underlying question is: AI can read your data, but does it really understand your business?

Power BI Evolves Toward Creating Agentic Applications

The second major line of news concerns Power BI. Microsoft has announced the ability to create agentic applications directly from Power BI Desktop. Users can start from a trusted semantic model, describe the application they need in natural language, generate it, preview it, modify it, and publish it to Fabric. This conceptual leap is significant: Power BI was born as a business intelligence tool to transform data into information, then incorporated conversational capabilities with Copilot, and now aims for users to move from analyzing information to creating operational applications based on that same data.

Additionally, Microsoft is expanding Fabric applications to facilitate the transition from prototype to production. Developers can connect applications with Fabric warehouses, SQL databases, lakehouses, and Power BI semantic models without duplicating data and while maintaining existing permissions and business logic. New features include TypeScript backend, Secret Store, PostgreSQL, private access by default, and built-in usage and performance metrics. This evolution connects directly with the trend toward agentic verification in production, where automation and security are critical.

OneLake: Toward an Open Data Network

Another key focus was OneLake. As organizations scale AI, connecting data is no longer enough. Copilots and agents also need business context, including terminology, relationships, instructions, and domain knowledge, to provide relevant answers and take informed actions. Microsoft OneLake will provide an open foundation for connecting data across clouds, applications, and platforms. The company presented it as an evolution toward an open data network where data products can be reused for analytics and artificial intelligence. This vision aligns with the need for advanced solutions in Azure that go beyond the basic cloud.

More Announcements: Agents, Databases, and Billing

Microsoft also introduced the Fabric data engineering agent, designed to automate complex tasks such as migrations, lakehouse modernization, optimization, ETL processes, and data preparation. New Copilot capabilities in Real-Time Intelligence are coming, allowing the creation of dashboards through natural language and automating Eventhouse administration tasks. The operations agent incorporates root cause analysis and recommendations to resolve incidents.

Fabric IQ is expanding with capabilities to generate ontologies from semantic models, OneLake data, and context documents. Organizations can define rules in natural language and reuse Power BI metrics, providing a common business meaning and improving the accuracy of responses. On the billing side, on-demand billing is added, allowing payment for the computing capacity used, along with zero provisioning for Fabric and OneLake.

In the database realm, Database Hub offers a centralized control plane for SQL Server, Azure SQL, PostgreSQL, Cosmos DB, and SQL Database in Fabric. Database agents for SQL and PostgreSQL are also coming. Finally, Azure SQL Database Hyperscale incorporates DiskANN vector indexes, aimed at semantic search and RAG applications. Microsoft completes the announcements with the general availability of SQL Server on Azure Local and its disconnected operations, reinforcing support for on-premises, edge, and sovereign scenarios.

These moves in the realm of agents and data security resonate with the new era of cyber risks unleashed by agentic AI, where oversight and governance are essential. Likewise, the integration of agents into databases is reminiscent of the merger of Synack and Wiz to revolutionize vulnerability management, highlighting the importance of breaking down silos.

One Platform, One Context, and a New Generation of Agents

The set of announcements outlines a significant evolution of Microsoft Fabric, which seeks to enhance real efficiency in the era of agents. Microsoft is building around Fabric an architecture in which OneLake connects data; Power BI provides semantic models and metrics; Fabric IQ incorporates business context; Copilot and agents use that knowledge; and observability, governance, and database tools provide the operational layer necessary to keep the entire system under control.

Microsoft's own conclusion summarizes the paradigm shift: AI transformation will depend not so much on the number of agents an organization can create but on its ability to understand the business and collaborate to achieve results. Therefore, the technological battle glimpsed from Barcelona is not fought solely on the terrain of AI models. It is increasingly fought on the terrain of data, context, semantics, governance, and the infrastructures that make that intelligence truly useful.

Meanwhile, the conference continues in the Catalan city, with more than 130 sessions, tutorials, and roundtables. There have been local references, such as F.C. Barcelona, whose motto "més que un club" was used to foster a sense of belonging to a company that wants to change the way AI is leveraged. This focus on context and platform unification also dialogues with the evolution of models like Claude Opus 5.5, where efficiency and reasoning are key, and with the migration guide for DevOps that accompanies these changes.

Original source: ComputerWorld. Analysis and adaptation by ForgeNEX.