22-25 April 2026 
How Modern Organizations Automate Data-Driven Decision Making with Microsoft BI
Proposed session for SQLBits 2026TL; DR
Despite decades of investment in Business Intelligence, most organizations still rely on slow, manual decision-making processes. This session argues that the true promise of BI has never been better reports—but automated, scalable, and governed decision making.
Based on real-world experience delivering Power BI and Fabric solutions across dozens of organizations, this talk traces the evolution of Microsoft BI and explains why only now—through Fabric and Copilot—do organizations finally have the technical capabilities required to automate recurring decisions.
The session highlights why transformation efforts often fail, the organizational resistance they create, and what leaders must do differently to unlock the next wave of productivity gains in data-driven organizations.
Session Details
Modern organizations expect major productivity gains from technologies applied to white-collar work. In the field of Business Intelligence, those gains are no longer driven by better dashboards—but by the automation of recurring data-driven decisions.
Drawing on two decades of Microsoft BI evolution—from Excel-based reporting to Power BI, Microsoft Fabric, and Copilot—this session shows why technology alone has never been enough to deliver on BI promises. While analytical capabilities have evolved dramatically, the five steps of data-driven decision making remain unchanged, and most organizations still struggle with slow, manual, and politically complex decision processes.
This presentation explores:
How traditional BI reporting creates friction, delays, and hidden costs in decision-making
Why Power BI changed the game mainly through automation, scalability, and governance, not visualization
Why Microsoft’s attempts to empower citizen developers beyond reporting largely failed—and what Fabric changes
How Fabric and Copilot finally enable predictive and prescriptive analytics at scale
Why the biggest challenges of becoming a modern data-driven organization are organizational and cultural, not technical
Attendees will gain a clear vision of what a modern organization looks like, where managers make most recurring decisions autonomously using governed data, analysts focus on high-value non-recurring analysis, and BI becomes a true productivity lever rather than a reporting factory.
Drawing on two decades of Microsoft BI evolution—from Excel-based reporting to Power BI, Microsoft Fabric, and Copilot—this session shows why technology alone has never been enough to deliver on BI promises. While analytical capabilities have evolved dramatically, the five steps of data-driven decision making remain unchanged, and most organizations still struggle with slow, manual, and politically complex decision processes.
This presentation explores:
How traditional BI reporting creates friction, delays, and hidden costs in decision-making
Why Power BI changed the game mainly through automation, scalability, and governance, not visualization
Why Microsoft’s attempts to empower citizen developers beyond reporting largely failed—and what Fabric changes
How Fabric and Copilot finally enable predictive and prescriptive analytics at scale
Why the biggest challenges of becoming a modern data-driven organization are organizational and cultural, not technical
Attendees will gain a clear vision of what a modern organization looks like, where managers make most recurring decisions autonomously using governed data, analysts focus on high-value non-recurring analysis, and BI becomes a true productivity lever rather than a reporting factory.
3 things you'll get out of this session
Attendees will gain a clear vision of what a modern organization looks like, where managers make most recurring decisions autonomously using governed data, analysts focus on high-value non-recurring analysis, and BI becomes a true productivity lever rather than a reporting factory.
Speakers
Joel Gagnon's other proposed sessions for 2026
Maximizing the impact of Power BI applications through improved user experience - 2026