Power BI September 2024 Feature Summary: Key Updates and Enhancements

September 2024 brings a host of exciting new features to Power BI, focusing on enhancing user experience, improving report creation and modeling, and making Power BI more intuitive for users across various roles.

Let’s dive into the latest updates, their impact, and how you can leverage them.

Dark Mode in Power BI Desktop

One of the most anticipated features—Dark Mode—has finally made its way to Power BI Desktop. This feature allows users to switch to a darker interface, which is not only aesthetically pleasing but also reduces eye strain, especially during extended work sessions. Dark Mode is now available in Power BI Desktop, giving report authors and data analysts a more comfortable way to work through late-night reporting sessions.

Impact: Medium Use case example: A financial analyst works late into the evening and switches to Dark Mode to reduce eye strain during complex reporting sessions.

Default Full Report Summaries and Answers in the Copilot Pane

Power BI’s Copilot now automatically generates summaries and answers across all report pages without manual input, making data exploration faster and more intuitive. This update enhances the AI-driven capabilities of Power BI, helping users find key insights with minimal effort.

Impact: High Use case example: A business user exploring a complex financial dashboard instantly receives a full summary of the report, making it easier to digest key insights without navigating through each page manually.

Updated Menu Bar in Service View Mode

The Power BI Service view mode has undergone a facelift, with a streamlined and more readable menu bar. This update consolidates options for improved navigation, particularly for users accessing reports on smaller screens. The new layout makes it easier for report viewers to locate functions quickly.

Impact: Low Use case example: A user navigating a shared Power BI report appreciates the improved layout and ease of access, especially on a mobile device.

Visual Calculations Update (Preview)

Visual calculations are now enabled by default, allowing users to set data types and formatting at the visual level without modifying the data model. This update adds flexibility for users looking to customize their visual analytics without having to dive into deeper data model changes.

Impact: Medium Use case example: A marketing team formats percentage-based metrics in dashboards using visual calculation settings, streamlining data presentation without modifying the underlying data model.

Visual Level Format Strings (Preview)

Users can now define formats—such as text, currency, or whole numbers—directly in visualizations. This feature offers even more control over how data is presented, allowing for tailored formatting without touching the data model.

Impact: Medium Use case example: A financial analyst formats profit data as currency in one visual and as a percentage in another, ensuring consistency across reports.

Subscribe to Reports on the Last Day of the Month

Power BI now allows report authors and admins to set up report subscriptions that deliver on the last day of the month. This simplifies monthly report automation, particularly for teams needing financial summaries at month-end.

Impact: Medium Use case example: A finance team automates the delivery of monthly financial reports on the last day of each month, ensuring they never miss critical reporting deadlines.

Fabric Metrics Layer: Metric Management in Fabric (Preview)

The Fabric Metrics Layer introduces a centralized way to define, manage, and reuse trusted metrics across reports, ensuring consistency and reducing the risk of errors from duplicated metrics. This update is particularly valuable for organizations looking to standardize their reporting metrics.

Impact: High Use case example: A business intelligence team creates standardized sales metrics that can be reused across various reports, ensuring consistent and trusted data across the organization.

Live Edit of Semantic Models in Direct Lake Mode

Power BI now allows live edits of semantic models in Direct Lake mode, making the data modeling process smoother by letting users apply changes without reloading data. This feature boosts productivity and is especially useful for large datasets stored in OneLake.

Impact: High Use case example: A data analyst edits relationships in a Direct Lake semantic model directly within Power BI Desktop without needing to reload the dataset or switch between environments.

Q&A Now Supports Semantic Models with Object Level Security (OLS)

The Q&A feature in Power BI now respects Object Level Security (OLS), ensuring that only authorized users can view sensitive data while still being able to ask natural language questions. This update expands the usability of Q&A in secure environments.

Impact: Medium Use case example: A sales manager uses the Q&A feature to ask questions about their team’s performance, while OLS ensures they can only access data they are authorized to see.

Connected Tables in Excel Now Available in Semi-Annual Channel

Excel users in the Semi-Annual channel can now take advantage of connected tables using the Power BI Datasets Add-in. This feature makes it easy to add Power BI data to Excel workbooks for more comprehensive data analysis.

Impact: Medium Use case example: An HR team uses connected tables in Excel to pull employee data from Power BI, making workforce analysis more dynamic and up-to-date.

NFC Tag Support in Power BI Mobile

Power BI Mobile now supports NFC tags, allowing frontline workers and retail managers to tap their mobile devices on NFC tags to quickly access relevant Power BI reports and dashboards. This feature makes data retrieval faster and more accessible in physical environments.

Impact: Medium Use case example: A retail store manager taps their phone on an NFC tag placed on a shelf to instantly access inventory data from a Power BI report.

KPI by Powerviz Custom Visual

The new KPI by Powerviz custom visual offers over 100 prebuilt templates for creating advanced KPIs. This feature provides rich customization options, making it easier for users to present key performance metrics in a visually engaging way.

Impact: Medium Use case example: A sales team uses the KPI by Powerviz visual to track performance against sales targets, customizing the display to highlight key goals using prebuilt templates.

Final Thoughts

September 2024's Power BI updates cater to a wide range of user needs, from simplifying data visualization and modeling to enhancing mobile data access. Whether you’re working late into the night with Dark Mode or setting up streamlined monthly report subscriptions, these features are designed to improve efficiency, productivity, and user experience. As Power BI continues to evolve, the focus on AI-driven insights and intuitive design makes it an essential tool for data analysts, business users, and report authors alike.

Stay tuned for more updates and be sure to explore these new features to see how they can enhance your Power BI experience.

Check out the interactive Power BI Resource guides that deep dives into each new feature - click here