Nearly 5,000 data professionals gathered in Barcelona for FabCon and SQLCon Europe. We sifted through the announcements, so you don't have to. Here's what stood out and what it means for you. The big picture This year's message was simple: Microsoft Fabric is no longer just where your data lives. It now feeds Copilot and AI agents directly. The quality of your data models and governance now decides the quality of your AI answers. Top picks Apps in Power BI / Fabric Apps (

Yes, Dataverse is still relevant, and arguably more so now. AI has made the app layer cheap to produce, but the data layer still has to be secure, audited, governed and recoverable.

You've turned on Copilot in Microsoft Fabric. Your team is asking questions in natural language, generating code, querying semantic models. It feels like progress. Then someone in finance runs a particularly heavy Copilot session at 9am on a Monday, and your ETL pipelines start throttling. The Power BI refresh that the board relies on at 9:30 failed. You're now in a conversation you didn't want to have. This is the moment most organisations hit when they start rolling out AI

One of the hardest lessons in low-code development is accepting that sometimes your first solution will fail. You think a flow, table, or app will handle the workload or logic, and then reality pushes the platform to its limits.

Many organisations are still facing the same data challenges. Data is fragmented across SQL, Excel, SharePoint and SaaS platforms. New sources take too long to onboard. Reporting teams are forced into manual workarounds. Governance is inconsistent, and previous attempts to create a trusted central data platform have often stalled before delivering real value. If that feels familiar, you are not alone. These challenges are exactly why we are launching the MPowerUp Fabric Acc

One of the hardest lessons in low-code delivery is that everything gets tangled if you aren’t deliberate. Flows, tables, environment variables, and apps, all linked together without thought, quickly become a maintenance nightmare.

Last week’s FabCON brought a huge volume of announcements, updates and direction of travel for Microsoft Fabric. There is a lot to take in and a lot to be excited about. Rather than trying to cover everything, we have focused on the three updates that stood out most to us. Not just because they are new, but because they genuinely move the dial for those building, operating and relying on Fabric day to day.

If you’re in a manufacturing business still relying on accounting-only software, you might be missing out on the bigger picture. This blog examines why Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central, especially when paired with the Power Platform and Power BI, is a smarter choice for manufacturers looking to stay competitive and agile.