Harnessing AI and Automation for Smarter BI Dashboards

by Code4Nord Team | February 19, 2025 | 6 min read

In any business, the role data plays is a crucial one, and at Code4Nord, our experience in working with our clients has shown us just how crucial the need for clear data that is easily accessible is. Data can display how your business is performing, where it’s falling short, and it can show how successful your operations truly are. And with a BI platform, this data becomes clearer to access.

A common solution for data that we’ve implemented for our clients is a BI dashboard. Utilizing a BI dashboard is pivotal for collecting the data of a business, managing it, analyzing it, as well as engaging the business owner and any stakeholders with it through data visualization. BI dashboards are powerful tools, purpose-built for a business, customized and personalized to the operational needs and goals of an organization, that easily present data analysis and show how a business is currently performing. At Code4Nord, we also take this further, introducing our clients to data solutions with Power BI, utilizing the new features in the latest updates to streamline data accessibility even further.

However, as crucial as BI is to measure the performance statistics of a company, the benefits BI has when combined with AI can improve data-driven decision-making through predictive analytics. In this article, we’ll discuss the actionable insights combining BI and AI can deliver, as well as how Microsoft’s Power BI is revolutionizing BI dashboards to improve the future of an organization’s operations.

Combining BI & AI in Data-Driven Analytics

The data visualization that BI offers can be useful, and business owners who aren’t knowledgeable about technology and statistics can easily access these data analytics and draw insights from them. This data storytelling simplifies often complex information with uncomplicated visuals. However, integrating AI and other automation features within a BI dashboard can take this even further.

BI analyzes the data already collected and provides an understanding of it, but BI dashboards that leverage AI allows artificial intelligence to predict and guide a company’s actions to improve its operations. AI, when used in BI dashboards, uses historical data through methods such as data mining to predict trends, identify consumer behavior, anticipate market shifts, and diagnose possible risks, all of which can help an organization make data-driven decisions.

AI within BI dashboards goes even further, though. AI can automate repetitive data tasks, such as generating BI reports, which can save time and also reduce errors that could happen if this task was executed by a human, and these reports, while not as accessible as BI dashboards, are essential for those wanting more detail on the data gathered. AI can also detect patterns, which while this assists with data-driven decision-making, it also helps to detect possible fraud.

BI dashboards can also constantly update, showing real-time data, which the AI can also utilize to update the suggestions it makes concerning data-driven decision-making for the betterment of an organization’s outcomes. Combing BI with the latest developments in AI and automation allows for data analysis to be streamlined, and decisions to be made efficiently, in real-time, and reflect the changing market trends.

Updates in Microsoft’s Power BI

We can go beyond traditional BI data visualization by using AI, as well as through the utilization of Microsoft’s Power BI. Similar to other BI dashboard platforms, Power BI collects, manages, and analyzes data, turning it coherent through data visualization, but it also has advanced BI techniques that are beneficial where data-driven analytics and decision-making are concerned.

• TDML Scripting: A new feature of Power BI is TDML scripting which allows for scripting, modifying, and making changes to the Tabular Model Definition Language, which is an alternative method to semantic modeling with code. Understanding this semantic model metadata can be crucial to enhancing operational development, and at Code4Nord, our experience is that our clients are interested in agile solutions to improve their digital strategy, and through utilizing Power BI and our services, this becomes more achievable.
• Semantic Model Version History: Mistakes happen, and Microsoft’s Power BI enables version history for semantic models to be restored when disaster strikes. This new feature also allows for administration access to previous versions, and for our clients who have difficulty editing their semantic models, this detail is necessary to assist them.
• Live Edit of Semantic Models: Essential to supporting development workflows is the live editing of semantic models in Direct Lake mode on Power BI. This makes workflows more efficient and agile with the ability to live edit, and with one of Code4Nord’s messages being centered on maintenance and support, this new Power BI feature speaks exactly to that.

Microsoft’s Power BI is always developing, with it looking to feature additional support for Python and R, adding resources that will enable the use of Python 3.11 and R 3.4.4 in Power BI service visuals, allowing for custom visuals.

Real-world Examples of Power BI Utilization

Successful implementation of Microsoft Power BI and its advanced features can lead to improvements in decision-making, and if predictive analytic insights are utilized correctly, this can lead to growth for an organization.

Power BI is used in huge organizations, such as Coca-Cola. They leverage Power BI to monitor sales performance and spot patterns, and with the use of AI, they can theoretically further their sales using predictive analytics to show sales forecasts and market predictions. Another great example is Siemens, who make use of Power BI to extract and analyze data from their supply chain and then utilize it to improve their logistic processes. The meaningful data analytics Power BI can give, combined with AI, allows organizations to truly see how they’re performing, as well as obtain insights into where they can improve.

Power BI & Code4Nord

BI dashboards, such as Microsoft’s Power BI, allow data to be displayed visually, and combined with the predictive power of AI, your data analytics become more efficient and insightful and help with crucial decision-making. But further than that, new cutting-edge technologies that combine BI and AI for more advanced features allow data to be more accessible, accurate, and actionable. But despite these benefits, implementing a BI dashboard into your business can be difficult.

At Code4Nord, we understand how Power BI can transform business processes by making efficient use of your raw data. Our data analytics services can help you to adopt a data-driven strategy for your approach to business growth, including Power BI implementation, that will allow you to keep in-step with market predictions.

Contact us today for a free consultation to see how Code4Nord can assist you in solving your technology challenges and implementing Power BI.