Finance teams have always been data-driven, but they face unique challenges in harnessing modern data and AI tools. Concerns around risk, compliance, and data sensitivity, combined with reliance on IT teams and ungoverned spreadsheet logic, have often slowed their ability to fully embrace digital transformation.

Microsoft Fabric, with its integrated services and Copilot capabilities, now offers finance professionals a secure, low/no-code platform to own and accelerate their data journey.

But to be truly impactful, this adoption must be strategic, anchored in strong data governance, scalable architecture, and AI readiness.

In this session, you’ll learn how to:

- Connect to finance data sources (ERP systems, Excel, databases) using secure, scalable, and low-code approaches.

- Clean, reshape, and consolidate data using Fabric notebooks and Copilot with minimal technical overhead.

- Apply and enforce pre-defined schemas and data models to bring consistency and clarity across reporting.

- Enable governed data sharing at all pipeline stages - raw, cleaned, and conformed, ensuring accuracy and trust.

- Utilise Fabric and Copilot to create AI-ready artifacts, enabling capabilities like automated commentary, data Q&A, and intelligent agents.

By the end, we’ll demonstrate how to produce a fully interactive, AI-assisted month-end board pack in Power BI, maintained directly by finance teams, delivering insights that stakeholders can explore autonomously through natural language and rich visual storytelling.

Whether you're a finance leader, data professional, or analytics enabler, you’ll walk away with practical, proven techniques to:

- Minimise technical debt.
- Reduce dependency on IT.
- Enhance data trust and usability.
- Build a foundation for scalable AI in finance.

This session is your blueprint for turning fragmented finance data into governed, self-service insights, unlocking the full value of Microsoft Fabric and Gen AI in your finance function and beyond.