Top 10 Business Intelligence Software for Eastern Europe

2026. Microsoft Power BI makes Copilot its primary interface



Microsoft has released an update to its Power BI business analytics system. It places Copilot directly on the homepage as the primary interface (you can return to the old recommended content page using the toggle at the top of the homepage). You can now attach a report or semantic model to a Copilot chat as a reference source. The selected item appears in the chat and Copilot uses it as the basis for its responses. Power BI report authors can now customize the colors of visualizations using the theme color picker and a custom color picker. Azure Maps visualizations for Power BI now support a powerful new feature: markers. Markers allow you to display data points with customizable icons, resizable dimensions, and advanced formatting options, enhancing the clarity and expressiveness of geospatial analysis.


2024. Salesforce unveiled AI-powered business analytics system Tableau Einstein



Salesforce has introduced a new AI-powered visual analytics platform called Tableau Einstein. The platform includes a comprehensive technology stack for building data pipelines with the help of an AI assistant. Tableau Einstein allows data scientists and analysts to create semantic models based on live customer data from Salesforce CRM and collaborate on them in a visual editor. The platform also includes a marketplace where professionals can share (possibly for a fee) their analytical tools, for example, ABC analysis by volume of sales. An API allows BI agents to be integrated into other applications, such as Slack, email, and the Salesforce ecosystem.


2015. Microsoft integrates Cortana into Power BI service



Microsoft announced that Cortana personal assistant is coming to Power BI, its business intelligence tool that, it’s worth noting, already had some natural language query capabilities. Once connected, Cortana can now answer questions from your Power BI data sets for written and spoken queries like “revenue for the last quarter” or draw you a chart for the “number of opportunities by team.” Users have to ensure that Cortana has access to their Power BI data sets by enabling this new feature in Power BI.  With Cortana Analytics, Microsoft also currently offers a more bespoke solution for enterprises that focuses less on the Cortana client and more on the machine learning and automation services that power Cortana.


2014. Watson AI connects to Twitter for the benefit of business users



IBM has decided to use its Watson supercomputer to help businesspeople and executives. They launched Watson Analytics which allows users to create analytical tables and graphs using queries written in human (English) language. However, analyzing a company's own data is too easy a task for Watson's artificial intelligence. Analyzing an entire social network like Twitter and providing valuable advice to an executive is a more worthy pursuit. To achieve this, IBM entered into an agreement with Twitter and gained direct access to its database. Company representatives say that businesses have been using social media crawlers for support and marketing purposes for some time, but this only "scratches the surface of the data river." The integration of Twitter and Watson will allow companies to delve much deeper—for example, using human feedback to develop new products or optimize production logistics.


2012. SQL Server 2012 is getting Business Intelligence tools



Microsoft has held a webcast introducing its next-generation database management system, SQL Server 2012. During the webcast, Microsoft Vice Presidents Ted Kummert and Quentin Clark spoke. Kummert discussed Microsoft's vision for data evolution, while Clark gave an overview of the new SQL Server's features. SQL Server 2012 will be released in three editions, including a new Business Intelligence edition featuring modern data analysis and visualization features. An Enterprise Edition is also planned, which, in addition to all the features of the BI edition, will feature advanced security and high availability features, as well as columnar data storage.