Q&A Visual Explained - AI Visuals in Power BI

      In the first installment of her new series on AI visuals in Power BI, Angelica Choo Quan introduces the Q&A visual—a powerful feature that allows users to interact with their data using natural language. This blog post summarizes the key takeaways from her video tutorial, offering a practical guide for leveraging Q&A in Power BI reports.

What is the Q&A Visual?

The Q&A visual is an AI-powered tool in Power BI that enables users to ask questions in natural language and receive answers in the form of visuals. It supports use across Power BI Desktop, dashboards, and the mobile app.

How to Add the Q&A Visual

• Select it from the Visualizations pane.
• Double-click on the report canvas.
• Use the Insert tab to add a Q&A visual or button.

How It Works

Users type questions or statements into the Q&A field. Power BI interprets the input and generates a visual based on the data type and category. For example:

• Dates may trigger a line chart.
• Geographic data may result in a map.

Visual Feedback Indicators

• Blue underline: Recognized terms.
• Red double underline: Unrecognized terms.
• Orange dashed underline: Ambiguous terms.

Examples Demonstrated

1. “First customer purchase” – Displayed earliest purchase dates.
2. “Total orders by calendar year” – Required precise phrasing to return correct visuals.
3. “Total sales by country” – Returned a bar chart; modifying the data category to “Country” enabled a map view.
4. “Total sales by country between May 2005 and June 2006” – Demonstrated how to resolve ambiguous date fields.
5. “Revenue by country” – Showed how to train Q&A to recognize synonyms like “revenue” for “sales.”

Training the Q&A Visual

Angelica walks through how to improve Q&A accuracy by:

• Adding synonyms for terms (e.g., “revenue” for “sales”).
• Modifying data categories to guide visual selection.
• Using the gear icon to access Q&A settings.
• Enabling shared synonyms across the organization.

Advanced Features

• Teach Q&A: Define how Q&A should interpret specific questions.
• Review Questions: Analyze and refine user-submitted queries (available after publishing reports).
• Suggest Questions: Add helpful prompts for users to explore data more effectively.

Final Thoughts

This video is a great starting point for anyone looking to enhance their Power BI reports with AI-driven interactivity. Angelica encourages viewers to explore other AI visuals like Key Influencers, Decomposition Tree, and Smart Narratives in upcoming videos.

Don't forget to check out the Pragmatic Works' on-demand learning platform for more insightful content and training sessions on Power BI and other Microsoft applications. Be sure to subscribe to the Pragmatic Works YouTube channel to stay up-to-date on the latest tips and tricks.