Dive Brief:

• Cortana will serve as an interface for users to ask questions about information stored in Power BI.
• Power BI uses a natural language search feature to help users learn more about their data. Users can type or speak questions to Cortana, which analyzes users' data in Power BI to generate answers.
• The digital assistant's new capabilities became available for public preview Dec. 1.

Dive Insight:

The integration leverages the data visualization capabilities of Power BI to provide answers in the form of numerical values, charts, maps, and reports, said Microsoft. Users who wish to dig deeper into an answer can open Power BI through the answer provided by Cortana.

Microsoft says the Power BI and Cortana integration, combined with the Cortana Analytics Suite, can boost enterprise productivity.

Companies are increasingly looking to provide easier ways for businesses to get more value out of their data. A September report from Bluewolf, a business consulting firm that focuses on the cloud, found most companies still need help when it comes to making sense of all the data they collect. A total of 76% of those surveyed said they need help manipulating data in order to derive business insights from it.