BI News

I found qualifying analyst-facing updates for most of the requested platforms in the last 14 days (May 11–25, 2026). The activity was concentrated in AI-assisted analysis/building, dashboard/report authoring, and governed sharing or embedding workflows. (docs.cloud.google.com) Looker - May 7, 2026: In the Looker 26.8 release notes, Conversational Analytics Advanced Analytics (formerly Code Interpreter) moved to general availability. Looker also made default row/column limits for dashboard tile downloads generally available, so dashboard editors can set defaults and viewers can edit them at download time. (docs.cloud.google.com) - May 7, 2026: Looker added support for querying Explores in Development Mode from Conversational Analytics. (docs.cloud.google.com) - May 7, 2026: Looker listed two preview agent features in 26.8: publishing Conversational Analytics Explore data agents to Gemini Enterprise, and using Conversational Analytics data agents on dashboards. However, the release note also says these items were “not yet available” when updated on May 14, so I would treat them as announced but not broadly shipped yet. (docs.cloud.google.com) Power BI - May 2026 update: Power BI added Copilot summary shortcuts on the report ribbon and the visual header, generating report-level or visual-level summaries in the Copilot pane. (learn.microsoft.com) - May 2026 update: The Copilot narrative visual now supports app-owns-data embedding in preview, extending Copilot-generated narrative output to customer-facing embedded scenarios where end users do not sign in. (learn.microsoft.com) - May 2026 update: Explore improvements added perspectives for large data models, matrix auto-expand behavior, and toolbar controls to show or hide totals in table and matrix visuals. (learn.microsoft.com) - May 2026 update: On the BI side, visual calculations and custom totals reached general availability, and report authors also got Set as landing page plus fixed/default column widths for table and matrix visuals. (learn.microsoft.com) Tableau - No qualifying Tableau update surfaced in the official release materials I checked for May 11–25, 2026. The latest Tableau Desktop releases I found on the official downloads page are 2026.1.1 and 2025.3.5, both released April 21, 2026, which is outside the requested window. (tableau.com) Metabase - May 20, 2026 (Metabase 61): Metabase added AI access controls by feature and by user group for both internal and embedded analytics. (metabase.com) - May 20, 2026: Metabase added token/message limits at the instance, user-group, and embedded-customer level, plus reset schedules. ([metabase.com](https://www.metabase.com/releases/m...

Within the Apr 27–May 11, 2026 window, I found confirmed analyst-facing BI/AI feature updates for Looker and Sigma. For the other platforms, the latest public feature notes I could verify were outside the window or not precisely dateable into it. (cloud.google.com) Looker - May 7, 2026: In the announced Looker 26.8 update, Conversational Analytics Advanced Analytics moved to general availability. Rollout was scheduled to start May 10, 2026 for Looker (original) and May 11, 2026 for Looker (Google Cloud core). (cloud.google.com) - May 7, 2026: Looker added a preview for Conversational Analytics data agents on user-defined dashboards. (cloud.google.com) - May 7, 2026: Looker added a preview to publish Conversational Analytics data agents to Gemini Enterprise. (cloud.google.com) - May 7, 2026: Dashboard download controls became more configurable: editors can set default row and column limits for tile downloads, and viewers can adjust those values when downloading. (cloud.google.com) - May 7, 2026: Conversational Analytics gained support for querying Looker Explores in Development Mode. (cloud.google.com) Power BI - No qualifying updates in the last 14 days that I could verify. The latest public feature summary I found was the April 22, 2026 update, which is outside the requested window. (europe.powerbi.microsoft.com) Tableau - No qualifying update I could confirm in the last 14 days. Tableau’s public materials show an April 2026 release, but the feature page does not expose a precise release date; the dated Tableau blog post I found that references that release is April 25, 2026, just outside the window. (tableau.com) Metabase - No qualifying updates in the last 14 days that I could verify. The latest public feature release I found was Metabase 60 on April 16, 2026, outside the window. (metabase.com) Sigma - May 1, 2026: Sigma updated global search so that, when an organization has configured an AI provider, search uses semantic search. This is the only clearly AI-facing item in the window. (community.sigmacomputing.com) - May 1, 2026: Several workbook-building elements reached GA: repeated container, single row container, and value list. These are layout/reporting features for record-based views and dynamic detail panes. (community.sigmacomputing.com) - May 1, 2026: Sigma added dynamic chart axis ranges driven by formulas or controls, autofit columns for tables, and more control over stacked bar chart data labels. (

In the last 14 days, I found clear qualifying BI/AI feature updates for Power BI, Sigma, and Tableau. For the other platforms, the latest public release material I found was either outside the Apr 13–27, 2026 window or limited to minor fixes that I excluded. (powerbi.microsoft.com) Looker - No qualifying updates found in the last 14 days. In Google’s public Looker release notes, the surfaced entries I found were older, with no Apr 13–27, 2026 analyst-facing feature items visible. (docs.cloud.google.com) Power BI - Apr 22, 2026: In-report Copilot on Power BI mobile now supports open-ended follow-up chat against the current report, can generate AI-created visuals, includes citations back to report visuals, and adds voice dictation on iPhone/iPad. (powerbi.microsoft.com) - Apr 22, 2026: The modern visual defaults preview adds a base-theme switcher for updating or reverting report themes, plus preset canvas sizes for common aspect ratios. (powerbi.microsoft.com) - Apr 22, 2026: Card, button slicer, and list slicer visuals now support a fixed-size layout mode, so authors can specify exact pixel dimensions instead of auto-fitting items. (powerbi.microsoft.com) - Apr 22, 2026: The April modeling preview adds Direct Lake calculated columns/tables and user-context-aware calculated columns for scenarios like data translations. Microsoft says Direct Lake service rollout is still deploying over the next few weeks, so availability may lag the announcement. (powerbi.microsoft.com) Tableau - Date note: Tableau’s public materials identify this as the April 2026 release, and Tableau was still promoting that release on Apr 25, 2026; the exact ship date is not shown on the main feature page, so inclusion in the 14-day window is a best-effort inference from Tableau’s own release surfacing. (tableau.com) - April 2026 release: Tableau Next MCP is generally available, allowing MCP-compatible AI apps to query Tableau data and metadata through Tableau’s analytics engine. (tableau.com) - April 2026 release: Inspector in Slack is in beta, sending natural-language metric-threshold alerts into Slack DMs and allowing follow-up questions from there. (tableau.com) - April 2026 release: Tableau added agent-governance controls in Concierge: semantic-model scoping and page-filter visibility are GA, while Q&A Calibration is beta for testing and tuning agent responses. (tableau.com) - April 2026 release: The Tableau App for Microsoft 365 is GA for Tableau Cloud and Server, letting users embed dashboard/Pulse snapshots in Word and PowerPoint and refresh them later. Tableau’s March 16 blog described Word/PowerPoint support as public preview, so GA status appears to be new in the April release. (