Database, Analytics, and AI/ML Roadmap – Overall Trends

This section discusses high-level trends that Directions sees in the areas of Database, Analytics, AI, and Machine Learning offerings.

Near Term (2024–2025)

In the short term, Directions expects the following:

AI focus across all products. Microsoft has committed to and is arguably leading an industry-wide pursuit of AI-based offerings. The company had an early start with a substantial investment and partnership with ChatGPT maker OpenAI, and generative AI became the foundation for a range of nearly 20 Microsoft Copilot offerings. Customers should expect Microsoft to continue promoting Copilot and AI for several years.

Strong push for Fabric adoption. Microsoft has invested heavily in its new Fabric data and analytics offering and will emphasize the technology to drive adoption. The previous solutions (like Synapse Analytics and Azure Data Factory) are unlikely to receive significant new features as the focus stays on Fabric. Additionally, Fabric will add features from older products where those features are likely to be retired. For example, Power BI Dataflows (now Gen 1) is already having features retired, and those features are appearing in Fabric Data Factory Dataflows (now Gen 2). Microsoft uses this approach to make the old products less and less attractive and encourage customers to migrate to newer products. Another example is the change in Power BI licensing, effective Jan. 1, 2025, that removes high-end Power BI licenses in favor of Fabric licenses. This change will push Fabric adoption upon Power BI customers even if they might not immediately benefit from the transition.