Microsoft shipped its May 2026 Power BI feature summary this week, and it is one of the more consequential monthly updates in recent memory. Three capabilities that were either in preview or on the roadmap are now generally available, and the way reports are stored and shared has fundamentally changed.

Here is what shipped and why it matters.

Visual Calculations and Custom Totals Are Now Generally Available

This has been one of the most requested features in the Power BI community for years.

Visual Calculations let report authors write running sums, moving averages, percent-of-parent calculations, and other visual-scoped patterns directly inside a chart — without creating new DAX measures in the semantic model. If you have ever had to explain to a stakeholder why a running total requires writing DAX, or watched a model balloon with dozens of single-use measures, you understand why this matters.

Custom Totals reached GA alongside it. Report authors can now set totals that do not match the underlying aggregation — median totals, weighted average totals, business-rule totals — without adding new measures to the model. The two features together dramatically reduce the gap between what a report author wants to show and what the data model needs to contain.

For Power BI teams managing complex semantic models, the practical effect is fewer measures, cleaner models, and faster report development.

PBIR Replaces PBIX as the Default File Format

Power BI Desktop now defaults to PBIR for all new reports, completing a transition Microsoft announced earlier this year.

The PBIX format stored everything in a single binary file. PBIR stores report definitions as modular, human-readable JSON components inside folders. Every page, visual, and configuration element lives in its own file. This makes Git work the way it is supposed to: a commit that changes a chart’s title shows exactly that change, not a binary diff that tells you nothing.

For analytics teams that have been trying to apply software engineering discipline to their reporting workflows — version control, pull requests, automated testing, CI/CD deployment pipelines — PBIR removes the biggest structural blocker. Reports become version-controlled assets, not opaque binary files that are difficult to audit or compare.

If your team stores Power BI files in SharePoint and calls that version control, this is the moment to revisit how you work.

Copilot Summarize Is Available at Report and Visual Level

Copilot in Power BI now includes a Summarize capability accessible from the report ribbon in Power BI Service and from the visual header on individual charts.

At the report level, Copilot generates a concise summary across all pages and visuals, surfacing key trends, performance highlights, and notable changes. At the visual level, it produces a targeted insight focused on what stands out in that specific chart — trend shifts, differences across categories, key drivers of change.

This is aimed at the common scenario where a business stakeholder opens a report and wants the headline answer before digging into the detail. The Copilot summary provides that starting point without requiring the reader to interpret charts independently.

The quality of these summaries will depend heavily on how well the underlying semantic model is documented and structured — which is another argument for investing in clean data models rather than rushing to add Copilot features on top of poorly maintained data.

What This Means for Business

For data teams, the May 2026 update accelerates three things: model efficiency, development discipline, and accessibility for non-technical stakeholders.

The Visual Calculations and Custom Totals improvements are productivity gains for anyone building reports today. The transition to PBIR is strategic — it is not urgent for existing reports, but any team still treating Power BI files as unmanaged binary assets is accumulating technical debt that will become painful to fix later. The Copilot Summarize feature is the most visible change for end users and will get the most attention from business stakeholders, which means data teams will be asked about it.

The pattern in these updates is consistent with where Microsoft has been heading all year: making Power BI outputs feel more like engineered software and less like spreadsheet-adjacent files. For teams that want to operate at a higher level of maturity, this release provides the infrastructure to do it.

For individuals looking to stay current with Power BI, understanding Visual Calculations and the PBIR format is now table stakes for a 2026 skill set. Enterprise DNA covers both in depth — if you want to build on this foundation properly rather than just experimenting with the new features, the Power BI learning path on EDNA Learn is the structured way to get there.

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Enterprise DNA tracks Power BI updates closely and provides training on every major capability release. If your team needs to upskill on the May 2026 changes, explore EDNA’s Power BI courses.