Using Power BI Smart Narratives

Using Power BI Smart Narratives – A Detailed Guide

Power BI Smart Narratives is a powerful feature that allows users to generate automated insights and textual summaries within their reports and dashboards. It helps users quickly understand trends, outliers, and key takeaways from data without manually analyzing every visual.

This guide provides a step-by-step explanation of how to use Smart Narratives in Power BI.

Step 1: Understanding Smart Narratives in Power BI

Before using Smart Narratives, it’s important to understand what it does:

Smart Narratives is a feature in Power BI that automatically generates dynamic text-based summaries based on the visuals in a report.
It helps enhance storytelling with data by providing key insights in natural language.
It dynamically updates as data changes, ensuring real-time insights.

Use Cases for Smart Narratives

Automatically summarizing key insights for executive dashboards.
Generating textual explanations for financial reports.
Providing real-time updates based on data filters or slicers.
Helping non-technical users understand trends without deep analysis.

Step 2: Enabling Smart Narratives in Power BI

Before using Smart Narratives, ensure that you are using Power BI Desktop (latest version) or Power BI Service.

How to Enable Smart Narratives

Open Power BI Desktop.
Load a Dataset that contains numerical or categorical data.
Ensure that Auto Insights is enabled under Options > Preview Features (if applicable).
Click on the Visualizations pane and locate the Smart Narratives icon.

Step 3: Creating a Smart Narrative in Power BI

Once your report is ready, follow these steps:

Method 1: Using Smart Narratives for Entire Report

Go to the Report View in Power BI.
Click on the Insert tab in the Ribbon.
Select Smart Narrative from the Visualizations Pane.
Power BI will generate an automated summary of the entire report, including insights like averages, trends, and key data points.
Customize the narrative as per your requirements.

Method 2: Using Smart Narratives for Specific Visuals

Click on the visual (chart, graph, or table) for which you want to generate a summary.
Select the “More options” (three dots) menu on the visual.
Click Summarize.
Power BI will generate insights related to that specific visual.

Step 4: Customizing Smart Narratives

After inserting Smart Narratives, you can customize the content:

Editing the Narrative

Click on the Smart Narrative text box.
You will see editable placeholders such as {Total Sales} or {Growth Rate}.
Modify the text and placeholders to add more descriptive insights.
You can manually add explanations like:
- “The total sales for this quarter is {Total Sales}, showing a {Growth Rate} compared to the last quarter.”
- “The highest sales were recorded in {TopRegion}, contributing {TopRegionPercentage}% of total sales.”

Adding Dynamic Measures

Click inside the Smart Narrative text box.
Select Add Value to insert a dynamic field.
Choose the required measure, column, or aggregation.
The text will automatically update when data refreshes.

Formatting the Text

Use bold, italic, or underline for emphasis.
Change font size and color for better readability.
Align text using left, center, or right alignment.

Step 5: Making Smart Narratives Interactive

Making Smart Narratives Respond to Slicers and Filters

If you apply a slicer or filter, the Smart Narrative updates automatically.
Example: If a user selects a specific year, the text summary will only reflect data from that year.

Using Bookmarks for Different Narratives

You can create different narratives based on user selections by using Bookmarks in Power BI.
Example: Show different Smart Narratives for Sales, Revenue, and Customer Analysis.

Step 6: Publishing and Sharing Smart Narratives

Publishing to Power BI Service

Click on File > Publish > Power BI Service.
Select your workspace.
Click Publish.

Embedding in Power BI Dashboards

Open the Power BI Service.
Go to your report and pin the Smart Narrative to a dashboard.
Users will see automated text insights along with the visuals.

Exporting Reports with Smart Narratives

You can export Smart Narratives as a PDF or PowerPoint file.
The text will remain dynamic within Power BI, but static when exported.

Step 7: Advanced Features in Smart Narratives

Using DAX with Smart Narratives

You can create custom measures using DAX and insert them into Smart Narratives.
Example DAX measure for Year-over-Year Growth: YoY Growth = DIVIDE(SUM(Sales[Revenue]), SUM(Sales[Revenue LY])) - 1
Insert {YoY Growth} into Smart Narratives to display dynamic growth rates.

Combining Smart Narratives with AI Visuals

Use AI-powered visuals like Key Influencers alongside Smart Narratives.
Power BI can generate text-based insights using machine learning models.

Best Practices for Using Smart Narratives in Power BI

✔ Use clear and concise text to make insights readable.
✔ Ensure the Smart Narrative dynamically updates when data changes.
✔ Combine narratives with slicers and filters to allow user interactions.
✔ Use DAX measures for more customized insights.
✔ Format text properly to enhance readability.
✔ Test Smart Narratives on different datasets to ensure accuracy.
✔ Avoid unnecessary text blocks to keep the report clean.

Conclusion

Power BI Smart Narratives is a game-changer for storytelling with data. It allows users to automate insights, customize text dynamically, and make reports more interactive. By following the steps outlined above, you can leverage Smart Narratives to create insightful, data-driven reports in Power BI.

Would you like assistance with a specific use case for Smart Narratives?