Ask any business leader if they’re looking at AI to transform their business, and you’ll nearly always hear a resounding “yes.” Then ask them if they’re ready; you might be surprised at the response.

According to the Avanade AI Readiness report, a fresh survey of 3,000 business and IT executives across the globe, nearly all leaders (92%) agreed that organizations need to shift to an AI-first operating model in the next 12 months to remain competitive. And almost everyone (95%) shares our optimism in an AI-first future.

But most executives (94%) said they need to increase digital investments on data platforms to make those AI aspirations a reality, and scale them across their business. In aggregate, respondents seem to be saying, “I know we need to build for an AI future. What foundations do I need in place to get there?”

Enter Microsoft Fabric.

Lifting the curtain on Microsoft Fabric At its flagship Ignite conference, Microsoft just announced the general availability of Microsoft Fabric, the data platform that Microsoft says “can reshape how your teams work with data by bringing everyone together on a single, AI-powered platform built for the era of AI.” It is a complete platform that simplifies and unifies data, streamlines governance, and empowers more employees to access and build with data.

And Microsoft Fabric is itself AI-powered. Today, Microsoft announced several new Copilot capabilities in Fabric, including new AI assistance for Power BI, data science experiences and more. We are very excited to see how Copilot will help our clients upgrade everything from data visualizations to complex data modeling and analysis, unlocking the insights that deliver business value.

Accenture and Avanade are fluent in Fabric and ready on day 1 We believe the arrival of Microsoft Fabric is a monumental milestone, bringing the capabilities that our clients need to achieve their AI ambitions. There’s no better time to strengthen your data foundation. To ensure our clients can quickly harness and scale all the benefits and capabilities of Fabric, we’re thrilled to jointly announce the industry’s most comprehensive suite of Microsoft Fabric offerings, expertise, and commitments:

• 8 new offers surrounding Microsoft Fabric, the most comprehensive suite of Fabric solutions available today, via Azure Marketplace. Whether you need a Fabric security assessment, migration from legacy data systems to Microsoft Fabric, or want to work on data quality for your adoption of Microsoft Fabric, our new offers will help you accelerate data transformation.
• Launching Microsoft Fabric training across Accenture and Avanade, one of the industry’s largest commitments to growing Fabric expertise, which we have already rolled out to thousands of employees.
• We’ve implemented the world’s largest Microsoft Fabric platform across Accenture and Avanade to fuel our own data transformation, and we’ll use what we’ve learned to accelerate data excellence for our clients.
• We’ve created a dedicated Microsoft Fabric practice across Accenture and Avanade to help organizations plan, architect, develop, pilot, and deploy Microsoft Fabric to bring together data from thousands of sources across the enterprise.

Together, Accenture and Avanade are uniquely positioned to help clients evolve their data strategy with Microsoft Fabric. We’re trusted Microsoft partners and first adopters of foundational Microsoft AI capabilities like Copilot, Fabric and more – meaning we have the skills, expertise and experience to help you improve your AI maturity. We’re confident that we’re equipped to help our clients achieve new heights with a stronger data foundation, AI that elevates human experiences, and unlocked growth and value in the AI era.

Imagine what’s possible with AI…and a stronger data foundation Microsoft Fabric will help our clients manage their data in one unified foundation, while creating a single source of truth for all their data. Its open, lake-centric foundation with data governance built in will help ensure trustable data and responsible AI while optimizing data product, service, and analytics access across the entire organization.

Whether you’re exploring generative AI use cases, or trying to untangle a complex enterprise data environment, Accenture and Avanade teams are ready to help you explore what’s possible with Microsoft Fabric.

To learn more visit our Microsoft Fabric offering page or explore our new Microsoft Fabric offers on Azure Marketplace today.