Forum Discussion
Copilot Narrative Visual in PowerBI
The Copilot narrative visual in power-bi giving results in paragraph mode suddenly from today.
The results from the narrative were coming in tsructured format until yesterday.
I have tried many things in the prompt but still no luck.
- Tried giving instructions for getting the results in structure and bullets
- Hardcoding the response format to not be in executive storytelling format : "Respond in a structured report format, not in storytelling paragraph format."
Is this happening due to some recent changes in the Copilot Narrative Visual?
Is there any work around or solution existing? Has anyone else faced the same problem?
Hi Rohit_Singh_VC ,
At this time, report authors don’t have any control to check how the backend Copilot model is updated or to change how the Narrative visual behaves internally. The formatting style like paragraph format or structured tables,bullets is fully controlled by the Microsoft‑hosted Copilot service.
Sometimes, when Microsoft updates the service or adjusts model routing, the format may temporarily change on its own. That’s why the behavior sometimes goes back to normal even when you didn’t change anything in the report or prompt.You can try giving prompts that encourage structured output, but they cannot guarantee it every time. If this formatting issue starts happening again for many users, you can raise a support ticket with Microsoft Support so they can review this behavior from backend and assist you further.
If the issue continues, the support team will be able to investigate and guide you accordingly.
Please refer below link on how to raise a contact support or support ticket.
How to create a Fabric and Power BI Support ticket - Power BI | Microsoft Learn
Regards,
Community Support Team.
9 Replies
Hi! You’re not alone... several users have recently seen the Copilot narrative visual in Power BI switch from structured/bullet output to paragraph storytelling even with strict prompts. This is likely due to backend model or template updates in Microsoft Copilot rather than an issue with your prompt.
Workarounds that sometimes help: force a rigid schema (exact bullet template), request table format output, and add length limits per line. Otherwise, Smart Narrative or DAX-based text is more format-stable for now.
Sample of structure:
Return output only as bullet list.
No paragraphs.
Max 1 line per bullet.
Format:
- Insight:
- Value:
- Reason:Hi, I had the same problem today - it's very annoying and the responses now look very messy. I am going to change the prompts tomorrow to see if I can get the tables and structure back to the responses.
Update to situation above. I went to fix it this morning and it is all now formatting how it should, with tables in the response and I haven't changed anything. I will let you all know if it breaks again over the coming days.
Hi Rohit_Singh_VC,
Thank you for reaching out to the Microsoft fabric community forum.
This looks like a change in Copilot behavior and not an issue with your report or prompt. The Copilot Narrative visual does not guarantee a fixed output format, and the response style can vary even if you clearly ask for bullets or structured output. Since the narrative format is controlled by Copilot, prompt instructions may not always be followed, especially after backend updates. A few other users have noticed the same behavior recently, which suggests this is not isolated to one report.At the moment, there is no documented setting or workaround to force the narrative visual to always return structured or tabular output.
Kindly refer to the below documentation links for better understanding:
Create a narrative visual with Copilot for Power BI - Power BI | Microsoft Learn
Hope the above provided information help you resolve the issue, if you have any further concerns or queries, please feel free to reach out to us.
Regards,
Community Support Team.Hi and thanks for the information.
As it was working before, could you pls try to look into this to see if we can make to model to give structured output when the prompt says so, basically investigating the recent updates in the Model and making necessary adjustments/refinements to make it work, as earlier.I have tried with simpler prompts. The current challenge is that the model results do not force the response to be formatted even after putting strict formatting instructions, which makes the results honestly like a big sintences of words put together in a paragraph and reduces readability. In turn reduces the usability of the visual as of now.
Hi Rohit_Singh_VC ,
At this time, report authors don’t have any control to check how the backend Copilot model is updated or to change how the Narrative visual behaves internally. The formatting style like paragraph format or structured tables,bullets is fully controlled by the Microsoft‑hosted Copilot service.
Sometimes, when Microsoft updates the service or adjusts model routing, the format may temporarily change on its own. That’s why the behavior sometimes goes back to normal even when you didn’t change anything in the report or prompt.You can try giving prompts that encourage structured output, but they cannot guarantee it every time. If this formatting issue starts happening again for many users, you can raise a support ticket with Microsoft Support so they can review this behavior from backend and assist you further.
If the issue continues, the support team will be able to investigate and guide you accordingly.
Please refer below link on how to raise a contact support or support ticket.
How to create a Fabric and Power BI Support ticket - Power BI | Microsoft Learn
Regards,
Community Support Team.
Hi,
I am also facing the exact same issue, starting from today morning. The visual doesn't follow the prompt instruction when it comes to structuring the response output; it just gives a big messy paragraph without any bullets though the prompt says so.
Update on my comment from yesterday - today the co pilot narrative Vidal is working as expected - formatted as prompted and producing tables rather than just text. I don't change anything. Will update again if it changes again.
