1/15/2025
Power BI + Python Automation for Insight Ops
Automate refreshes, narratives, and alerting around Power BI using Python scripts and serverless hooks.
Power BI is still the fastest path to executive-ready dashboards, but it becomes unstoppable once you wire it into Python automation.
Automate refresh governance
Schedule refresh APIs with Azure Functions or AWS Lambda. Pair with a lightweight Python watchdog that validates row counts and pushes failures right to Teams or Slack.
Generate narratives
Use Python templating (I like Jinja) to turn query outputs into stories: "MRR grew 12% WoW driven by enterprise upgrades." Drop the message into Teams and paste a link to the refreshed dashboard.
Close the loop with SQL
Codify your SQL in dbt or a version-controlled repo. Trigger the transformations before the Power BI refresh so everything stays consistent.
This automation stack is part of my standard deliverables for reporting clients. Ping me if you need it.