Microsoft’s Fabric IQ teaches AI agents to understand business operations, not just data patterns

Semantic intelligence is a critical element of actually understanding what data means and how it can be used.Microsoft is now deeply integrating semantics and ontologies into its  Fabric data platform with its new Fabric IQ technology that it debuted at the Microsoft Ignite conference Tuesday.Fabric IQ is a semantic intelligence layer designed to address a fundamental problem with enterprise AI agents: Effectiveness depends not just on dataset size but on how well data reflects actual business operations. The new technology creates a shared semantic structure that maps datasets to real-world entities, their relationships, hierarchies, and operational context. The semantic layer represents the latest step in Microsoft's data platform strategy, which recently integrated LinkedIn's graph database technology to provide context.Microsoft is also expanding its data portfolio with a series of new services: Azure HorizonDB, a PostgreSQL-compatible service in early preview, as well as