What this walk-through gets you
You've been asked to show the board, or your own CIO, how Microsoft 365 Copilot is actually being used, and a single screenshot of login counts won't hold up. This tutorial walks a Digital Transformation Leader through building a Microsoft 365 Copilot usage report in Power BI: combining admin center exports, chat activity and agent data into one view.
Microsoft documents four separate sources for Microsoft 365 Copilot usage reports: the admin center, Viva Insights Copilot Analytics, Purview audit logs, and Power Platform or Copilot Studio Analytics. We'll walk through the sources most teams actually use for a Power BI build, then show where the resulting dashboard runs out of answers.
Sources: Microsoft Copilot reports for IT admins | Microsoft Learn
Before you start: licenses, roles and tenant settings
Before you touch Power BI, confirm the basics. You need the AI Administrator or Global Administrator role in Microsoft 365, active Microsoft 365 Copilot licenses for at least some users, and Copilot reporting enabled in the admin center.
Decide which of Microsoft's four Copilot data sources fits your goal before you build anything. A quick usage snapshot only needs the admin center. A fuller view with productivity-impact metrics needs Viva Insights licensing. A custom Power BI build needs Power Automate Premium, Dataverse, and a beta Microsoft Graph endpoint we'll cover shortly.
We'd push back on jumping straight to a custom build here. Most Digital Transformation Leaders overbuild this, when the admin center's native exports already answer most of what a first dashboard needs to show.
Sources: Microsoft Copilot reports for IT admins | Microsoft Learn, reportRoot: getMicrosoft365CopilotUsageUserDetail - Microsoft Graph beta | Microsoft Learn, How to deploy my (meaningful) Microsoft 365 Copilot usage report – Loryan Strant, Microsoft 365 MVP
Building a Microsoft 365 Copilot usage report in Power BI
Here's how to build a Microsoft 365 Copilot usage report in Power BI, start to finish.
- Choose your data source: pick between the admin center, Viva Insights, Purview or Power Platform analytics, depending on whether you need raw usage, productivity-impact signals, compliance logs or agent activity.
- Pull the admin center usage report: export the Microsoft 365 admin center's Copilot usage report, which typically becomes available within 48 hours of the day's activity.
- Add the Microsoft 365 Copilot Chat usage report: layer in the Chat usage report, which Microsoft currently scopes only to users who lack a Copilot license and interact with Copilot Chat.
- Check the Microsoft 365 Copilot agent usage report: note that Microsoft has deprecated the original agent usage report and now points admins to a newer agent report inside the admin center.
- Connect Viva Insights for a fuller dashboard: bring in the Viva Insights Copilot Dashboard and its Power BI templates if you want productivity-impact and ROI indicators alongside raw counts.
- Go custom with Microsoft Graph, if you must: pull data through the Graph beta usage-detail endpoint, which supports D7, D30, D90, D180 or ALL reporting periods.
The Microsoft 365 Copilot Chat usage report and the admin center's usage export alone get most teams a workable Power BI view: who's active, how often, and in which app. The Microsoft 365 Copilot agent usage report, Viva Insights and a custom Graph build add texture, at the cost of more licensing and more fragility.
Sources: Microsoft Copilot reports for IT admins | Microsoft Learn, Microsoft Copilot Usage Report - Microsoft 365 admin | Microsoft Learn, Microsoft Copilot Chat Usage Report - Microsoft 365 admin | Microsoft Learn, Microsoft Copilot Agent Usage Report - Microsoft 365 admin | Microsoft Learn, reportRoot: getMicrosoft365CopilotUsageUserDetail - Microsoft Graph beta | Microsoft Learn
What your dashboard will actually show
Once built, your Microsoft 365 Copilot usage report in Power BI shows active users by app, filterable to the last 7, 28, 90 or 180 days. If you added Viva Insights, you'll also get a productivity-impact tile, which Microsoft defines as a measure of Copilot's effect on productivity metrics.
We're skeptical of that tile. Microsoft doesn't publish the methodology behind it, so we'd read productivity impact as a directional signal Microsoft itself frames loosely, not an audited number you can quote to a CFO.
Expect last-used dates and interaction counts, not explanations. The dashboard tells you someone opened Copilot Chat on a Tuesday; it won't tell you whether the output was any good, or why half the team never opened it at all.
Sources: Microsoft Copilot reports for IT admins | Microsoft Learn, Microsoft Copilot Usage Report - Microsoft 365 admin | Microsoft Learn
When the numbers don't add up
A few things commonly go wrong once you put this into real use.
| Symptom | Likely cause | Fix |
|---|---|---|
| Chat usage numbers look too low | The Chat usage report only counts users without a Copilot license | Cross-check against the main usage report, which covers licensed users separately |
| Agent report tile is empty or missing | The original agent usage report has been deprecated | Switch to the newer agent report now surfaced in the admin center |
| Custom Graph build breaks after a Microsoft update | The usage-detail endpoint is a beta API subject to change without notice | Rebuild against current documentation and avoid treating it as production-grade |
The custom Graph route is the least stable piece. One Microsoft MVP, writing on his own blog in February 2025, built a client-facing Power BI report on this same beta endpoint and warned that the data source itself could change without notice.
Our take: a beta endpoint is fine for a prototype dashboard, not for a report your board reviews every quarter. We'd keep the custom build as a side project, not the system of record.
Sources: Microsoft Copilot Chat Usage Report - Microsoft 365 admin | Microsoft Learn, Microsoft Copilot Agent Usage Report - Microsoft 365 admin | Microsoft Learn, reportRoot: getMicrosoft365CopilotUsageUserDetail - Microsoft Graph beta | Microsoft Learn, How to deploy my (meaningful) Microsoft 365 Copilot usage report – Loryan Strant, Microsoft 365 MVP
What the dashboard still can't tell you
Even a clean Power BI build answers who opened Copilot, not who got better at their job. One Microsoft MVP reported that, in a January 2025 post, several of his consulting clients called admin-center data showing only a last-used date, with no interaction counts, practically useless for judging real adoption.
Imagine a 300-person sales team where the Power BI view shows Copilot opened daily by eight in ten reps, but your CIO still asks, "why haven't deal cycles moved?" The usage numbers alone won't answer that question.
We think usage dashboards and employee surveys answer different questions, and the real mistake is picking one instead of running both side by side.
AI Adoption Score shows how teams use AI, where gaps exist, and what limits adoption, through predefined surveys on skills, usage and perceived barriers that no admin export can show. Treat any self-reported confidence or impact figure the way you treat Microsoft's own productivity-impact tile: it shows perception, not proof of changed output.
The next move isn't choosing between the Power BI report and the survey. Build both, and trust the dashboard only as far as the data behind it actually goes.
Sources: The four ways to build your own Copilot usage & adoption reports – Loryan Strant, Microsoft 365 MVP
Frequently asked questions
How often does the Microsoft 365 Copilot usage report refresh?
It typically becomes available within 48 hours of the end of a given day's activity, per Microsoft's documentation. Build your Power BI refresh schedule around that window rather than expecting same-day numbers, and treat anything older as a lagging indicator, not a live feed.
Do I need Viva Insights to build this dashboard?
No. The Microsoft 365 admin center alone gives you a usable Copilot usage and Chat usage report for Power BI. Viva Insights adds a productivity-impact view, but it's an extra license layer worth adding only once the basic view earns its keep.
Is the deprecated agent usage report still worth pulling?
Not on its own. Microsoft has deprecated the original agent usage report and directs admins to the newer agent report inside the admin center, so point your Power BI build at the current version instead of the retired one.
Who should own this Power BI dashboard once it's built?
That's an editorial call, not a documented rule: we'd put a Digital Transformation Leader or IT operations owner on the build itself, with L&D or People teams reviewing it alongside survey data, since neither group alone sees the full adoption picture.
Sources: Microsoft Copilot Usage Report - Microsoft 365 admin | Microsoft Learn, Microsoft Copilot reports for IT admins | Microsoft Learn, Microsoft Copilot Agent Usage Report - Microsoft 365 admin | Microsoft Learn
