Data Mozart
live workshop - September 7, 2026 - online
4-hour live workshop - code-first - Microsoft Fabric

AI-Native Data Engineering with Microsoft Fabric

Build an AI-assisted metadata-driven Fabric ingestion and medallion scaffold - then master the skill that actually matters now: validating what the AI builds for you.

Reserve your seat See the agenda
September 7, 2026 - live online - taught by Nikola Ilic (Data Mozart) - €179FOUNDING COHORT
fabric - agent session
$ agent "scaffold a medallion workspace for card payments"
> Planning: workspace, 3 lakehouses, 4 notebooks, 1 pipeline
$ fab create ws_payments.Workspace
$ fab create ws_payments.Workspace/lh_bronze.Lakehouse
$ fab create ws_payments.Workspace/lh_silver.Lakehouse
$ fab import nb_transform.Notebook -i ./src
> Generated: bronze-to-silver transform, 214 lines
your job: find the join that silently drops rows.
# that's what this workshop teaches.
$
why this workshop exists

AI won't replace data engineers. But it is replacing the typing.

Microsoft is shipping AI into every corner of Fabric: Copilot in the web experience, agentic workflows in VS Code, a CLI that coding agents can drive end to end. The demos look incredible. Every pipeline writes itself, nothing ever fails, and nobody mentions cost.

Here's what the demos skip: AI-generated code is confidently wrong in ways that only show up downstream. A plausible join that silently drops rows. A schema assumption nobody made. A deprecated pattern dressed up as best practice.

The engineers who win in this shift aren't the fastest typists. They're the ones who can specify precisely, automate aggressively, and validate ruthlessly. That's what we practice for four hours - on a real build, not slides.

what you'll build, with your own hands

One focused build. AI-assisted where it matters.

The core lab is a metadata-driven Fabric ingestion and medallion scaffold. You leave with the working solution, the validation patterns, and a prompt/scaffold library you can reuse on real projects.

scaffold

A medallion workspace from a spec

Lakehouses, notebooks, and pipelines scaffolded by a coding agent driving the Fabric CLI - from an agent skill you author, with guardrails. Zero portal clicking.

framework - centerpiece

A metadata-driven ingestion framework

One configurable pattern instead of N pipelines - config tables, parameterized notebooks, dynamic sources - generated with AI and audited where the blast radius is largest.

transform

AI-built pipelines you've verified

Bronze-to-Silver-to-Gold transformations written with AI assistance - then audited by you, with the planted failure modes found and fixed.

enrich

LLM transforms inside the notebook

An LLM called straight from a Fabric notebook with your own API key - classification, extraction, summarization - as proper pipeline steps. Designed for the trial path, no paid Fabric AI capacity needed.

automate + ship

Generated tests, docs, and deployment pattern

The unloved work produced automatically and matched to a gold-standard exemplar you provide - with a CLI deployment pattern included so you can promote the solution after the workshop.

judge

A trust and cost framework

What AI assistance costs in capacity units, what to monitor, and what to never let an agent do unsupervised.

the four hours

Agenda

Every session moves the same build forward. The center of gravity is the ingestion framework and the validation habits around it; stretch tasks are included for stronger coders.

0:00 - 0:20

What "AI-native" actually means

The evolving role, the hype, and the three surfaces: Copilot in Fabric web for exploration, VS Code for developer workflows, the CLI for automation - and how to match the AI interaction model to the task. Plus the mental model the whole day runs on: AI in a context-bounded box with a well-defined task.

0:20 - 1:05

Agentic scaffolding and the skill that builds your workspace

Fabric items as code instead of clicks. You author an agent skill with real guardrails - explicit targets, pause-for-review checkpoints, "present the plan and stop", "you may not commit" - then drive the agent to scaffold the medallion workspace from that specification.

1:05 - 1:15
break
1:15 - 2:10

Building the metadata-driven ingestion framework with AI CENTERPIECE

One configurable pattern instead of N hand-written pipelines: config tables, parameterized notebooks, dynamic sources - generated with an agent. Then the audit that matters most, because a confidently-wrong config assumption breaks every table the framework drives at once. Reading generated PySpark critically is a different skill from writing it, and this is where you learn it.

2:10 - 2:20
break
2:20 - 3:10

Transformations, LLM enrichment, and automating the unloved work

Bronze-to-Silver-to-Gold driven phase by phase using the gold-standard exemplar pattern, so generated code matches your bar, not the model's guess. LLM-powered transforms called from the notebook with your own API key (classification, extraction, summarization), designed for the trial path. Then generating tests, quality checks, and documentation from what you built, with deterministic tools for repeatable agent behavior.

3:10 - 3:20
break
3:20 - 4:00

Deploy, trust, cost, and the production checklist

A CLI-driven deployment pattern, then the honest part no demo shows: what AI features cost in capacity units, the security implications of agents on your tenant, an honest capability map of every surface, and what to never automate. Closes with where Data Agents fit as the consumption half of AI in Fabric, a quick look at where this scales, and open Q&A.

the question everyone asks

"Do I need a paid Fabric capacity?"

No - and I'm not going to pretend the paid AI features don't exist, or quietly make you buy them. The workshop is designed around the licensing reality.

  • The hands-on labs are designed for the free 60-day Fabric trial capacity. Scaffolding, the metadata framework, transformations, LLM enrichment (via your own API key), tests, docs, and the deployment pattern use the agent-plus-CLI workflow, not paid Fabric AI capacity. The setup kit has you verify your tenant before workshop day.
  • Only the native Fabric Copilot segments run as guided demo-along, since Copilot and Fabric's built-in AI functions require a paid F capacity. If your org has one you can follow live; if not, you miss nothing hands-on.
  • You do not need to buy Microsoft capacity to get full value. Bring your own LLM API key for the enrichment lab; expected usage is tiny, but it may create a small provider charge. Curious about native Copilot? Check current Azure pricing for F2 or above, because price varies by region and currency.
founding cohort pricing

First run. Lowest price it will ever be.

This is the founding cohort - the price goes up once this run's results and testimonials are in. In exchange, I'll ask you for honest feedback.

Standard

€179
open registration
  • The live 4-hour workshop, Q&A throughout
  • Full recording, yours to keep
  • Scaffold repo + prompt library, with 12 months of updates
  • Pre-workshop setup kit and smoke test
  • AI-readiness production checklist
Reserve Standard - €179
15 SEATS ONLY

Pro

€449
limited - access does not scale
  • Everything in Standard
  • Live office hours, 2-3 weeks after - once you have hit real questions on your own tenant
  • 30-minute 1:1 call to review your setup or use case, scheduled within 30 days
  • Priority Q&A during the live session
Reserve Pro - €449

Paying through your company? Most attendees do. You'll get a proper VAT invoice and a ready-made justification one-pager for your manager. Team pack: 5 seats for €795. Private team workshop: from €6,500. Email for team invoices and private dates.

Nikola Ilic — Data Mozart
your instructor

I built this workflow before Microsoft started marketing it.

I'm Nikola Ilic, better known as Data Mozart. Microsoft Data Platform MVP, Principal Data Architect at iLink Digital, book author, and creator of Fabric and Power BI training that has reached thousands of professionals through Pluralsight, O'Reilly, conferences, and the Data Mozart blog and YouTube channel.

The agentic CLI workflow at the center of this workshop comes from my own consulting projects - the field version, not the keynote version. What works, what breaks, what it costs. No vendor pitch, because no vendor is paying for this.

Microsoft Data Platform MVP - author of "Fundamentals of Microsoft Fabric" and "Analytics Engineering with Microsoft Fabric and Power BI" - Pluralsight + O'Reilly instructor - FabCon speaker
7d

The guarantee: attend the full workshop, and if you don't feel it was worth the price, email me within 7 days for a full refund. No awkward forms, no hard feelings.

questions, answered straight

FAQ

Do I need a paid Fabric capacity?
No. The hands-on labs are designed for the free 60-day Fabric trial capacity, including the LLM enrichment, which uses your own API key from a notebook rather than Fabric's paid AI functions. Only the native Fabric Copilot demo segments need a paid F capacity, and you miss nothing essential without one. The setup kit includes a pre-flight check because some corporate tenants disable trials.
Do I need a Fabric tenant at all?
You need a work or trial account where you can activate a Fabric trial. Some locked-down corporate tenants block trials, so the setup kit walks you through the check days ahead and suggests a personal or dev tenant fallback if needed.
Which coding agent do we use?
The live path covers GitHub Copilot in VS Code and Claude Code. The workflow is intentionally agent-portable, but those are the two stacks the setup kit and demos focus on.
How much coding experience do I need?
You should be comfortable reading Python and SQL and editing what's there. The whole point is that the AI does most of the typing - your job is specifying and validating, and that's exactly what we practice.
I can't make the live date. Should I still register?
You get the recording, the repo, and 12 months of updates either way. But the live Q&A and the "find what the AI broke" exercises are better live.
Will this be outdated in six months?
The specific buttons will move - that's Fabric. The workflow (specify, scaffold, validate, automate) won't, and your seat includes 12 months of repo and prompt-library updates as the tooling evolves.
Can I buy seats for my team?
Yes. The public team pack is 5 seats for €795 with a single invoice. If you want this delivered privately for your team, private workshops start at €6,500 and can be tailored around your tenant, standards, and governance questions.
Why is this cheaper than comparable workshops?
Founding cohort. Future runs will cost more. In exchange, I'll ask for your honest feedback and, if you're happy, a testimonial.
September 7, 2026 - LIVE ONLINE - FOUNDING COHORT

The engineers who thrive won't be the fastest typists.

They'll be the ones who can direct AI precisely and catch its mistakes confidently. Four hours from now, you can have the scaffold, the validation habits, and a clear-eyed view of what these tools really do.

Reserve your seat - €179