The new Board 15 release delivers targeted improvements for Planners, Administrators, and Developers with AI Agents, a Presentation Admin View, and the Board M365 Excel Add-in. AI Agents provide assisted analysis and decision support using governed Datasets for AI. The Presentation Admin View offers a centralized place to audit and manage Presentations and Send To configurations for stronger governance and simpler upkeep. The Board M365 Excel Add-in connects Excel to Board for live refresh, enabling connected planning across Microsoft 365.
What to expect in the new Board 15 release?
More assisted decision support with AI-driven experiences powered by governed data access.
Stronger administrative oversight for Presentations and distribution workflows, with searchable tables and audit information.
More connected planning in Microsoft 365 through the Board for M365 Excel Add-in and Board’s semantic data layer. Equipped with faster performance, enhanced UI, and improved functionality all around.
More support for Developers
New enhanced Datasets capabilities to support Board AI Agents
Flex Grid Docked Charts and Vertical Block Alignment
Presentation authoring management allows Administrators to assume ownership and authors to grant or revoke editing permissions
More support for Planners
Data can now display vertically in a Flex Grid with the Vertical Block Alignment feature, supporting both Data Entry and drills
Flex Grid now has a full screen mode
Flex Grid now has a right-click menu in the Fields panel offering faster data pivoting
Flex Grid now offers Docked Charts to visualize data in a more advanced way
AI Agents introduce tailored support for visualizing and interpreting data
Operational Forecasting automatically generates large-scale demand forecasts by selecting the appropriate model based on demand patterns
Main new features
Board AI Agents
In the first phase of AI integration, Board 15 proudly introduces AI Agents into your workspace. Agents interpret data, suggest actions, and guide processes in collaboration with the user. They provide insights and recommendations while ensuring the user always retains full control, making them powerful partners for smarter, more transparent decision-making. AI Agents help users move faster from questions to insights using data prepared for governed consumption. Developers enable this experience by defining Datasets and marking the appropriate content for AI use (for example, using the Dataset for AI capability in the Dataset Catalog). This approach supports self-service access to business-ready data without requiring users to understand the underlying Data Model.
Operational Forecasting
Operational Forecasting enables you to generate large-scale demand forecasts directly in Board Foresight using a standardized and automated process. The system analyzes demand patterns and automatically selects the appropriate forecasting model, supporting stable, seasonal, and intermittent demand without manual configuration.
You can manage forecasting data through the Data Management page, where you upload files (CSV, Parquet, or TSV), define data frequency (daily or weekly), preview records before confirmation, and maintain uploaded datasets with options to sort, update, rename, or delete files.
Through Job Setup, you can create, execute, and monitor forecasting jobs based on uploaded data. This structured workflow centralizes data preparation and model execution, reduces manual effort, and ensures consistent, up-to-date forecasts for operational planning activities.
Read more about this new capability in Board Operational Forecasting.
Board for Microsoft 365-Excel Add-in
The Board for M365 Excel Add-in supports connected planning workflows in Excel with Board as the governed source of truth. Board 15 pairs this with Datasets, which provide a semantic layer designed for business-centric, purpose-specific access and reuse across Board capabilities, including Microsoft 365 integrations.
Flex Grid Vertical Block Alignment
Board 15 introduces Vertical Block Alignment which improves readability for spreadsheet-style vertical layouts where measures display on rows, supporting planning use cases that match how many teams structure budget templates.
Flex Grid Docked Charts
Board 15 introduces Docked Charts to Flex Grid where users and Developers can keep live, interactive visualizations alongside the grid so users can validate trends without exporting to Excel.
Flex Grid enhancements
Board 15 continues to expand Flex Grid enhancements for faster analysis and smoother planning workflows. By Column enhancements provide more flexibility to break down data by column and improve expand/collapse interactions when users pivot and explore detailed datasets. A new full screen view helps users focus on large reports when working with dense row and column structures. The new Filters tab in the Flex Grid Layout Editor and other new small enhancements are now available.
Presentations enhancements
Become an Author: Empowers Administrators to instantly assume ownership of any Presentation. By granting themselves authoring permissions directly from the Presentations grid or context menu, Administrators can manage and edit content when the original author is unavailable, ensuring continuous governance.
Add Author Access/Remove Author Access: Provides authors with granular control over collaboration via the Add Author Access and Remove Author Access actions. Located within the Member List, these tools allow authors to promote or demote contributors from the sharing list, ensuring that only authorized users can modify Presentation content.