Microsoft Fabric Updates Blog

Unlocking Enterprise AI: Seamless Integration of OneLake Files in Microsoft Foundry IQ

OneLake

Microsoft Fabric’s OneLake is redefining how organizations manage and leverage their data. Now, with native integration into Microsoft Foundry IQ, teams can unlock the full potential of their unstructured and semi-structured files without the hassle of data duplication or complex pipelines.

OneLake brings together structured tables and unstructured files such as documents, images, logs, transcripts under a single, secure umbrella. Whether your data lives natively in OneLake or arrives via shortcuts from external sources like Azure Data Lake Storage or Amazon S3, it is instantly accessible for analytics and AI workloads.

AI Foundry IQ now offers a direct, secure connection to OneLake. This means you can index files stored in OneLake including those brought in through shortcuts and use them as knowledge sources for your AI agents. No more creating redundant copies or managing separate stores for AI-specific data.

Key Benefits

Unified access: Ground your AI agents on the same enterprise data powering your analytics.
Governance and security: Permissions are enforced through OneLake and Fabric controls.

Microsoft OneLake as Foundry knowledge type

Enterprise Impact

This integration empowers organizations to use all their enterprise data, both structured and unstructured, within AI solutions. By removing silos and streamlining access, teams can innovate faster, answer complex questions, and maintain strong governance.

Ready to transform your enterprise AI workflows? Explore the new OneLake integration in Azure AI Foundry Knowledge and unlock the power of unified, governed data for your agents.

Prerequisites

A lakehouse in Fabric. If you don’t have a lakehouse, follow the steps in Create a lakehouse with OneLake.
- Files in the Files folder of the lakehouse.
A Foundry project. If you don’t have one, follow the steps in Create a project.
An Azure AI Search service at the Basic tier or higher. If you don’t have one, follow the steps in Create an Azure AI Search service.
- The search service must be in the same tenant as your Fabric workspace.
- In this article, you create an assign a managed identity for the search service. To create a managed identity, you must be an Owner or User Access Administrator roles. To assign roles, you must be an Owner, User Access Administrator, Role-based Access Control Administrator, or a member of a custom role with Microsoft.Authorization/roleAssignments/write permissions.

Index data from OneLake files

Use Azure AI Search to configure a OneLake files indexer to make your lakehouse data searchable as a knowledge source.

Review the prerequisites in Index data from OneLake files and shortcuts > Prerequisites.

Then, follow the steps for system managed identity in Index data from OneLake files and shortcuts > Grant permissions.

Create a OneLake connection in Foundry

Sign in to Microsoft Foundry.Make sure the New Foundry toggle is On. The steps in this article refer to Microsoft Foundry (new).
Open the project that you want to work in.
Select Build from the navigation menu, then select Knowledge from the left pane.
Select your AI Search resource.
Select Create a knowledge base.
Select Microsoft OneLake as the knowledge type. Select Connect.
Provide your Fabric workspace ID and lakehouse ID.You can retrieve both of these IDs from your lakehouse URL: https://app.powerbi.com/groups/<WORKSPACE_ID>/lakehouses/<LAKEHOUSE_ID>.
Select Create.
Select Save knowledge base.