Can we convert IBM Cognos Analytics reports to Power BI ?

This course investigates the unconventional yet compelling idea of converting IBM Cognos reports and dashboards into Microsoft Power BI — two enterprise-grade BI tools with fundamentally different architectures but overlapping goals. While no official bridge exists between these platforms, this course explores how far one can go using report specifications (Cognos XML exports), metadata modeling, and AI-driven code translation.

Students will delve into the inner structure of Cognos report specs, learn how to export and interpret them, and then explore Power BI’s JSON-based models, DAX expressions, and data schemas. Along the way, we’ll experiment with training large language models (LLMs) to understand Cognos outputs and attempt to recreate similar visuals and logic within Power BI using custom scripts or automated pipelines.

This is not a tutorial with a guaranteed outcome — it’s a hands-on research journey for data engineers, BI developers, and AI tinkerers curious about interoperability, AI in BI development, and the semantic translation of business logic across ecosystems. If you’re open to exploration and experimentation, this course invites you to push the boundaries of BI tooling and automation.

By the end, students will have a better grasp of both platforms and an informed perspective on the feasibility (and challenges) of cross-BI translation.