topic AI/BI Dashboards in Data Engineering

AI/BI Dashboards

km1837 — Tue, 08 Sep 2026 12:43:32 GMT

Hi All

My client is looking to create a few dashboards in DataBricks instead of Power BI. We already have a template in Power BI (header for each page, information about out BI Page) in each of our power bi report which has colors, fonts, images etc.

How do I replicate the same in our DataBricks dashboards. We want to create a template first and then start creating actual data dashboards after that.

Also is there a way to put different workspaces for Dashboards, like one for Operations, Finance and Sales. We are BI Team and we serve all business.

#dashboards

Re: AI/BI Dashboards

srini_ve — Tue, 08 Sep 2026 13:54:19 GMT

@km1837
A practical approach would be to use the existing Power BI template (.pbit) as the starting point rather than trying to recreate the design from scratch.
Since you already have a standard Power BI template containing the page header, colours, fonts, images and other common branding,
I would suggest the following approach:

Step 1: Create/export the standard Power BI template as a .pbit file.
Step 2: Import the .pbit template when creating the Databricks dashboard template.
Step 3: Validate the imported components from power bi like below.
Page headers
Colours and fonts
Images and logos
Page layout
Visual formatting
Other standard branding elements

Some Power BI-specific components may need adjustment or recreation depending on their compatibility with Databricks dashboards, so this validation step is important.

Step 4: Adjust the Databricks dashboard template where required.
Step 5: Get business approval.
Step 6: Start building the actual dashboards.

Once the template is approved, the BI team can use the same standard design as the starting point for the actual dashboards. Only the dashboard-specific data, KPIs, charts and filters would then need to be added.

This approach should help us maintain a consistent look and feel across all Databricks dashboards while reducing the effort of recreating the same branding and layout repeatedly.

For Workspace organisation

Databricks Workspace

* Operations Dashboards
* Finance Dashboards
* Sales Dashboards

Within each area, the relevant dashboards can be grouped together and access can be controlled based on the business users.

For example:

* Operations users → access to Operations dashboards
* Finance users → access to Finance dashboards
* Sales users → access to Sales dashboards
* BI Team → access across all areas

The important part is to manage access using the appropriate Databricks groups and permissions, rather than giving all users access to everything.

Re: AI/BI Dashboards

balajij8 — Tue, 08 Sep 2026 14:03:40 GMT

@km1837

You can start with Workspace Themes - admin level configuration that defines fonts (family, color, size, weight per text category), canvas background, widget styling (border, corner radius, padding), visualization axis/grid colors, and categorical/gradient color palettes including color mappings that assign specific colors to named values across all charts. Every new dashboard inherits this theme automatically, covering the majority of the branding requirements. For the header banner with logos and titles that you use in Power BI, combine Text widgets (rich text with headings, links, inline images, tables) and Image widgets (standalone logos or branded visuals from URLs or Unity Catalog volume paths) placed at the top of each dashboard page. You can also upload custom thumbnail images per dashboard for visual identification in the dashboard listing.

You can build a template dashboard with your workspace theme applied, header widgets positioned and standard layout structure and export it as a json file via the menu (File actions > Export) to create a reusable template. Each time your BI team starts a new dashboard, import that file to get a pre-branded starting point and then swap in the actual datasets and visualizations. Store the template in a Git folder for version control and use DABs to deploy across dev/test/prod environments, giving you a CI/CD workflow comparable to Power BI deployment pipelines. Alternatively, since new dashboards auto-inherit the workspace theme, your team can skip the import step and manually add the header text and logo image widgets letting the theme handle all colors and fonts automatically.

For organizing dashboards by business domain (Operations, Finance, Sales), use workspace folders with folder-level permissions ( /Workspace/Shared/BI-Dashboards/Operations/ ) - so each team sees only their area while sharing the same workspace theme and compute. Layer on Domains, which group dashboards, tables and Genie Agents by business area on the Discover page, giving consumers a browse-by-domain experience. Avoid creating separate Databricks workspaces per business unit unless you have strict regulatory or administrative separation requirements as it adds operational overhead and cost that a central BI team typically does not need.