Using Azure DevOps in a Power BI deployment pipeline, is it possible to transform the folders of the .pbip format to .pbix format, in order to deploy the Power bi directly from the .pbip format?
I am afraid that Azure DevOps does not support converting Power Bi .pbip files to .pbix files.
Refer to this doc: Power BI Desktop projects (PREVIEW)
Question: Can I convert PBIX into PBIP and vice-versa programmatically?
Answer: No. You can only convert a PBIX into a PBIP and vice-versa using Power BI Desktop's File > Save as.
Since the programming method cannot be used, the file cannot be converted directly in Azure DevOps.
If you need to convert the .pbip file to .pbix, you only can achieve it via Power BI Desktop.