Building data visualizations? With AI, domain expertise matters more, not less
Volume 12 | Number 12 July 22 2026
In this newsletter:
Good news, data visualization practitioners: with AI your domain expertise matters more, not less
Chart Chat 72: Show and Tell (and how we’re using AI in our data work)
With AI, domain expertise matters more, not less
My friend and colleague, Mark Palmer, presented at the Data Visualization Society’s Outlier conference in 2025. His talk was controversial and he took a lot of brickbats from an indignant audience.
It’s a year later and as I reflect on what he was trying to get us to see I think he was 100% right. His examples missed the mark, but his assertion, that if you have domain expertise you can bring better work to light faster, is spot on. My recent forays with AI align with this.
As readers of this newsletter know, I’m very good at Tableau and can get it to do my bidding, but it’s no longer the first tool I reach for. I may end up using Tableau for my final rendering, but when I want to experiment and vet ideas, I use Claude.
If you come to our Chart Chat on July 23, you’ll see what I’ve been up to and why I like it so much.
For more thoughts on AI and data visualization I encourage you to read Northwestern University professor Enrico Bertini’s post where he explicitly states that with AI, domain expertise matters more, not less.
This means that if you have invested time and effort into plying your data visualization and storytelling craft, AI will help you, not hurt you.
Chart Chat 72: Show and Tell
Our “show and tell” Chart Chat on July 23 is going to be a lot of fun.
Andy is going to show the “Add to Playlist” app he’s been refining.
Jeff will demonstrate how to go beyond simple prompting and build a Claude AI skill.
Amanda will share how she uses NotebookLM as part of the discovery process when designing new dashboards.
Steve will show you why Tableau is no longer his “go to” when building data visualizations and why he instead starts with Claude AI.