As pretty much everyone and their robot dog is now aware, there are jaw-dropping breakthroughs happening in artificial intelligence (AI) on an almost daily basis. To those of us in the data visualization field, this begs the obvious question: Will AIs be able to create expert-level charts without any human intervention, and, if so, when might that happen?

Unfortunately, there seems to be a widespread belief that a lack of data storytelling is always the main—or possibly only—reason why charts and data presentations don’t go over well with audiences, and that turning charts and data presentations into “data stories” virtually guarantees that they’ll be effective and well received. Even though that view isn’t promoted by most data storytelling thought leaders, it seems to have taken hold among many data professionals anyway.