Using Charts in Chat
Most answers in the AI Analytics Assistant come with a chart. The assistant picks the chart that fits your data, and you can ask for a specific one whenever you prefer. This article lists the charts you can get and when each one works best.
How the assistant picks a chart
If you don't ask for a chart type, the assistant chooses one based on the shape of your data:
- Rankings and comparisons between categories, such as contact reasons or bots, get a bar chart. For long names, such as contact reasons, ask for a horizontal bar chart so every label shows.
- Trends over time get a line chart.
- How a total splits across groups over time gets a stacked area chart.
- Parts of a whole with only a few slices get a pie chart.
To get a specific chart, say so in your question, for example "show it as a horizontal bar chart." You can also change the chart after an answer: "show that as a line chart instead."
Choose a chart that fits your data
A chart only reads well when your data has the shape that chart expects. When you ask for a specific chart, the assistant usually draws it even if it doesn't suit the data:
- Pie charts need parts of a whole, with a few slices. Averages and rates don't add up to a whole, and a long list of weeks makes too many slices to compare.
- Line charts need an order, usually time.
- Stacked charts need parts that add up to a total.
For example, "Show the weekly ticket volume from March to July as a pie chart" splits five months into 22 slices that are hard to tell apart, and it presents each week as a share of something. The same question as a line chart shows the trend at a glance.
If you're not sure which chart fits, leave the chart type out of your question and let the assistant choose.
Available charts
Bar charts
Best for rankings and for comparing categories or periods.
- Vertical bars. "How many tickets were created each month this year? Show it as a bar chart."
- Horizontal bars. The best choice when category names are long, such as contact reasons. "What are the top 10 contact reasons this quarter? Show them as a horizontal bar chart."
- Stacked bars. Each bar is split into parts. "Show monthly tickets broken down by priority as a stacked bar chart."
- Grouped bars. Two or more groups side by side. "Compare tickets by priority for our two largest projects as a grouped bar chart."
Line charts
Best for trends over time. Ask for several lines to compare groups on the same timeline.
- One line. "Show the weekly trend of ticket volume over the last 3 months as a line chart."
- Several lines. "Compare monthly ticket volume for our top 3 projects as a line chart."
Stacked area charts
Best for showing how a total splits across groups over time, and how that split changes. "How has the split of tickets across projects changed month by month? Show it as a stacked area chart."
Combined bar and line charts
Best for two related metrics on one timeline, each with its own scale. "Show monthly tickets as bars and the share of high and critical priority tickets as a line, in one chart."
Pie charts
Best for parts of a whole with up to 5 or 6 slices. When you ask for the top few, the assistant usually groups the rest into an "All Other" slice. "What share of tickets did each project account for this quarter? Show the top 5 as a pie chart."
Scatter plots
Best for comparing two metrics across the same items, to spot outliers. "Make a scatter plot of the top 15 contact reasons, with ticket volume on one axis and average resolution time on the other."
Tables
Ask for a table when you need exact values side by side. Naming the columns you want gives the best results: "Put the top 10 contact reasons in a table. Columns: contact reason, tickets, % of total."
Tips for better charts
- Use horizontal bars for long names. Contact reasons and other long labels read better on horizontal bars.
- Name the time frame. "From February to July" or "month over month" gives the chart a clear time axis.
- Pin it. When you pin an answer to a dashboard, the card keeps the same type of chart. To fit the card, bar charts with more than five bars or long names are shown as horizontal bars. See Pinning Questions to a Dashboard.