Why is AI Not a Panacea for Data Workers? An Interview Study on Human-AI Collaboration in Data Storytelling

This paper explores the potential for human-AI collaboration in the context of data storytelling for data workers. Data storytelling communicates insights and knowledge from data analysis. It plays a vital role in data workers’ daily jobs since it boosts team collaboration and public communication. However, to make an appealing data story, data workers need to spend tremendous effort on various tasks, including outlining and styling the story. Recently, a growing research trend has been exploring how to assist data storytelling with advanced artificial intelligence (AI). However, existing studies focus more on individual tasks in the workflow of data storytelling and do not reveal a complete picture of humans’ preference for collaborating with AI. To address this gap, we conducted an interview study with 18 data workers to explore their preferences for AI collaboration in the planning, implementation, and communication stages of their workflow. We propose a framework for expected AI collaborators’ roles, categorize people's expectations for the level of automation for different tasks, and delve into the reasons behind them. Our research provides insights and suggestions for the design of future AI-powered data storytelling tools.