2nd Workshop on
GenAI, Agents, and the Future of VIS
2nd Workshop on
IEEE VIS 2026 | November 9, 2026| Boston, MA
About the Workshop
Recent advances in agents (i.e., autonomous, goal-driven AI systems that iteratively observe, act, and learn from their environments) offer a fundamentally different approach from traditional AI models that passively respond to input. These agentic AI systems are rapidly reshaping how we approach data-intensive tasks and providing new opportunities for the VIS community. Imagine an agent autonomously generating visualizations to analyze complex data, discovering patterns collaboratively, testing hypotheses, and communicating visual insights at a speed and scale beyond human capability.
Yet, the emergence of these powerful systems raises critical questions that the VIS community must address: Could autonomous agents eventually replace human data scientists, and if not, how might they best collaborate? Are current visualization techniques and interfaces, originally designed for human analysts, suitable for agent interactions? How can VIS designers effectively integrate agents into their workflows without compromising human agency? And to what extent should agents help shape and educate the next generation of visualization researchers?
Through a mix of keynote talks, paper presentations, and an agentic VIS challenge, this workshop invites researchers and practitioners to share innovative ideas, explore these questions, and discuss strategies to transform the impact of VIS for a future where human and AI agents co-exist.
Call for Participants
We invite participation through two submission tracks: Short Paper and AgenticVIS Challenge. Both are opportunities to showcase novel ideas and engage with the growing community at the intersection of visualization, generative AI, and agentic systems.
Track A: Short Paper
We invite short paper submissions (2-4 pages excluding references) that explore topics across theory, systems, user studies, and applications for GenAI or agentic VIS. Submissions must follow the VGTC conference two-column format, consistent with the IEEE VIS formatting guidelines. Areas of interest include, but are not limited to, the following:
- VIS for interpreting GenAI systems.
More information
Papers presenting novel visualization techniques or systems for interpretability of frontier generative models, accompanied by interactive demos that showcase practical applications for GenAI researchers. Some example papers include:
* Lee et. al. (2024). LLM Attributor: Interactive Visual Attribution for LLM Generation
* Lin (2023). Neuronpedia: Interactive Reference and Tooling for Analyzing Neural Networks.
- Human-agent collaboration in data analysis and visualization.
- Agent-augmented VIS tools.
- VIS tools for agents that agents themselves can perceive, reason over, or act upon.
- Methods and benchmarks for assessing agent performance and agent-generated visual artifacts.
- Case studies and demos of agent systems applied to real-world VIS problems.
- Position papers for VIS and AI researchers, such as agents in VIS education, VIS for embodied agents, or multi-agent coordination in visual reasoning.
More information
Brief position papers outlining research agendas, proposing benchmarks, tooling infrastructure, or suggesting collaborative projects between visualization and interpretability experts to enhance our understanding of the frontier models.
Short papers should be double-blind submissions. Initial submissions must not include author names or institutions, and authors should take care to avoid revealing identifying information in the text.
Track B: AgenticVIS Challenge
Participants will develop agents that take datasets and guiding questions, adapted from past VAST Challenges, as input and generate visual data reports as output.
- Development datasets will be released before the deadline; hidden testing datasets will be used for final evaluation.
- During development, submissions may receive automated feedback, including benchmark metrics and agent-based peer evaluation.
- Final judging will consider each team's short technical report and the visual report generated by its agent on the testing dataset.
Full challenge details and submission instructions will be posted on the challenge website soon!
Important Dates
- Call for Participation: May 30, 2026
- Submission Deadline: Aug 15, 2026
- Author Notification: Sep 10, 2026
- Camera Ready Deadline: Oct 1, 2026
- November 9, 2026: Workshop Day
Schedule and Keynote Speakers
TBD.
Organizers
- Zhu-Tian ChenUniversity of Minnesota-Twin Cities
- Nam Wook KimBoston College
- Saeed BoorboorUniversity of Illinois Chicago
- Shivam RavalHarvard University
- Pan HaoUniversity of Minnesota-Twin Cities
- Qianwen WangUniversity of Minnesota-Twin Cities
- Vidya SetlurTableau Research
Contact
For questions, contact visxgenai@ieeevis.org.