Tristan Chiappisi.
Engineer. Father. Public speaker. Lives in data.
I'm an engineer based in Columbus, Ohio. I work in data and AI: the pipelines, the models, and the data visualizations that turn it all into stories worth telling. On the side I build products and write field reports on what I learn from them.
This site is mostly a place to publish field reports: long-form pieces of research that come out of the work. They arrive irregularly. The latest is below.
Field Reports
A field guide in two halves. Eight before/after pairs grounded in Cleveland, Tufte, and Few, then seven newer charts coming out of the 2025 to 2026 visualization community that the canonical books were written too early to include. Same data, different chart, different argument.
A field report on AI proficiency in 2026. The pedagogy of AI is impossible by construction. The dominant "how to use it" framing has changed six times in 40 months, faster than any course can ship. The only path to fluency is to use the tool for everything, including the one-character changes. Eight charts, every claim sourced.
A field report on the hidden workload (data work, not code generation) that has quietly become AI's primary job. Eight charts. One thesis: AI's most important use case in 2026 is not writing, it is reading.
A look at how much of frontier AI's training data is now AI-generated, who's making it, and whether the snake eating its own tail is getting fed or starving.
Side Projects
A handful of small products I'm building right now. Some are experiments, some are real, some are still figuring out which they are. Click a name to read more.
Speaking
Available for keynotes, workshops, and the occasional podcast. I've spoken on data infrastructure, data visualization, careers in tech, quantum computing, and what the side-project life actually looks like.
Reach me on LinkedIn →Contact
LinkedIn is the best way to get in touch. Speaking engagements, general inquiries, anything else worth a conversation.