How to Edit Data Stories in the Age of AI?
November 17, 2026
Data is at the heart of many most important investigations, yet the skills needed to edit data-driven stories remain rare. Data journalists often find that they are the only person in the newsroom who truly understands their analysis, with no editor able to challenge their methods or catch their mistakes. And AI tools, which now let anyone generate charts, run analyses, and summarize datasets in seconds, have made the problem harder with more numbers, produced faster, by people who may not know how to check them.
So how do you edit a story built on data when you are not a data specialist yourself? In this one-hour session, Helena Bengtsson, one of Europe’s most experienced data editors, will share practical strategies for questioning data-driven reporting: what to ask about where the data comes from, how to spot weak analysis or misleading conclusions, how to fact-check figures and visualizations, and what to watch for when AI has been used along the way.
This session is aimed at editors, reporters, and fact-checkers who work with data-based stories but do not necessarily have data skills themselves, as well as data journalists who want to learn how to edit their own work, or each other’s, when no one else can. The talk will be followed by a 15-minute question-and-answer session.
Date: Tuesday November 17, 2026
Time: 3:30 pm CET / 9:30 am EST (What time is it in my city?)
Speaker’s bio: Helena Bengtsson is the data journalism editor at Gota Media and Bonnier News Local, two regional publishing companies in Sweden with 55 local titles. She previously worked as the data journalism editor at Sveriges Television, Sweden’s national television broadcaster, for 27 years and has also served as Editor, Data Projects of The Guardian UK between 2014-2017. In 2006 and 2007, she was database editor at the Center for Public Integrity in Washington, D.C. She was awarded the Stora Journalistpriset (The Swedish Grand Prize for Journalism) in Sweden twice, in 2010 for Valpejl.se and in 2016 for innovator of the year.