# Generate a dashboard with AI

> Describe a dashboard, pick a suggestion, or start from a Key Question or a deep analysis finding, and Golden builds the board for you. You can also recreate a dashboard from a screenshot.

Communicate · 5 min read · Updated 2026-09-30

You do not have to lay out every dashboard by hand. Golden can write one from a sentence, from an idea it suggests for your dataset, or from a question it already found worth asking in Discover. Everything it builds lands on an ordinary dashboard you can then edit.

## Start from a new dashboard

Add a dashboard in Communicate and, while it is empty, a "Start your dashboard" card sits over the canvas. It is not a dialog, so you can still drag a field onto the canvas without closing it.

- Describe it - "Tell the AI what you want to show". Type what you want, for example an executive summary with KPIs, revenue trends and a regional breakdown, then click Generate dashboard (or press Cmd Enter / Ctrl Enter).
- Use a suggestion - "Ideas built from this dataset". Pick one of the suggested boards and it generates straight away.
- Start from a field - "Add an empty chart, then pick its fields". Golden drops an empty chart and shows the field list so you can fill it.
- Use an existing sheet - "Copy a chart you already built". Opens Copy Existing Chart so you can bring charts over from Analyze.

Click Start blank to dismiss the card and work on an empty canvas.

> **Tip:** A description you write is followed as closely as possible - Golden chooses the components from what you asked for rather than fitting them into a fixed layout. Be specific about the charts and numbers you want to see.

## Watch it build

While a dashboard generates, the canvas shows "Building your dashboard" with a line saying what is happening, such as "Working out the layout", "Adding charts" with a running count, and "Finishing up". Charts stream onto the board as they are ready rather than all at once at the end.

## Change the layout with a template

Once a board exists, open the Templates section of the dashboard's AI pane to try a different arrangement of the same content. Golden Templates include an editorial family - Editorial Brief (a headline, three scorecard metrics, one dominant trend with an insight beside it), Editorial Atlas (the same rhythm built around a map) and Editorial Contrast (built for an A-versus-B comparison) - alongside the other official layouts. If a template has slots nothing has filled yet, a Fill in the Gaps button appears.

## Build a board from Discover

Key Questions to Explore in Discover carry a Create Dashboard button. Most build an AI-generated board, but a few questions build a purpose-built board directly from your data, with no AI layout step. When it is ready you see "Dashboard generated!".

- "What changed in [measure] - and why?" - offered when your data has a date and a measure. The board compares periods, writes up what changed and what drove it, breaks the biggest move down in a waterfall, and adds a "Which lever?" card that points at the one segment most worth acting on.
- "Which regions drove the change in [measure]?" - the same analysis led by a map of your regions.
- "Where is [measure] concentrated?" - a geographic board with a map, the regions that carry the total, a regional table, and callouts for regions that break from their neighbors. It is offered when your data has a mappable region field, a measure, and a date spanning at least two periods, and it opens on a region level that actually splits your data.

The change boards have a title with live controls. The measure in the title is a dropdown that re-reads the whole board for another measure. Granularity sets the resolution the board reads at - Day, Week, Month, Quarter or Year - and grains that would leave fewer than two periods to compare are grayed out. Period sets the date window.

> **Warning:** If your data cannot support a board, Golden says so instead of leaving an empty one behind. A change board needs a date field, a measure, and at least two periods to compare. A geo board needs a mappable region field, a measure, a few regions to map, and a date spanning at least two periods; without a dated comparison, Golden gives you a map and a ranked list rather than the full concentration board.

## Build a board from a deep analysis finding

Findings in a deep analysis have a Create dashboard button. The board is assembled from the analysis itself, so its figures and captions describe that finding. When the board opens on a ranking, selecting a different entry in it recomputes the explanation for that selection and rewrites the board's callouts and titles to match, rather than leaving sentences about the original entry next to the new numbers.

## Recreate a dashboard from an image

1. Open a dashboard, press Cmd K (or Ctrl K) and run "Browse dashboard templates".
2. In Create from Image, drop or browse for a PNG, JPG, WEBP or PDF under 10MB, then click Analyze Dashboard.
3. Golden detects the grid, identifies the chart types and maps them to dashboard components.
4. Review the result, map fields or remove components that need attention, then click Create Dashboard.

For a survey dataset, Discover offers its own board, and a change in a single number can be explained and saved as a dashboard from the chart itself. Both have their own articles.

### Related

- [Generate a survey dashboard](https://goldenanalytics.com/docs/survey-dashboard)
- [Explain a change in a number](https://goldenanalytics.com/docs/explain-a-change)
- [Dashboard templates](https://goldenanalytics.com/docs/dashboard-templates)
- [Discover your data](https://goldenanalytics.com/docs/discover)
- [Run a deep analysis](https://goldenanalytics.com/docs/deep-analysis)

Source: https://goldenanalytics.com/docs/ai-generated-dashboards