AECharts: Conversation with Avinash Panneerselvam

Avinash (Avi) Panneerselvam graduated in Computational Engineering from IIT Madras in 2020 and spent the next five years as a data scientist, building prediction models, mostly at early-stage AI startups. As AI began reshaping software engineering, he left my job to build something of his own. He started working on AECharts in January 2026, and launched it in February, when it also got its first customer.

In this conversation, Avi talks about AECharts.

Geetesh: Avi, tell us about yourself and what motivated you to create AECharts? Was there a problem you were trying to solve when you started AECharts?

Avi: I used to work in Data Science building AI models at companies like Ola, ShareChat etc. Through social media, I saw business leaders sharing insightful charts from their industry. These were often poorly made screenshots from other tools. People were also investing significant effort in making animated charts in complex design software. This pushed me to build a tool that put charts first with good design defaults and the ability to generate animated chart videos in one click. Over time, I saw an increasing number of users creating video charts for slides and reports as well. This led to expanding the supported charts to commonly used business charts like waterfall, scatter etc.

Today, AECharts is a browser-based tool that gives you well-designed charts by default, with one-click image/video export, smart annotations and an AI assistant. It’s built for analysts, consultants, and founders who need polished charts for slides, reports and social media without design software.

Geetesh: AECharts is browser based, and charts leave it as images or video. What does a typical workflow look like, from creating a chart to placing it on a slide in PowerPoint, Google Slides, or Keynote?

Avi: In the current workflow, a user selects a chart type. They are then presented with a default chart with sample data.

Users can then upload their data as CSV or Excel sheets, or edit the spreadsheet within the app.

Then, they can customize details like title, colors etc. They can also set the chart size to match their slide.

AECharts supports AI assistance so users can just ask AI to make changes for e.g. “change the bar colors to shades of blue”, or “rotate the x axis labels by 45 degrees.” This is much easier than learning a new interface and remembering how to change something.

AECharts also supports smart annotations such as level difference, CAGR arrows etc. that stay connected and update automatically as the data (say, a number changed in the spreadsheet) or the chart size changes. Users can add annotations using the AI assistant as well.

We currently support PNG, transparent PNG, SVG and MP4 export formats. Users can export and then insert the chart in their slide. A transparent PNG drops cleanly onto any slide theme or background, and an MP4 can be inserted as a video on the slide.

Geetesh: Charts exported as images can’t be edited in PowerPoint. Is that a deliberate choice, or do you plan to offer editable charts or a PowerPoint add-in?

Avi: It’s a deliberate choice: keeping charts as images means the design, animations and annotations look the same in PowerPoint, Google Slides or Keynote. Slides are increasingly being created with AI (even inside PowerPoint). And I see AECharts becoming the hub where charts are made and kept agnostic to the document type within which the chart is inserted. The users’ AI assistant (ChatGPT, Claude, etc.) can then create, edit, pull and insert the chart into the deck as needed. For example, “add the Q3 revenue chart to slide 5.” We’re working with our early adopters to bring this to life soon.

Geetesh: How much does AECharts cost? Also, do you have a trial option available?

Avi: AECharts costs $12/month for a monthly subscription and $120/yr for an annual subscription. The annual plan is akin to getting two months free. Yes, we offer trials on request.

You can also start free: every feature is included, and exports carry a small watermark that goes away when you upgrade.

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