Things I've Done with AI at Work Kate Leroux, onX Everyone is talking about AI, but it's not always clear what to use it for. This lightning talk is a quick tour of the ways I've used AI in my day-to-day work as a technical cartographer. I'll steer clear of AI hype or pessimism and just offer several real examples, meant to spark ideas about how you might use AI for your own work. Spoiler alert: it's not doing the cartographic design or taking my job. If you're curious or even dubious about AI and haven't found your entry point yet, this is for you.
Is AI a capable interactive cartographer? Brandon Liu, Protomaps LLC Map design is a difficult task demanding expertise across both design and engineering. Bespoke zoomable map design, in particular, has been limited to proprietary "Photoshop for maps" platforms or complex programming-based solutions like styling JSON. This presentation explores the use of coding agents like Claude Code as a primary interface for interactive map customization, using the PMTiles and Protomaps Basemap projects as building blocks. The goal is not to make cartographers redundant or to homogenize interactive maps, but to broaden the audience of potential mapmakers.
Don't offload your brain: using AI tools to build geospatial apps without becoming a copy-paste automaton Lyzi Diamond So you have an idea for a cool mapping app, and you want to build it quickly. This is a perfect time to use AI, right? Tools like Claude Code and Cursor are popular because they allow you to turn ideas into working projects quickly. But as smart as the robots think they are, YOU'RE the map expert, and your knowledge is what's going to make the app shine. This talk walks through the process of building a geospatial web app using AI as your assistant rather than your boss. We'll cover agent skills, prompt engineering, and other tips and tricks to make sure you're joining forces with the AI, not letting it take control.
Some AI chat. A Canine Map Kenneth Field, Esri Inc.. Cartography moves pretty fast. If we don’t stop to look around once in a while we might miss it. This talk was originally going to focus solely on the ICA Commission on Map Design’s experiment with AI mapping during 2026. But with everyone else and their pet dog talking about AI we might veer off-track a little. In fact, dogs… let’s make a mappy Postcard of Canine Dotz for PCD. No dogs will be harmed in this talk, and no AI will be abused either.
Wednesday October 21, 2026 9:00am - 10:30am CDT TBA
