Microsoft has open-sourced Flint, a new intermediate language designed to simplify visualization generation for AI agents. Current methods often fall into two camps: simple specs yielding low-quality charts due to default settings, or complex, verbose specs that AI agents struggle to produce reliably.

Flint addresses this by offering a semantic-type based specification. This allows AI agents to provide high-level instructions, with Flint's built-in layout optimization engine deriving the necessary low-level details. This approach aims to bridge the gap in human-agent interaction for data visualization.

The language powers Microsoft's open-source data formulator project. A Metal Compiler Protocol (MCP) server is also available, enabling developers to integrate Flint directly into their AI agent applications for experimental use.