How AI Can Help You Build a PowerPoint Presentation
Ever spent hours perfecting a slide deck, only to have it go unused or find it wasn’t quite right for the audience? There’s a tool that can help you bypass late nights trying to create a presentation: artificial intelligence. In today’s demanding job market, where the goal is to impress without burning out, AI tools can be a lifesaver — saving time on presentations, which allows you to concentrate on the presentation’s delivery.
While Copilot in Microsoft PowerPoint is one option, I couldn’t see the “Copilot” feature in the ribbon of my PowerPoint dashboard, but I was able to find another AI presentation maker: Prezi AI.
I liked that its pricing is accessible. There’s a free basic version and several tiers that range from $7 to $39 per month. I went with the mid-range plan, because the lowest tier lacks infographic capabilities. The mid-range plan is priced at $29 per month with a 14-day free trial.
Prezi AI promises to help you create “your best presentation in minutes.” Let’s see about that.
Getting Started with AI
I signed up to Prezi AI Premium and set a reminder in my phone for the free trial end date. I was prompted to enter information about the presentation, so Prezi AI could offer suggestions on content and design. You can also upload a PDF, which can be helpful for the AI tool, or skip this step and select a presentation template.
For this example, I used some initial brainstorming work I did for a creative campaign that I wanted to present to an agency client. I used the text box to tell Prezi AI what I was looking to achieve.
My first prompt was: “I want to professionally and creatively present my initial thinking on a campaign for Zayed National Museum in the UAE. I want to combine my notes with the strategist’s notes so I can present my idea by telling a story and taking them on a journey. I prefer a minimalist, elegant design. Do you need me to upload the document?”
I found out that it’s not entirely an AI chat tool, because it generated a mock design without answering my question. Instead, I saved all the notes into a PDF and re-created the prompt.
Prezi AI only uses text content, so avoid uploading graphics or charts.
Refining and Finalizing the AI-Generated Slide Deck
I liked how the AI tool created a “storyboard” presentation, but some of the imagery was off. For instance, it included photos of Steve Jobs and a still from the movie The Bucket List with Morgan Freeman — likely because the movie features a trip to Egypt, although it’s still very off-brand for a UAE campaign. The image of Steve Jobs was an odd pick for this project.
I also included these two sentences in the original prompt: “Only use imagery from this website: http://www.zayednationalmuseum.ae/en/. Incorporate all of the text from the PDF and don’t add more to it.” Again, the AI tool’s output was way off-brand, largely because AI has a difficult time understanding cultural sensitivities and nuances. It even included an image from the Pixar movie The Incredibles.
I wasn’t thrilled with the AI tool’s output, as it had trouble following simple instructions like “only include the copy from the PDF,” so I picked the one I liked the most and edited it — plugging in important copy the tool missed and removing some images.
How Long Did it Take to Make an AI PowerPoint Presentation?
It took me about 30 minutes to make all the tweaks the AI tool needed, and while that wasn’t ideal, it still would’ve taken me much longer to put together an initial deck like this. I would’ve agonized over the design if I’d done it from scratch. It’s not perfect, but it’s better than wasting precious time trying to do it from scratch.
I liked how the slides moved from one to the next, not just swiping to the right but moving interactively like along a map – you can check it out here. Just always make sure you check the words and images that the AI tool produces.
