Day 7 of 30-Day AI Challenge: Effortless and Engaging Presentations

For those just joining us, every day during this challenge, I’m going to try and do something different or better, using currently available Artificial Intelligence tools.

It’s already Day 7 of the #30DayAIChallenge and it feels like a good time to take a stab at presentations. I’m going to see if there are any tools out there that can take the slog out of creating impactful decks. Everyone has used PowerPoint, KeyNote or Google Slides at some point…in for my more creative pitches, I’ve also used a fair bit of Prezi. But most of these (besides Prezi) use a pretty standard approach to creating decks, slide by slide. The latest versions do offer up some pretty good productivity and visual enhancement hacks e.g. PowerPoint Design Ideas.

Here’s how the main players stack up today:

1. Microsoft PowerPoint
   • Major points: Widely used and familiar interface, extensive template library, and compatibility with various devices and platforms.
   • Drawbacks: Limited customization options compared to other tools, and some users may find the interface outdated or clunky.
     
2. Google Slides
   • Major points: Free and web-based, allowing for real-time collaboration and seamless integration with Google Workspace.
   • Drawbacks: Lacks some advanced features available in other tools, and presentations might not look as polished as those created with more powerful software.
     
3. Prezi
   • Major points: Non-linear presentation style, which allows for more dynamic and engaging presentations, and unique zooming functionality.
   • Drawbacks: Steeper learning curve compared to other tools, and the non-linear format might not be suitable for all presentation types or audiences.
     
4. Apple Keynote
   • Major points: Sleek design and user-friendly interface, and seamless integration with other Apple products and services.
   • Drawbacks: Limited to Apple devices and platforms, and fewer templates and customization options compared to other tools.
     
5. Visme
   • Major points: Extensive library of templates and assets, and strong focus on visual storytelling through charts, graphs, and infographics.
   • Drawbacks: Free version has limitations on features and storage, and there may be a learning curve for users unfamiliar with design principles.
     

Beautiful.ai

I ran a search for AI powered presentation tools and came across a few promising leads. First, let’s test Beautiful.ai – on their homepage demo, I typed in a quick slide topic, asking how Stranger Things compared to other Netflix shows in terms of viewership – this is what the tool created:

To experiment with the tool, you have to sign up for a free demo (with CC details) and you’re billed $144 for a year after that. Here’s a quick video overview, followed by a test deck I started working on:

The interesting thing is that while there are some nice touches to flow and design, the overall interface feels pretty similar to everything else out there. One interesting tool allows you to highlight copy and have an AI rewrite, by specifying the mood and whether you want to make it shorter, longer, simpler, etc. This feature works well enough sometimes, but can also go awry at others, spitting out a massive amount of text.

There are also some nice time-saving features that solve for layout, background vs foreground colour, etc. and the system allows you to search and add royalty free images into your presentation.

Simplified

Next, let’s check out Simplified, which seems quite novel and promising (and goes well beyond just presentations). The tool is an all-in-one, AI-powered marketing platform designed to streamline your workflow, from content creation to social media management. It has an intuitive interface and enables users to schedule posts across various platforms, import design projects, and easily collaborate with team members. The built-in AI Assistant generates captions, hashtags, and even designs graphics, while the Long-Form Writer tackles blogs, essays, and more. With real-time editing and sharing across multiple workspaces, Simplified also offers powerful content generation tools to ‘eliminate writer’s block and optimize product listings, ad copy, and captions’, making it very appealing marketing software for both beginners and pros.

So I signed up for free (no CC required) and tried the presentation creator with a similar prompt, i.e. Compare Stranger Things to other popular Netflix shows in terms of viewership.

Quite impressively, the system automatically researched the topic and created 8 slides (or ‘art boards’) for me to review and tweak:

There are also some pretty nifty features that allow for visual enhancement, copy editing and as seen below, adding animations:

Simplified is a tool I’d definitely love to play a little more with. The tool is ‘free’ but uses a paid credit system for features like Text to Image, AI Assistant, Background Remover and other add-ons.

SlidesAI.io

SlidesAI.io is an AI-powered text-to-presentation tool that summarizes and creates presentation slides from any piece of text.

You basically install SlidesAI.io from Google Workspace (it is integrated into Google Slides), input your text, select a presentation type, customize colors, and export your presentation for an efficient, elevated slide creation experience. Unfortunately the system kept crashing for me while granting app access to my Google Workspace account, so I had to abandon this test.

Designs.ai

Designs.ai also goes beyond the typical presentation. It is an integrated Agency-as-a-Service platform that uses AI to allow users to create, edit, and scale content. It offers a logo maker that can help you launch your brand with a unique logo and a full brand identity kit. They claim that you can also use it to ‘create campaigns and marketing strategies’.

Tome

Tome (Beta) is an AI-powered storytelling tool that ‘makes it easier to talk about things that are usually hard to explain with just text or images’. It offers an iOS app that allows you to create presentations with narration, interactive embeds with live data or content from anywhere on the web, 3D renderings, and prototypes. Tome leverages AI to create presentations by combining ChatGPT for text and DALL-E 2 for images. Users simply provide a natural language description, and Tome generates a multi-slide presentation with matching visuals.

I signed up for free (no CC required) and asked Tome to create a presentation about why Stranger Things was such a popular Netflix series. Within a minute, the system had created an 8 slide deck with a great title and pages outlining The Nostalgic Appeal, The Supernatural Element, The Characters, The Performances, The Writing and The Cultural Impact. The content is pretty spot on, but that’s not surprising with ChatGPT behind the scenes. The accompanying visuals are pretty terrible though…and that’s likely due to the current capabilities of DALL-E.

Wrap Up

In conclusion, AI has the potential to revolutionize presentation creation by streamlining the design process, generating relevant content, and providing data-driven insights for optimal engagement. By automating time-consuming tasks, understanding user intent, and adapting to audience preferences, AI tools can help create striking, effective presentations in a fraction of the time. It appears to me that several emerging tools provide impressive visual and productivity enhancements, but only a few truly harness AI to offer a well-rounded experience. Simplified and Tome, in particular, are worth exploring further, and it will be interesting to see how they evolve over time.

Any critical tools or sites I’ve missed? Leave a comment and let us know!

Until tomorrow…