Chapter 1: The Presentation Time-Sink

1.1 Where the Hours Actually Go

Think about the last presentation you built from scratch. If it took you three or four hours, here’s roughly where that time went:

• 30–60 minutes deciding on a structure
• 30–45 minutes finding images that match the message
• 45–90 minutes formatting slides
• 30–45 minutes aligning boxes, changing fonts, adjusting colours

Add it up, and the actual content — the thinking, the argument, the insight you wanted to share — might account for 45 minutes out of a 3–4 hour job. Everything else is design and formatting busywork.

AI presentation tools don’t replace your thinking. They eliminate the formatting work almost entirely, so the time you spend is concentrated on the part only you can do: deciding what’s actually worth saying.

1.2 What You Will Produce in This Session

By the end of Day 5, you will have personally created:

• A complete, designed presentation generated from a single written prompt
• A second deck built by converting an existing document into slides
• An edited version of one of your decks, corrected against the Six Commandments
• A finished, exportable presentation you could genuinely use — for work, a pitch, or a portfolio

Chapter 2: Your Presentation Toolkit

2.1 The Main Tools Compared

Table 2.1 — AI Presentation Tools Compared

Tool	Best For	Free Plan	Key Strength
Gamma	Fastest prompt-to-deck generation; web-native “card” decks	400 starter credits (roughly 8–10 decks)	Generates a complete first draft — structure, copy, and visuals — in under a minute; strong document-to-deck conversion
Canva (Magic Design)	Marketing-style decks; teams already using Canva for other design work	Yes — Magic Design capped at 10 uses/month	Massive template and stock-asset library; strong brand-kit consistency across all your content types
Beautiful.ai	Polished, template-driven business decks with minimal manual layout work	No free plan	“Smart Slides” automatically re-balance spacing and typography as you add content, so slides rarely look broken
Plus AI	People who live in Google Slides or PowerPoint and don’t want a new platform	Yes, limited	Works as an add-on inside Slides/PowerPoint — generates and edits without ever leaving your existing document
Microsoft Copilot for PowerPoint	Microsoft 365 users who need decks generated from existing Word/Teams/SharePoint content	No — requires M365 + Copilot add-on	Deep integration with your organisation’s own files and data through Microsoft Graph

2.2 A Note on Free-Plan Limits

Most AI presentation tools run on a credit or usage-cap system rather than unlimited free generation. Gamma’s free plan gives you a fixed pool of starter credits rather than a monthly refresh, Canva caps Magic Design at 10 uses a month, and Beautiful.ai and Copilot don’t offer a free tier at all. Plan your practice accordingly — it’s worth getting your prompt right on paper before you spend a generation on it.

Chapter 3: The Three-Step Workflow

3.1 From Prompt to Deck

Every major AI presentation tool follows some version of the same three-step pattern. Once you understand it in Gamma, you can transfer it to any of the others.

3.2 Writing a Prompt That Produces a Usable Draft

A vague prompt produces a vague deck. Compare the two approaches below.

Result: a generic, unfocused deck that could apply to almost any audience, with no clear point of view.

The second prompt gives the AI an audience, a tone, a specific claim, and a required structure — so the draft it produces needs far less rebuilding.

3.3 Your First Edit Pass: Headlines

Once your draft is generated, the single highest-value edit is almost always the headline on each slide. AI-generated headlines tend to describe the topic rather than state the point.

Chapter 4: The Paste-to-Presentation Hack

4.1 When You Already Have the Content

Not every deck starts from a blank prompt. Often you already have a report, a set of research notes, or a written proposal, and you just need it turned into slides. This is where the “paste hack” saves the most time.

4.2 Where This Hack Is Most Useful

• Converting a research report into a board presentation
• Turning meeting notes into a summary deck
• Adapting a Day 3 AI-assisted research write-up into a pitch deck
• Converting a written client proposal into a visual walkthrough

Chapter 5: The Six Commandments of Effective Slides

These six rules apply whether or not you use AI — but AI-generated drafts tend to break Commandments 1, 2, and 5 most often, so use this as your editing checklist for every deck you generate.

#	Commandment	Why It Matters
1	One idea per slide	If you’re tempted to add another bullet, ask whether it deserves its own slide instead.
2	Maximum 30 words per slide	Count them. Delete everything that isn’t essential to the one idea on that slide.
3	Every claim needs a visual	A statistic on its own is forgettable. A statistic paired with a chart or image is memorable.
4	Titles are insights, not topics	“Q3 Revenue” is a label. “Revenue Up 34% on Repeat Customers” is a story.
5	Data needs context	A number alone means little. Show the trend, the comparison, or the “so what” behind it.
6	The last slide answers “what next?”	Don’t end on a thank-you slide. End on a clear, specific action.

Chapter 6: Practice Drills

6.1 Drill 1 — Generate Your First Deck

Open your chosen tool and generate a complete presentation using the Three-Step Workflow from Chapter 3. Use a topic you might genuinely need — a pitch, a training session, or a portfolio deck.

1. Write a specific prompt: topic, audience, tone, and required structure.
2. Choose a theme and a slide count (start with 8–10).
3. Generate, then read through the whole draft before editing anything.

6.2 Drill 2 — The Paste Hack

Take a document you already have — notes, a report, or a proposal — and convert it into a deck using the method in Chapter 4. Compare how the AI restructured your content versus how you would have organised it manually.

6.3 Drill 3 — Edit Against the Six Commandments

Go back through your Drill 1 deck, slide by slide, and apply the checklist from Chapter 5:

• Rewrite every headline as an insight rather than a label
• Cut any slide body text over 30 words
• Add or improve one image per slide where a claim isn’t yet visualised
• Add context to any bare statistic
• Rewrite your final slide as a clear next step

6.4 Drill 4 — Bring In Your Day 4 Images

If you completed Day 4’s AI Image Generation session, this is where those skills pay off directly. Most AI presentation tools let you replace an auto-generated image on any slide with your own upload.

6.5 Drill 5 — Export

Export your finished deck in at least two formats and check that formatting held up:

• Shareable link — no download needed, best for async review
• PDF — best for sending to a client when you don’t want it edited
• PowerPoint (.pptx) — fully editable in Microsoft Office, though some tools (especially web-native ones like Gamma) can shift or flatten complex layouts on export, so always review the exported file before sending it on

Chapter 7: Real-World Use Cases

7.1 Business and Professional Use Cases

Investor or Client Pitch Deck

Internal Training Deck

7.2 Personal and Career Use Cases

Portfolio or Career Highlights Deck

Chapter 8: Pro Tips, Common Mistakes, and Quality Control

8.1 Common Mistakes and How to Fix Them

❌ Common Mistake	✅ The Fix
Vague prompt produces a generic deck	Include topic, audience, tone, required structure, and slide count in your prompt.
Headlines describe the topic instead of the point	Rewrite every headline as the single insight of that slide.
Slides are text-heavy	Enforce the 30-word limit per slide. Move detail to speaker notes instead.
Data pulled from a source document is wrong or mislabelled	Manually verify every number, date, and attribution against the original source.
PowerPoint export looks broken	Always open and review the exported file — web-native tools sometimes shift or flatten complex layouts on export.
Images feel generic or off-message	Replace auto-selected images with your own, ideally S.V.C.L.-prompted images from Day 4.

8.2 Trust, But Verify

AI presentation tools are genuinely good at structure, layout, and pacing — but they are not a fact-checking service. Treat any statistic, quote, date, or named source the AI inserts into your deck the same way you’d treat a first draft from a junior colleague: useful, plausible, and worth checking before it goes in front of an audience.

Chapter 9: Workbook — In-Session Exercises

Complete these exercises during the live session with your AI presentation tool open.

Exercise 1: Prompt Builder

Build a complete generation prompt before you touch the tool.

Exercise 2: The Six Commandments Audit

Pick three slides from your generated deck and audit them against the checklist.

Exercise 3: Paste Hack Reflection

Chapter 10: Day 5 Assignment

Reflection Questions

Chapter 11: References & Further Learning