5 ways to use AI for generating PowerPoint slides

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AI can build PowerPoint slides.

But not all slides come from the same place. Sometimes you’ll get a detailed client brief, sometimes you’ll want to convert a lengthy text document into a presentation, and sometimes it will be a brainwave that you want to get onto a slide so you can share it with the team.

Wherever your slide starts from, the end result will be best if you use an AI workflow that can integrate the context you provide, then work with you to fill in any gaps needed for a professional output.

Here are five ways you can build a PowerPoint slide with AI to produce a final deliverable that matches your initial vision.

1. Start with web research

To present credibly on any topic, you’ll often need to research data and other background information. If your company doesn’t own proprietary data, then web search can be the best way to find current, reliable information from trusted sources.

Using Google’s AI mode or an online AI chat interface, you can have a conversation, identify sources, and ask follow-up questions. But extracting the information from a conversation into what you need for a slide can mean a lot of back-and-forth, copy-and-paste, and an inefficient, disjointed workflow.

When you work with AI that’s fully integrated into PowerPoint, like thinkcell AI Suite, you can research your subject, explore relevant information, and directly create slides to summarize the information you need for your presentation.

Try with thinkcell: Research how the European automotive market is changing, identify the three developments most likely to affect EV demand over the next three years and put them on a simple overview slide.

Depending on how much context your initial prompt includes, thinkcell will also get clarification on what exactly you need, such as who the slide is for, so that it can ensure the first output generated is pitched at the right level.

2. Start with an Excel workbook

Many business presentations begin life in Excel, not PowerPoint.

Often, the bulk of the work will be collating, structuring and analyzing data in Excel, but Excel and PowerPoint are wildly different tools. Transferring the findings from a multi-sheet workbook and condensing them into a clear PowerPoint slide is no mean feat.

AI presentation workflows that support the parsing and analysis of Excel workbooks can be a great help. With thinkcell AI Suite, you can drop your Excel file into the chat and ask the AI to uncover trends and drivers. It will build a slide with professional data visualizations showing the key findings.

Try with thinkcell: Analyze the attached sales data, identify the biggest drivers of growth and create a slide showing the key takeaway.

If you’re not ready to build your slide yet, you can also work with thinkcell AI Suite directly in Excel, where you can explore your data, create new tables and generate charts for insertion into PowerPoint.

3. Start with a document

Research reports, strategy papers and in-depth briefings often come in long-form Word documents. These can be valuable working documents for teams building up and recording extensive background on a topic, but they don’t easily transfer to a digestible presentation.

One of generative AI’s best-known skills is summarizing lengthy texts into shorter ones to make them easier to consume. thinkcell AI Suite lets you attach a document inside PowerPoint, and it can extract the information you need, structuring the content and building slides.

Try with thinkcell: Turn the main recommendations from the attached document into three slides for an executive audience.

Well-constructed PowerPoint slides are one of the best ways of clearly communicating information, so even building slides with thinkcell AI Suite for yourself can help you navigate dense documents and accelerate your research. Once you’ve understood the topic, thinkcell will also help you build the presentation-ready slides you need for your intended audience.

4. Start with a sketch

You don’t always have a thorough analysis or a detailed outline to hand. Sometimes you might have the spark of an idea in the form of a screenshot, a diagram, or even a sketch.

Grab the screenshot, upload the diagram, or snap the sketch. Drop what you have in the chat and thinkcell will use it as the starting point for a slide.

Try with thinkcell: Use this screenshot of a market analysis to identify the main takeaway and create a slide explaining what it means for our strategy.

Some sketches and screenshots are more refined than others, but even a rough approximation of your vision is better than a blank slide. From the initial build, thinkcell's AI will let you know when data seems incomplete or more context is needed, and help you iterate from rough sketch to polished output.

5. Start with… nothing but an idea

Sometimes you don’t know where to start.

If you’re still brainstorming ideas, there’s no better place to do it than directly in the PowerPoint environment, where you can reference charts or texts already in the presentation, and where you can quickly try out ideas directly on the slides.

With thinkcell AI Suite’s chat, you can share your objective, your audience or even a rough thought and work through your idea, co-developing your narrative before building the slide.

Try with thinkcell: I need to convince leadership that we should enter this market. Help me structure the argument and create the opening slide.