Lesson 157 · 2 min
Making slides with AI
AI can turn your notes into a first slide deck in minutes, and your job is to bring the message, the real numbers and the cuts.
Several tools can now build a slide deck from a prompt or a document. You give it a topic or paste your notes, and it returns titles, bullet points, a layout and sometimes speaker notes.
This works best when you already know what you want to say. Start by telling the AI the audience, the one decision you want from them, and how long you have. A five-minute talk for a busy manager needs different slides from a training session for new staff.
First drafts tend to have the same faults: too many words per slide, generic phrases, and facts or figures that sound right but have no source. Ask it to cut each slide to one idea and a short headline, and replace any number with your own data.
Finish by rehearsing out loud. If a slide does not help you say something, delete it. People remember the speaker and two or three points, never the decoration.
Do it now
Plan a deck before you design it
- 1. Pick a talk you need to give, even a short update.
- 2. Use the prompt below to get an outline, not the finished slides.
- 3. Cross out any slide that does not help your main point, then build the rest.
I am giving a [LENGTH]-minute talk to [AUDIENCE]. I want them to [DECISION OR ACTION]. My notes: [PASTE NOTES]. Suggest at most 7 slides. For each, give a headline of under 8 words and one sentence I could say. Mark any fact I should check.
Quick check
Words from this lesson
- Generative AI
- AI that produces new text, images, audio, video or code, rather than only sorting or scoring existing things.
- Hallucination
- When an AI states something false with confidence, such as a made-up fact, quote or source.
- Prompt
- The instruction or question you give an AI. Clearer prompts with context usually get much better answers.