How to Use AI to Create Slides and Visuals for Your Presentations
Liam Sandford
Liam Sandford is a public speaking coach, marketing leader, and 2x Best Selling Author, including the book Effortless Public Speaking. He helps introverted professionals and leaders take control of public speaking anxiety and use speaking to market themselves, build influence, and communicate with impact.
Slides are supposed to support your message, not carry it. But most presenters use slides as a crutch, filling them with text so they do not have to remember what to say next. The result is an audience reading your slides instead of listening to you, and a presenter who is narrating bullet points instead of speaking with conviction.
AI can help you build slides that do what they are supposed to do: reinforce key moments, simplify complex ideas, and give your audience something visual to anchor their understanding. The catch is that you need to know what role your slides should play before you ask AI to help you create them.
Why Most Presentation Slides Fail the Audience
A slide covered in text forces your audience to choose between reading and listening. They cannot do both effectively. When they read, they stop listening. When they listen, they miss what is on the screen. Either way, your message gets diluted.
The problem is not a lack of design skill. It is a lack of clarity about what each slide is for. Speakers dump content onto slides because they have not decided what their core message is or which supporting points genuinely need visual reinforcement.
Before you open any design tool or ask AI for slide suggestions, you need to answer one question: what does this slide help my audience understand that my words alone cannot?
How AI Helps You Reduce Slides to What Actually Matters
One of the most useful applications of AI in presentation design is cutting rather than adding. Paste your full slide deck content into AI and ask: "Which of these slides are essential for the audience to understand my core message, and which are just there because I feel more comfortable having the information visible?"
This question forces a ruthless edit. Most presenters find that half their slides exist to reassure themselves, not to serve their audience. AI can identify which slides repeat points you are already making verbally, which contain data that could be stated in one sentence, and which are genuinely adding visual value.
The result is a leaner deck where every slide earns its place. Less on the slide usually means more authority in the room.
How to Use AI to Turn Complex Data into Clear Visuals
If your talk involves numbers, trends, or comparisons, AI can help you figure out the clearest way to present that information visually. The mistake most speakers make with data slides is showing everything. A chart with twelve data points and three axes tells the audience nothing except that you have data.
Ask AI to help you identify the single most important insight from your data and suggest the simplest visual format to communicate it. In most cases, the answer is one number, one trend line, or one comparison, not a full spreadsheet.
You can also ask AI to write the one sentence that should accompany a data slide. "What is the headline for this chart in under 10 words?" This forces you to decide what the data means before you show it, which is the difference between informing your audience and confusing them.
Why AI Should Plan Your Slide Sequence, Not Design Individual Slides
Most people ask AI for help with individual slides, but the bigger opportunity is in sequencing. The order in which you reveal information affects how your audience understands and retains your message.
Ask AI to review your full talk structure and suggest the optimal moments for visual reinforcement. Not every section needs a slide. Some sections are better delivered with nothing on screen so the audience focuses entirely on you.
For a complete overview of how AI supports every stage of public speaking preparation, the Ultimate Guide to Using AI for Public Speaking covers the full picture.
A strong slide sequence typically follows a rhythm: image or key stat to open a section, a clean blank or minimal slide during explanation, and a summary visual or takeaway to close the section. AI can help you map this rhythm across your entire talk rather than designing slides in isolation.
How to Use AI to Write Speaker Notes That Support Delivery
Speaker notes should not be a full script. They should be trigger words and key phrases that keep you on track without tempting you to read verbatim. AI can help you convert a dense script into lean speaker notes.
Paste a section of your talk and ask: "Reduce this to five bullet points that would remind me of the key ideas without giving me full sentences to read." The result is a set of prompts that support recall without creating dependence.
This approach works because it forces you to understand the material well enough that a few words can trigger the full explanation. If you cannot deliver a section from a five word trigger, you do not know the material well enough yet.
How AI Helps You Match Visuals to Your Brand and Audience
Different audiences respond to different visual styles. A slide deck for a creative agency should look and feel completely different from one for a financial services conference. AI can help you think through what visual tone fits your audience and context.
Ask: "I am presenting to [audience] at [event type]. What visual style would feel credible and appropriate? Should I use photography, illustrations, minimal text, data visualisations, or a combination?" The response gives you a starting framework before you open a design tool.
AI can also help you write descriptions for images you need. Instead of searching stock photo libraries aimlessly, describe the concept to AI and ask for specific image suggestions that reinforce your message rather than decorate your slides.
What AI Slide Tools Cannot Do for You
AI can suggest content, sequence, and visual concepts for slides. It cannot make you a confident presenter. A beautiful slide deck delivered by someone reading from notes is still a poor presentation.
The best slides in the world will not save a talk that lacks a clear core message, a purposeful structure, or a speaker who has genuinely internalised the material. Slides are the last layer, not the first. Get the message right, get the structure right, rehearse until you can deliver without dependence on your slides, and then design visuals that enhance what you are already doing well.
Frequently Asked Questions About AI and Presentation Slides
Should I use AI to design my slides directly?
AI is better at planning slide content and sequence than at producing finished designs. Use AI to decide what each slide should contain and in what order, then use a design tool like Canva or PowerPoint to build the actual visuals. AI excels at the thinking stage, not the final production.
How many slides should a presentation have?
There is no universal rule, but a useful guideline is no more than one slide per two minutes of speaking time. For a 20-minute talk, that means roughly 10 slides maximum. Each slide should serve a specific purpose. If you cannot explain why a slide exists in one sentence, it probably should not be there.
Can AI help me create slides for technical presentations?
Yes, and this is where AI adds the most value. Technical presentations often suffer from information overload. AI can help you identify which technical details are essential for your audience and which can be simplified, cut, or moved to a handout. Ask AI to translate complex concepts into one-sentence summaries suitable for non-expert audiences.
What is the biggest mistake people make with presentation slides?
Using slides as a script. When slides contain everything you plan to say, you become a narrator rather than a speaker. The most powerful presenters use slides sparingly, letting their words carry the message and using visuals only to reinforce moments that benefit from a visual anchor.
TL;DR: How to Use AI to Create Slides and Visuals for Presentations
AI helps you build slides that support your message instead of replacing your delivery.
Use AI to cut slides that exist for your comfort rather than your audience's understanding
Turn complex data into single insights with clear visual formats
Plan slide sequence across your full talk rather than designing individual slides in isolation
Convert dense scripts into lean speaker notes that trigger recall without creating dependence
Remember that slides are the last layer of preparation, not the first
More From Liam Sandford
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