You are working on your presentation, and it's the day before the deadline, but all you have is a blank screen.
We've all been there, wishing for a magic button that could at least generate a draft for us.
Little did I know that such a magic button would soon become a reality. ChatGPT has taken the world by storm.
Some people describe LLM's as a "stochastic parrot," while others believe them to be sentient. But the real question is: can it create good presentations?
Before arriving at an answer, let's clarify what a good presentation is.
A presentation is a tool for communicating our ideas. When we pitch, we want others to embrace our ideas; when we report, we seek recognition for our work; and when we educate, our goal is for others to understand. We create presentations to achieve specific outcomes.
A good presentation achieves the desired outcome.
So, can AI help?
It can, but there's a caveat. Without the prep work, ChatGPT will not be able to deliver a good, ready-to-use presentation.
To avoid the "Garbage in, garbage out" problem that both ChatGPT and humans can fall into, thorough preparation is required, and we are here to help you with that.
The Deckster team has developed a free guide and a prompt that you can use to help ChatGPT create a persuasive presentation outline for your pitch.
How to make an effective pitch presentation with ChatGPT: A step-by-step guide.
Take a piece of paper, and a pencil to organise your thoughts using the steps below.
Step 1: Start with the goal!
The famous Dutch footballer Johan Cruyff said, “Without a goal, you can’t score.” A goal guides you, just like a compass. Remember, the presentation itself is not the goal; the outcome is what matters.
What do you want to happen after your presentation?
Examples;
I want to improve my chances of promotion by showing the great results of my past work.
I want access to resources to carry out a career defining project through a strong pitch.
I want to reduce unnecessary repetitive tasks by educating my colleagues on specific topics.
Don't rush, think, carefully, and honestly about what your presentation goal is!
Step 2: Define your message
The most crucial part of a successful presentation is the message you want to deliver. While often overlooked, focusing on this is the best way to make a persuasive presentation out of our ideas.
To craft one, define how you want to change the behaviour or beliefs of the people you are going to present to. Then, frame this into a short and simple statement that will encourage them to make that change.
A great example is the iPhone presentation delivered by Steve Jobs on January 9, 2007, at the Macworld 2007 convention. Before that presentation, we were using phones with physical buttons; the rest is history. The message was simple yet powerful: “We will change mobile phones.”
Step 3: Define your presentation audience
Who is the intended audience for this presentation? Identify the people who are most likely to support your idea and help provide the resources needed to put it into action.
Choosing the right audience is very important. For example, asking your colleagues for funding won’t be helpful, just as discussing a process change with a C-level executive doesn’t make sense.
If you can’t reach your desired audience directly, try to connect with them through your manager, colleagues, or a respected person you know.
Step 4: Tailor your message and content to the audience
Understand what your audience values most. As Demosthenes said, “What a man wishes, that also will he believe.”
Your audience may care about user satisfaction, revenue growth, the founder's vision, or long-term strategic goals, or anything else. Aligning your pitch with their core values will astronomically increase the chances of success. Make sure the problem you address is one they want to solve enough to invest in.
When pitching to senior executives, focus on strategic impact, revenue, or cost savings. For direct managers, think about their personal interests and the extra work they need to get your idea to decision-makers. Colleagues or subordinates may care about things like innovation, recognition, or personal growth, not just money.
Step 5: Plan the structure of the presentation
Think of what the narrative is and its sequence. Do you want to begin with a personal story to connect emotionally with your audience? Would you rather start with surprising facts to highlight the importance of the problem you’re discussing? Or should you be direct and focus on the solution since the problem is already known?
Different types of presentations may need different structures. For educational talks, storytelling works well. But for quick pitches to senior executives, a clear and concise approach is best.
Step 6: Prepare arguments and counterarguments
Finally, think about the arguments that support your idea and how to address counterarguments from your audience.
Prepare sponsor-targeted arguments: Focus on how your solution aligns with the audience values.
Provide detractor arguments: There is a 99% chance, you will face challenging questions or objections from some part of your audience. That's why part of your arguments should serve as a defence and address detractors' concerns.
Conclusion:
Then and only then you can interact with ChatGPT, asking it to help with the presentation. Essentially what AI is great for - content. Given all the prerequisites discussed in the guide, ChatGPT will be able to create a quite decent draft for the presentation, that you will then need to put into your Google Slide, or PowerPoint.
Creating a polished presentation takes time. Each new situation - like reporting, education, or a sales pitch - requires a different method. With our guide on how to create a good pitch presentation using AI, you will understand the basics.
As a bonus, below you will find a prompt you can use for your pitch presentations. Good luck!
A prompt for a corporate pitch presentation template
Replace text in [brackets] with your own and paste it into the ChatGPT chat window.
Task: Following the information in the context generates an outline of the pitch presentation in slide format, tailoring it to the audience specified in the context by considering their specific pain points, anxieties, and goals.
Context: Use the following context to set the structure and tone, tailoring the presentation to the specific audience and goal provided in the context.
Goal: [I need to hire engineers to achieve greater team ROI]
Message: [We & our customers will win if we spend less money on tools & more on hiring quality talent]
Problem: [Our product department tooling got out of hand, we are spending 200k each year on AB testing and analytics. I think this is way too much, especially, when there are much cheaper alternatives, both in cloud and self-hosted. Additionally, this affects our hiring budget and limits us in hiring key people to address user problems]
Solution: [Migrate to Posthog self-hosted, which will cost us 5x times less]
Audience: [Senior execs, CEO and CTO]
Arguments: [Currently we pay 75k a year for both AB testing tools and analytics, with a bigger volume we will pay more, I'm expecting Posthog to cut this cost to 20k a year. Some solutions provide multiple tools in one suite: Product analytics, web analytics, surveys, session replays, ab testing, and data warehouse and this leads to easier usage. Finally, some new players are proposing new pricing models, such as pay as you go, resulting in not being locked in a multiple-year contract]