Presentation basics

Presentation Basics: How to Draft a Powerful Presentation Using Copilot

From blank slide to finished deck – structure, write, and design your presentation with AI in under 30 minutes

Why This Use Case?

Over 30 million PowerPoint presentations are created every day—but most take too long and fail to engage. According to Zight’s 2024 survey, professionals spend over 6 hours per week on presentation creation. This use case offers a fast, structured method using Copilot in PowerPoint to help you go from idea to finished presentation in less than 30 minutes.

You’ll start with your message, create a logical flow, and use AI to write, design, and review your slides. The result: presentations that are not just faster to make, but sharper and more impactful to deliver.

Who It’s For?

Anyone who needs to present ideas clearly – whether you’re:

Preparing a client proposal
Reporting on project results
Pitching a new idea to your team
Leading a strategy session
Sharing insights with senior leadership
Creating internal training or onboarding slides

Step-by-Step Framework

Step 1: Clarify Your Core Message

Start with the single most important idea you want your audience to remember.

This is not just about the topic—it’s about the takeaway. The clearer this is, the better your slides will turn out.

Ask yourself:

Topic: What are you talking about? (e.g., Reducing support ticket backlog)
Audience: Who’s listening? (e.g., Senior operations team)
Desired action: What do you want them to decide or do? (e.g., Approve new staffing model)

Prompt to use:

You are a consultant. Your task is to define the core message for a business presentation. Given the topic [insert], audience [insert], and desired decision/action [insert], write one clear sentence that captures the key message of the presentation

Step 2: Build a Smart Outline

Organise your thoughts before you design. Think of it like a story:

Context: what’s the problem or need?
Insight: what do you recommend or propose?
Support: what’s your evidence or reasoning?
Action: what do you want them to do?

Start by writing 5 rough bullet points you’d say if you had no slides. Example:

Customer wait time has increased by 40%
Main causes: understaffing and outdated ticket system
We’ve modelled 3 new staffing options
Option 2 saves most time and cost
We recommend trialing it in September

Prompt to use:

You are a communications expert. Turn the bullet points below into a slide-by-slide outline for a business presentation. Include a suggested slide title for each.

[Paste your 4–6 raw bullets here]

Step 3: Generate First Draft Slides with Copilot

Open PowerPoint and let Copilot draft your first deck.

How to use it:

Click the Copilot icon in PowerPoint
Type or paste:
“Create a presentation titled [your topic] for [your audience]. Include slides covering: [paste your outline from Step 2].”

Copilot will build a rough deck with titles and bullets. Edit as needed.

Next-level prompts:

“Rewrite this slide to sound more persuasive”
“Make this slide more visual”
“Add a relevant image or chart idea to support this point”

Step 4: Refine Structure, Add Visuals, and Polish Design

Time to level-up the deck.

Go slide by slide and ask:

Is the title clear and punchy?
Is there too much text?
Could I replace a bullet list with a chart or visual?

Use PowerPoint’s Design Ideas pane for layout inspiration and image suggestions.

Prompt to use (per slide):

You are a presentation designer. Given this slide title “[insert title]” and bullet content “[insert content]”, suggest a clearer title and one idea for a visual element (icon, layout, or image) to replace or support the text

Step 5: Review, Rehearse, and Export

Final pass.

Ask yourself:

Does the story flow logically?
Are my key points clear and visual?
Am I ready to deliver this confidently?

Use PowerPoint’s Rehearse with Coach tool to practice. It gives feedback on pace, filler words, and energy.

Prompt to use:

For Copilot:

You are a presentation editor. Given this presentation, suggest 3 improvements to enhance message clarity, visual impact, or delivery flow.

You can also upload your final slide deck to ChatGPT or any LLM of your choice and use the same above prompt to ask for a review.

Bonus Prompts & Tools

Extra AI Prompts:

“Rewrite this slide to sound more inspiring/professional/technical”
“Summarise this 10-slide deck into 3 key talking points”
“Suggest a better closing slide that drives action”

Helpful Tools:

PowerPoint Copilot: Create and edit slides, refine structure, improve clarity
Word Copilot: Draft outlines or talking points before building slides
Teams Copilot: Pull meeting notes or decisions into slide-ready summaries