Microsoft PowerPoint has recently introduced two new features – Presenter Coach and Slide Ideas – that can help boost your productivity when creating presentations. This article explains what these features do and how you can combine them to save time while making compelling slide decks.
An Overview of Presenter Coach
Released in mid-2023, Presenter Coach is an AI-powered feature in PowerPoint that provides real-time feedback to improve your presentation delivery. Here are some key things it can help with:
- Pacing – It lets you know if you are speaking too fast or too slow so you can adjust your speed for better audience comprehension.
- Filler words – It alerts you when you use too many filler words like “um” or “uh” so you can reduce verbal ticks.
- Inclusive language – It catches insensitive phrasing and suggests more inclusive language to ensure your presentation resonates with a diverse audience.
- Confidence – It provides encouragement when you sound unsure, helping you present ideas with greater conviction.
To use Presenter Coach, simply turn on your microphone and rehearse your presentation within PowerPoint. The AI will listen, analyze, and provide real-time feedback through visual and audio cues.
An Overview of Slide Ideas
Slide Ideas, launched in early 2024, is another AI feature that gives you suggestions for visuals to include on slides. Specifically, it can:
- Generate design ideas – It suggests layouts, color schemes, fonts, and effects based on the content on your slides.
- Find related images – It searches for relevant photos and illustrations that capture key messages on each slide.
- Propose data charts – For slides with lots of statistics or figures, it recommends possible data visualizations.
To use Slide Ideas, click on the lightbulb icon while viewing a slide and browse visually-rich recommendations popped up by the AI. You can then easily insert any you like with one click.
Combining The Two Features
While Presenter Coach and Slide Ideas work well on their own, you can combine them to amplify their productivity benefits:
Step 1: Brainstorm Content with Slide Ideas
When planning presentation content, turn to Slide Ideas first. As you input bullet points, the AI will generate visuals and charts to convey the ideas. This kickstarts the creative process.
You’ll end up with rough slides faster, leaving you more time to finesse the deck. The AI-generated designs also better hold audience attention compared to text-heavy slides.
Step 2: Refine Slides Based on Presenter Coach Feedback
Next, use Presenter Coach to practice presenting the Slide Ideas-enhanced deck. Pay attention to where the AI flags issues with pacing, filler words, or inclusive language.
Also note slides where you stumble or sound unsure. The visual and audio cues from Presenter Coach pinpoint problem areas.
Step 3: Tweak Slides to Resolve Presentation Weak Spots
Finally, use the Presenter Coach insights to tweak your slides and presentation script. For example:
- If the AI says you’re speaking too fast on a slide, simplify it for better comprehension.
- If you use lots of filler words on a complex slide, add more visuals to reinforce the key takeaways.
- If you lack confidence around a certain data chart, reformat it to showcase the most compelling statistic.
Keep rehearsing and revising based on Presenter Coach guidance until your entire presentation flows smoothly. The back-and-forth refinement will result in more impactful and easier-to-deliver slides tailored to your presenting strengths.
Benefits of Combining the Features
Using Slide Ideas and Presenter Coach together leads to a number of productivity advantages:
- Saves research time – Slide Ideas generates quality visuals and data charts on your behalf, eliminating the need to hunt down relevant imagery or create charts from scratch.
- Reduces design effort – The AI recommends designs, color schemes, fonts, and layouts that human designers would otherwise have to manually mock up. This accelerates slide creation.
- Surfaces content issues quickly – Presenter Coach flags problematic areas in your presentation right away, enabling rapid revision compared to finding weaknesses yourself.
- Improves skills over time – Features like pacing and filler word feedback provide presentation coaching to hone your skills with each rehearsal.
In total, you can cut several hours or days off developing top-notch slides and delivery by combining these two AI capabilities compared to creating presentations the traditional way.
Over time, the productivity boost will compound as the AI learns your preferences to offer up even more tailored suggestions that require less and less tweaking on your part. The combined features create a powerful presentation partner.
Tips for Maximizing the Combined Features
To further capitalize on the combined productivity push from Presenter Coach and Slide Ideas, keep these tips in mind:
- Take advantage of accessibility checks – Use PowerPoint’s accessibility checker which will flag issues for vision or hearing-impaired audiences. Address these to ensure your presentation resonates with more people.
- Refine designs manually too – While Slide Ideas offers lots of great imagery and charts, take time to manually tweak designs too so that visuals perfectly match your brand style.
- Practice your script – Don’t just rehearse slides. Refine the spoken words you pair with each slide based on Presenter Coach feedback for truly polished delivery.
- Set reminders to train the AI – Schedule time every week or two to rehearse a presentation with Presenter Coach. The more exposure the AI gets to your style, the better its suggestions become.
Continue Finding New Ways to Combine the Tools
As you become adept at using Presenter Coach and Slide Ideas in tandem, keep exploring fresh ways to blend the tools for greater productivity.
For example, you might use Slide Ideas to create multiple design approaches and then test which one you present best by rehearsing them with Presenter Coach. Or, have the AI generate presenter notes to reinforce key points on tricky slides.
Constantly innovating with the tools will help you continue to reap exponential time-savings and develop outstanding presentations.
