AIs can produce presentation slides that are ready to be presented, or slides that are never useful to present with. The prompt used likely has a big effect on the outcome.
After using presentation AIs so many times, especially Encelade, an AI-based presentation builder that allows you to create slides with interactive sections containing real time or 3D data, here are a few features that can help greatly improve the outputs.
1. The structure of your AI presentation prompt
There are different AIs on different points on a number line. At one end of the line, you can present the AIs with a topic. At the other extreme, you can state every slide verbatim.
Neither extreme is useful.
On the less extreme end of the line, the AIs tend to present content that is very bland and generic. On the more extreme end of the line, the AIs output slides that end up being equivalent to what you wrote.
The realistic end of the scale is probably somewhere in the middle, and tends to vary on a per slide basis. For example, perhaps you have a very specific viewpoint about your opening point, but a flexible viewpoint about how the slides will illustrate the product roadmap. That's fine. For the same presentation, you can have sections that if inputted to the AI, will be very specific and given very small inputs, the AI will have latitude to exercise creativity, and vice versa.
In Encelade, each line of your outline maps roughly to a slide. Some lines can be a sentence long. Others can be two words. The AI adapts either way:
Q4 revenue up 34% YoY, strongest quarter since launch
Customer growth
Three priorities for H1: mobile app, EU expansion, API v2First and third lines are specific — the AI follows your lead. Second line is open — the AI decides what's worth highlighting about customer growth. That mix is usually where the best results come from.
You can create detailed slides that include bullet points, context, and structured notes if you choose. To do so, add ---, next slide, or Slide: between pages. Everything between two separators is captured as content for one slide:
Slide: Q4 Financial Results
Revenue up 34% YoY
Enterprise segment drove 60% of new ARR
Margins improved by 8 points after cost restructuring
---
Slide: Customer Growth
Added 120 enterprise accounts
3x previous quarter
Net retention at 135%
---
Product Roadmap
Three priorities for H1: mobile app, EU expansion, API v2In the example above, each section, bounded by ---, is a slide. This means that "Q4 Financial Results" is captured on one slide with three pieces of data, "Customer Growth" is captured on a second slide with three pieces of data, and "Product Roadmap" is captured on a third and final slide alone. Without separators, the AI captures the data and decides how to group the slides. With the separators, you decide how each slide opens and closes. Use separators when slide boundaries matter, and skip the separators when you are comfortable with the AI capturing the slides.
2. Use the AI slide maker with real data
This is the single most important piece of advice for AI integrations into presentation software.
If your slides include numbers, metrics, or other quantitative data, and you do not provide the data, the AI will fill in the numbers. They will appear correctly labeled and look plausible. However, a member of your audience will recognize that they are incorrect and that they are fictitious.
Including a CSV or PDF with your data will improve your slides. Linking to the source with a short description of the contents will greatly improve the quality of your slides and presentations.
Encelade effortlessly imports CSV data into chart slides, including accurate data, labels, and structures. Stock photos get swapped out for pictures you upload. PDFs are pulled for relevant information. Even portal links, including "Q4 Earnings Summary" are understood by the model.
The objective is simple: the less the AI has to work and improvise, the better. Each context you give it saves it one more thing it has to make up.
3. Generate your AI presentation more than once
Skillful use of any AI deck generator depends on the ability (and willingness) to generate the same content a multitude of times. Which ideas ultimately get presented depends on order, balance, and focus, so each iteration provides a new opportunity to reconsider how the deck will be framed upon delivery.
Encelade implements this functionality by providing users multiple differentiated AI models, from rapid iteration models like Claude Haiku, to heavy iteration models like GPT-5.2, or Claude Opus. Every model iterates content in a distinct way, so the same outline, run through Sonnet, GPT-4o or both, gives you the opportunity to examine various methods of the same idea.
4. Set tone and audience for better AI slides
When you consider audience and tone, you understand that you are not just swapping out a few adjectives. You are switching up the structure of the points you have, the level of jargon that may be present, or the level of bluntness in your word choice. For example, a presentation using an "educational" tone for an audience of students will look drastically different from one using a "scientific" tone for a presentation at a conference, even if the content is derived from the same points.
Audience also determines the length of descriptions. A presentation for a technical audience may lead to the creation of more slides with more information, while a presentation for a leadership audience may lead to the creation of slides with less but sharper information. When your slides feel either verbose or lacking, it may actually just be that the audience is incorrect.
Encelade has this functionality built in. It has nine tone presets for audiences. You can override with manual verbosity controls (Concise / Balanced / Detailed), but by default, it understands the audience you are targeting and provides the goldilocks response.
When covering a lot of content, go concise with more slides, not detailed with fewer. One point per slide is almost always best.
5. Review the AI-generated outline before building slides
Before you generate, most of these tools give you a preview of what they're about to build, in the form of an outline or plan. You should always glance over these.
A slide labeled "Narrative" that needs to be "Comparison" and contains key points that miss the angle you care about. These can easily be corrected in the planning phase. Post-generation, they become a complete rebuild.
Encelade lets you see every step of your slide's structure (type, key points, goals) before anything is generated. You can swap, rewrite, reorder, or delete slides. The auto-detection is good enough that most plans are solid as-is, but it only takes thirty seconds to scan for one or two misses that can improve the final deck.
AI-based presentation tools give you more than bullet points
If you're not sure what types of formats your tool supports, you're going to have a hard time formatting your slides to be aesthetically pleasing.
If you don't know your tool is capable of generating interactive flowcharts, you're inevitably going to end up outlining in bullet points. If you don't know your tool is capable of generating a 3D globe, you're going to end up describing your global presence in the same way.
Interactive widgets allow you to tell your story with artful detail. Encelade has a variety of interactive widgets and it's important you review the available widgets in the outline planner to get the most of what Encelade can do.
Add media, calls to action, and research to finesse your AI deck
Set a purpose for your ending. If the goal of your deck is a decision, a sign up, or a next step, you need to build that directly into the last slide. A trailing summary isn't a close.
Choose media to fit the tone. Stock images are more standard, but reliable. Generative AI can produce more unique images, but the process takes longer. GIFs can be used to add energy to more casual slides. Encelade gives you three options: stock images from Unsplash, GIFs, and AI images — choose based on your slides, and switch them in the edit view.
Turn on research. For presentations that require up-to-date information or citations — slides for scientific talks, market analysis, or anything that requires accuracy — deep research mode makes a real difference. It takes longer, as our agents search for reliable sources, but the result is a more precise and data rich presentation.
The AI has matured past the generic phase. Communication and building the future will be shaped by those who can command this technology. Encelade can be your reliable partner on this journey, whether you need an AI presentation tool for a one-off deck or for your daily tasks.
