The best AI for presentations: which one to use and how to ask

If you search for the best AI for presentations, you get lists of twenty tools. And if on Tuesday you’re presenting a quote to a client or the quarter’s numbers to your business partner, they won’t help much: you’re not going to try twenty programs this week. If you’d rather learn it step by step, it’s in my AI course for work.

Chances are you already have an AI inside PowerPoint or Google Slides. I’ll tell you which one, based on what you pay for, and the method that actually saves time, with two prompts to copy. At the end there’s a ten-minute test to see whether yours makes up figures.

Best AI for presentations, based on what you already pay for

Prices in Spain in September 2026:

My advice: if you already pay for Microsoft 365, start with Copilot, since it’s right there. If not, try the ChatGPT add-in, which is free, or Claude’s if you pay for Claude Pro. For a presentation that matters to me I use Claude, as I explain in which AI to use for what. Even so, what changes the result most is how you ask, and that goes for all of them.

Copilot in PowerPoint: which plan includes it and how to use it

With Microsoft 365 Personal, Family or Premium, Copilot is already in your PowerPoint, behind the icon at the bottom right. You ask for a presentation on a topic or based on a Word document and, before it builds the slides, it asks what it’s missing and shows you an outline you can change. It also has a skill called «Prepare for Questions», which looks for weak points and what the audience might ask you.

• It uses AI credits, a monthly allowance. Premium gets more, and on Family and Premium only the subscription owner can use it.
• Microsoft admits quality is highest in English. It works in Spanish, but check the tone.
• The Brand kit, with your logos and guidelines, is only for work accounts with a Copilot licence.

At work, Microsoft 365 Business plans include Copilot in PowerPoint at no extra cost, just like in Excel, with standard access that can be slower at busy times. To check, sign in to Microsoft 365 with your work account and look at what it says under your name at the bottom of the home page. With «M365 Copilot (Basic)» you have it. With «Copilot Chat (Basic)», you don’t get it inside PowerPoint. The Microsoft 365 Copilot Business licence, which adds the Brand kit and priority access, costs €18.20 + VAT per user a month, paid yearly.

Claude for PowerPoint and Claude Slides

If you want an AI for PowerPoint that works with your template, Claude for PowerPoint is built for that. It’s the same add-in as Claude for Excel (in Microsoft’s store it’s listed as Claude for Microsoft 365) and it comes with the paid plans, from Pro. It runs on Windows with Microsoft 365, on Mac and on the web, but not on the iPad or in the one-off purchase versions of PowerPoint 2016 or 2019.

It reads your file’s slide master, layouts, fonts and colours, and uses them. It changes a single slide without redoing the rest and turns a list of bullets into a diagram or an editable PowerPoint chart. Anthropic doesn’t recommend it for anything going to a client without a human review, and warns that a file from outside, such as a downloaded template, can hide instructions meant to trick it. When it’s about to do something risky it asks you to confirm: read that carefully.

Since 16 September 2026 there’s also Claude Slides: you ask for the presentation in an ordinary conversation, edit it there and download it as PowerPoint or PDF. It’s in beta on all paid plans: on by default on Pro, Max and Team, while on Enterprise an admin has to turn it on. And on a free account, Claude will create the PowerPoint file in the chat: code execution and file creation is on by default, and if you turned it off, it’s under Settings, Capabilities.

ChatGPT for PowerPoint: the free add-in

OpenAI has its own add-in, ChatGPT for PowerPoint, available worldwide since 6 July 2026 on every plan. Free and Go get limited use, and on Plus and Pro it draws on the same allowance as Codex. You install it from Add-ins on the Home tab, and the same add-in also covers Excel and Word. On a work account, your admin may restrict installation or access.

It builds presentations from notes, documents or spreadsheets, changes slides and tells you where the story has gaps. OpenAI admits it doesn’t always nail your template and still doesn’t handle chart editing, complex templates or custom fonts well. For important work it advises duplicating the file first, and I’d do the same. If you pay for Plus, ChatGPT Work, ChatGPT’s agent mode, will also hand you the finished presentation.

Gemini in Google Slides

If you work with Google, Gemini is in Slides with Google AI Pro (€21.99 a month) or with Workspace from Business Standard up. Since late June 2026 it can build a whole presentation: you give it the topic, Drive documents as sources and another deck of yours to copy the style from, and it shows you a slide-by-slide plan you can change before approving it.

The catch is language. Google says that, for now, generating presentations and slides only works on a computer and in English. If you present in English, fine. For a deck in Spanish it helps you write, summarise and create images, but you build the slides yourself. Another route is Canvas, in the Gemini app: ask it for the presentation from your document and then export it to Slides.

Free AI for presentations, or starting from scratch: Canva and Gamma

If you don’t want to pay, you already have two options above: the ChatGPT add-in and the file free Claude makes for you. If you don’t have PowerPoint either, or want something eye-catching from scratch, try one of these AI presentation makers. Both export to PowerPoint.

Canva suggests an outline, you tweak it and it generates the slides. It can start from one of your brand templates and read a PDF or Word file you attach. The free plan gives you up to 20 AI uses a month. Pro costs €12 a month or €110 a year, and Business €17 or €170 per person, VAT included. Downloaded as PowerPoint it may change: Canva warns you may need to install its fonts and that animations and videos don’t carry over well.

Gamma is the one that turns up most in the lists. Free gives you 400 credits once, makes up to 10 slides per prompt and what you export carries its branding. Paid plans give you credits every month; check the price on its website before you pay.

The method: story first, then slides, then notes

Most of the time lost with these tools goes the same way: you ask for twenty slides in one go, get something pretty and empty back, and spend the afternoon fixing it. I’d do it in three steps, always giving it my material: my notes, even a photo of the notebook; the figures, in their Excel file or PDF; what the client asked for; and a deck of mine I like.

1. The story. No slides yet: what you want the client to decide and what each slide says, in one sentence. Changing the order here takes a minute. Copilot, Gemini and Canva already show you an outline before generating. In Claude or ChatGPT, ask for it yourself:

Context: I work at [company and role] and on [day] I'm presenting to [client, boss or committee: who they are and what worries them]. I have [20] minutes.
Task: don't make slides yet. I want the storyline of the presentation.
Material: I'm attaching [my notes, the client's email, the sheet with the figures].
Format:
- Start with one sentence: what I want the client to decide at the end.
- Then between 6 and 10 slides. For each one, a title that already states the conclusion («Online sales are now 40 %», not «Sales») and the two or three points that back it up.
- Use only figures and dates from the material. If something is missing, write [MISSING] and don't make it up.
- At the end, the three hardest questions they could ask me.
Before you start, ask me whatever you need to know.

2. The slides. Once the storyline is approved, open your template and carry on in the same conversation, so it keeps what it already knows:

The storyline is approved. Now make the slides in this presentation:
- Use the template's layouts, fonts and colours. Don't add new layouts, colours or typefaces.
- One idea per slide and at most [30] words on screen. Everything else goes in the speaker notes.
- Numbers and dates in the format my client uses (in Spain: 1.234,56 € and «5 de octubre de 2026»).
- Charts editable and built from the material's data. No pictures of charts.
- Don't touch [the cover or the contact slide].
When you finish, give me a list of every figure and date you used, the slide it's on and the document it comes from.

3. The notes. What you’re going to say on each slide. In Copilot they’re on the View tab, under the Notes button, and Microsoft says it works best with fewer than 50 slides. In the others, ask for them in the chat and, if it doesn’t write them into the notes pane, paste them in yourself. Read them out loud once and change anything you wouldn’t say that way.

How to keep your template

• Open your template before you ask for anything. Claude and Copilot use what they find in the file, and ChatGPT works inside it when it can.
• Write your rules down once: in the Claude add-in’s instructions or at the start of the chat.
• If it comes from Canva or Gamma, check fonts and colours when you move it to PowerPoint.
• Work on a copy. If something gets out of place, you’re back to the original in a second.

How to check figures and dates before you present

All these tools warn you about the same thing: check figures and claims before sharing. I’d look at four things:

1. Every figure against its source. With the list from step 2, compare each number and date with the document it comes from, not with what you remember.
2. What you didn’t give it. A market size, a growth rate, an «according to several studies». If it wasn’t in your material, it made it up.
3. Local formats. Dates like 05/10/2026 (5 October in Spain), thousands separators, «+ IVA» or «IVA incluido».
4. Charts. The numbers in the chart must match the table. If the chart is a picture you can’t see its data, so ask for a PowerPoint chart.

What not to paste

To present something to a client, the AI almost never needs personal data:

• Remove the names, DNI or NIE numbers, phones and emails of individuals. To talk about «the 40 orders in March» it doesn’t need to know who placed them.
• No passwords, IBANs or health data.
• If you signed a confidentiality agreement with that client, read it before you upload their documents to any AI.
• On personal ChatGPT, Claude or Gemini accounts, turn off training on your conversations first. The ChatGPT add-in handles data according to your plan and account settings, so that setting counts there too.

With clients’ personal data, check the account, agreement and permissions before uploading it, even for one presentation. The details are in ChatGPT, Claude and GDPR.

Try it yourself in ten minutes

Before you use it with your real client, give your AI this made-up presentation. Open a blank presentation, or better, your template, and paste:

Prepare a 5-slide presentation for a client meeting. Use only this information:
- Client: Hotel Mirador, 32 rooms, in Cádiz.
- We're proposing a new website with direct bookings.
- Today direct bookings are 18 % of the total. Target: 30 % in 12 months.
- Budget: €12,400 + VAT.
- Timeline: 10 weeks, starting 05/10/2026.
First give me the storyline, one sentence per slide, and wait until I say «go ahead». Then make the slides with their notes.

Then check:

1. Whether it waited. It had to give you the storyline and stop. If it made the slides in one go, you know you’ll have to insist with this one.
2. The date. It starts on 5 October and, if it works out the delivery date, it lands in mid-December. If it puts it in July, it read 05/10 as 10 May, the American way.
3. The percentages. From 18 % to 30 % is 12 points, 67 % more direct bookings. If it says «12 % more», that’s wrong.
4. The money. €12,400 + VAT, which at 21 % comes to €15,004. If it says «VAT included», wrong.
5. Made-up figures. You didn’t give it a room rate, a market size or platform commissions. Any figure that isn’t on the list was invented.
6. The template. If you built it on your template, check it uses your layouts and fonts.

If it slips up, tell it as you would a colleague and try again. You’ll know what to watch for when you give it your real numbers. And if they come from a spreadsheet, the best AI for Excel shows you how to check them first.

Sources, checked on 26 September 2026: Microsoft 365 prices in Spain and for businesses (in Spanish), what Copilot licence you have, Copilot in PowerPoint FAQ, Claude for PowerPoint, artifacts and Claude Slides, Claude pricing, ChatGPT for PowerPoint, ChatGPT pricing, Gemini in Google Slides, the Spanish prices of Google AI plans, Google Workspace and Canva, and Gamma credits. ChatGPT access and permissions and eligible Gemini editions rechecked on 1 October 2026; other prices and capabilities retain the earlier check date.