Why this matters
AI slide tools make a deck in a minute. The trouble is what a careless minute produces: a generic deck that sounds like everyone else’s, colours that change every time, and numbers the AI rounded, mixed up or invented. One wrong figure in front of a client costs more trust than an ugly slide.
The fix is not a better tool. It is four habits that work in every tool, and they take less time than fixing a bad deck: a prompt with the right four parts, an outline you fix before the design, a brand kit you set up once, and a check of every number against your notes.
What you’ll build
Jordan Lee at Cedar & Finch Consulting (made up) has a Q3 review with a client on Friday. You compare a weak and a strong prompt, move a slide that is out of order at the outline, set up the parts of a brand kit and check four numbers on a slide against the source notes: two match, one is wrong and one was made up.
Every screen is a Stepthrough worksheet, not a slide tool. The next modules use the same habits in Presentations.AI, Gamma, Slidebean and Runable.
What you need
- NothingThe practice is a worksheet in your browser.
- Your notes for the next deck, to do it for realThe real numbers, pasted, not described from memory.
Concepts
3 ideas you’ll use in the practice.
A prompt with four parts
Who the deck is for, the one message it proves, the real source material pasted in, and the shape: how many slides and how much text. With those four, the AI has almost nothing left to guess. See prompt.
Adjectives such as "professional" and "great" add nothing. Spend the words on content, and let the theme handle design.
Outline first, then the brand kit
Most AI slide tools show a slide outline before they design. Fix the order there: moving a line takes seconds, moving a designed slide can break the layout.
A brand kit (or theme) stores your logo, exact hex colours, fonts and image style. Set it up once and pick it for every deck, instead of describing the brand in each prompt.
Check every number
AI tools can round, mix up or invent numbers, especially when they condense notes. That is a hallucination. Compare each figure on the slides with your source, one by one: keep it, fix it, or remove it.
A number you cannot trace to a source does not go on a client slide. The hallucination check entry has a quick routine for any AI output.
Practice
Do every step yourself in a practice copy of the real tool. It checks your work, and “Do it for me” finishes any step you get stuck on.
Do it for real
Now repeat it in your own account. Tick each step as you go.
Quick check
3 questions to check you’ve got it.
1. Which prompt gets the most usable first draft?
- “Make a great Q3 deck”
- Audience, the one message, the pasted notes and the slide count
- A page describing each slide’s design
Show the answer
Audience, the one message, the pasted notes and the slide count. Four parts, and nothing important is left to guess.
2. When is it cheapest to fix the order of a deck?
- At the outline
- After the slides are designed
- During the meeting
Show the answer
At the outline. Moving a line beats moving a designed slide.
3. A slide shows a number that is not in your notes. What do you do?
- Keep it, the AI looked it up
- Remove it or find the real source
- Round it
Show the answer
Remove it or find the real source. Every client number should trace back to something you can show.
Presentations.AI: Build a Quarterly Sales Review Deck from Your Notes
You know the four habits. Next, use them on a real deck: a quarterly sales review built from notes in Presentations.AI.
Start module 3 →