Up to 20 hours a week—that’s the kind of time people are reporting ChatGPT can save them. While the exact savings might vary depending on the task and how it's used, the overall value is undeniable. ChatGPT doesn’t just help you work faster; it enhances the quality of your work, enabling both teams and individuals to achieve more in less time.
So, how exactly are business professionals—like startup founders, solo entrepreneurs, directors, and project managers—using ChatGPT to create better presentations, and how does it help them do this faster? Whether you’re pitching to investors, aligning your team on a new project, or presenting quarterly results, ChatGPT steps in as that extra team member who’s always ready to help. It streamlines the process, making your presentations not just quicker to produce, but also more polished and impactful.
What makes ChatGPT so powerful in this context is its ability to adapt to different roles depending on what you need. It can be your creative partner, generating fresh ideas and new perspectives. If you need to gather information, it acts like a research assistant, quickly providing relevant data. When you're writing, it becomes a skilled copywriter, helping you draft and refine your text. And when you’re looking for feedback or revisions, it serves as an editor, ensuring your work is polished and coherent.
Let’s look at each of these roles in detail.
The brainstorming partner
When you're at the start of a project and need to brainstorm ideas for a presentation—whether that’s a topic or a design concept—it can sometimes be challenging to come up with fresh and engaging ideas. This is where ChatGPT shines as a brainstorming partner. You throw out some initial thoughts, themes, or even keywords, and ChatGPT can generate a wide range of ideas.
The research assistant
ChatGPT can be incredibly helpful during the research phase, but it’s important to understand its strengths and limitations. As a research assistant, it can quickly provide summaries of complex topics, suggest relevant information, and help you frame your ideas with background context. It’s really good at synthesizing information and presenting it in an easily digestible format.
Let’s say you’re working on a presentation about the latest trends in digital marketing. You can ask ChatGPT for an overview of current trends, and it will provide a comprehensive summary. While you’ll need to cross-check specific details or gather more in-depth data from primary sources, ChatGPT gives you a solid starting point and helps you identify key areas to focus on.
The copywriter
As a copywriter, ChatGPT is perfect for when you’re staring at a blank page and need to get the words flowing. It can help you craft engaging headlines, write persuasive body content, or even develop comprehensive speaker notes.
You start by giving ChatGPT some context about what you’re trying to achieve. For example, you might outline the main points you want to cover or the tone you’re aiming for. ChatGPT then helps you flesh out those ideas, providing draft text that you can refine and adapt.
The storyteller
Writing content is more about the individual pieces—the headlines, the body text, the speaker notes. Storytelling is about the overall structure and how those pieces fit together to form a cohesive whole. It’s about making sure that each part of the presentation supports a narrative arc and contributes to a powerful, engaging story.
Storytelling isn’t one-size-fits-all, and the right framework can make a huge difference in how your message is received. ChatGPT can guide you through selecting the best storytelling framework based on your goals and audience. You start by describing what you’re trying to achieve with the presentation. Are you trying to persuade, inform, entertain, or inspire? Based on your objective, ChatGPT can suggest different frameworks. For example, if you’re aiming to persuade, it might recommend a problem-solution framework. If you want to inspire, a hero’s journey might be more appropriate.
Take the hero’s journey framework for example. This is great more inspirational content—and taking your audience on a journey. It’s starts with a challenge, moves through struggles and growth, and ends with a resolution. ChatGPT can help map out these stages and ensure the story has a strong emotional impact.
The teacher
Picture this: you’re venturing into a new topic and you need to quickly get up to speed. ChatGPT can act as a knowledgeable teacher. It can explain complex concepts in simple terms, provide tutorials on specific topics, and offer examples to illustrate key points.
Whether it’s understanding new design principles, mastering a particular style of writing, or learning about the latest trends in storytelling, ChatGPT can be your go-to resource for fast, accessible learning. You can ask ChatGPT to explain complex concepts in simple terms, provide examples, and even offer step-by-step instructions. For instance, if you’re trying to improve your presentation design skills, you can ask ChatGPT about design principles like contrast, alignment, repetition, and proximity. It can provide detailed explanations and practical tips on how to apply these principles to slide layout effectively.
The editor and proofreader
As an editor and proofreader, ChatGPT can help ensure that your work is polished, professional, and error-free. This role is all about refining your content, catching mistakes, and making sure your message is clear and effective.
When you use ChatGPT as an editor, you can input drafts and ask it to review the content. It can identify grammatical errors, suggest more concise wording, and improve overall readability. It also excels at making sure content flows smoothly and maintains coherence. It can help reorganize copy, suggest transitions, and ensure that each section logically follows the previous one. This is especially helpful in presentations where a clear and logical flow is crucial to keeping the audience engaged.
The coach
Whether you’re gearing up for a big client presentation, leading a workshop, or preparing for a tough Q&A session, ChatGPT provides a safe space to practice and hone your skills. It helps you be more prepared, confident, and effective in your professional interactions.
Let’s say you have an important status update to present to senior leadership. This can be a high-pressure situation where you need to be clear, concise, and ready for any questions. You can simulate the actual meeting with ChatGPT. It can act as different members of the senior leadership team, asking questions and raising concerns they might have. This allows you to practice your responses, refine your answers, and anticipate any tough questions.
Using ChatGPT in your presentation development and design process can really streamline your workflow. It allows you to focus on the strategic and creative aspects while it handles the heavy lifting of drafting content, researching information, and refining your narrative. This way, you can push your ideas further and execute them more efficiently. It’s not about replacing the human touch, but enhancing it.