Thanks to its powerful features, extensive template library, designer integration, and a built-in recorder, PowerPoint is a go-to solution for creating engaging slides. However, creating a captivating presentation takes time, effort, and most importantly, skill. This is where Microsoft Copilot comes in to automate such mundane tasks and create stunning presentations that can inform and inspire your audience in no time.
In this article, I discuss the best Copilot features that can enhance your presentations with striking images and engaging narratives.
How to access Copilot in Microsoft PowerPoint
To access Microsoft's AI bot in PowerPoint, you must meet the following requirements.
- Copilot is only available for Microsoft PowerPoint desktop apps. To install PowerPoint on Windows or Mac, you must first subscribe to one of the Microsoft 365 plans.
- Head to the Microsoft Store to purchase a Copilot Pro subscription for $20 per month. This unlocks Copilot in all desktop apps like Excel, OneNote, Word, Outlook, Loop, and of course, PowerPoint. The software giant is offering a one-month free trial to new subscribers.
- Once you've subscribed to Copilot Pro, open any presentation in PowerPoint and find the Copilot button under the Home tab in the top right corner.
5 Create slides using text prompts
Once you create a new PowerPoint presentation from a blank file, the software will give you three options to choose from. You can simply select Create a presentation about and enter the prompt with a description of the pitch.
In the example below, I ran the following text prompt.
Create a presentation about long-term EV benefits over conventional gas vehicles.
Here's what Copilot came up with. It quickly provided a detailed overview of environmental benefits, economic benefits, technological advances, performance and user experience, and social and global impact. You can then either use these clues in your existing slide or ask Copilot to create slides.
You can always move or reorder answers (for example, by placing the “Performance and User Experience” heading at the top) and even click the “+” icon to add more answers using Copilot. For example, you can ask it to write: Disadvantages of electric vehicles compared to petrol vehicles to balance your arguments. Let us choose Create slides at the bottom.
Copilot quickly created a detailed 23-slide presentation on the topic (yes, you heard right). It divided the entire pitch into different sections and even generated and inserted images for relevant slides. Great, right? If you're happy with the results, click Keep it and import them into PowerPoint for further editing.
Copilot has even added relevant notes below each slide for better understanding. Animations, gradient backgrounds, fancy text and other advanced elements are not added yet. You can either add them manually or use the designer tool to generate ideas.
4 Summarize your presentations
If you have long presentations to work on, you can ask Copilot to summarize the pitch in a snap. This is a handy feature for teachers who often receive PPTs from students on different topics. Instead of manually reviewing them, they can ask Copilot to do the heavy lifting. Let's take the same presentation, for example.
You can open a presentation, call up Copilot, and ask it to summarize the presentation. In addition to adding text, Copilot also looks for charts, images, and other types of media to enhance the summary. For example, if you have charts with sales data, marketing spend statistics, or smartphone market share data, Copilot can understand that information and include relevant information in the summary as well.
In our example, Copilot came up with the following: They cleverly picked up the main topics and created a one-line summary for each heading.
3 Generate and insert images with Copilot
Your text-heavy presentation can seem boring and monotonous without relevant images. Instead of searching the Internet for the necessary media files, ask Copilot to create them.
While I mean Long-term benefits of electric vehicles Presentation, I got stuck at the Economic benefits section and wanted to spice it up with some graphics. I fired up Copilot and asked it to create an image based on the following prompt.
You need to make your prompts expressive and clear. Instead of writing
A piggy bank with overflowing money
Follow the steps below to get better results.
A piggy bank overflowing with coins and bills, showcasing the importance of saving money with electric vehicles
Copilot used Microsoft Designer and created four images for my presentation. I inserted the most relevant one that I liked and decorated my slide in a snap.
2 Get useful insights into your presentation
You can also gain useful insights from your existing presentation. In the same PPT, you can ask relevant questions like this to get instant answers from the deck.
What is the user experience with electric vehicles?
What benefits do electric vehicles have for the economy?
You can even ask Copilot to display important slides and jump to relevant slides to find the information you need.
1 Create a presentation based on content imported from another file
Did you brainstorm your pitch in a Word document or PDF? Copilot can also create a complete presentation from your own source of information. However, this feature is limited to the Copilot license for Microsoft 365 (Work) only. Here's how it works.
You can choose Creating a presentation from a file as in the first section above, or type “Create presentation from (file)” in the chat and select a suggestion from the file selection menu.
For best results, use Word styles and insert images to help Copilot understand the structure of your documents. Copilot can divide your presentation into sections with corresponding heading slides.
Create engaging presentations
Overall, Copilot is basically your personal assistant that turns ideas into engaging presentations. However, its effectiveness depends on your input. You'll need to be very verbose in your input to get the results you want. Of course, you'll also want to check the output for accuracy. Whether you're an experienced presenter or just starting out with PowerPoint, I recommend incorporating Copilot into your workflow.
As mentioned, your Copilot Pro plan unlocks Microsoft Assistant for other desktop apps as well. Check out our dedicated post on using Copilot in Microsoft Excel.