I created a complete PowerPoint presentation with Copilot and Designer. That's how it went

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Thanks to an extensive library of templates, themes, animations, and eye-catching layouts, the days when we had to create a PowerPoint presentation from scratch are long gone. Since I often need to create visually appealing pitches, I'm always looking for tools that can speed up the entire process and streamline my workflow. This is where I came across Copilot and Designer – Microsoft's AI-powered tools that are built right into PowerPoint.




I decided to put Microsoft's tools to the ultimate test by creating an entire presentation from start to finish using only Copilot and Designer. In this post, I will share my honest assessment of how Copilot and Designer impacted my presentation creation process.

Access to Copilot and Designer in PowerPoint: Requirements

Create a PowerPoint presentation with Copilot and Designer 6-1

Before we begin, let's first go over the requirements. Copilot and Designer are available in PowerPoint web and desktop apps for Windows and Mac. They are not accessible in PowerPoint mobile and tablet apps.


Designer (formerly known as Design Ideas) is part of your standard Microsoft 365 subscription. Multiple designs are suggested based on your text and images. It's available under the Home and Design tabs in PowerPoint.

To unlock Copilot in PowerPoint, you must purchase a separate Copilot Pro subscription from Microsoft. A free one-month trial is included. After that, prices start at $20 per month. Your active subscription unlocks Copilot in other Microsoft 365 apps, including OneNote, Outlook, Word, Excel, and even OneDrive. Once you've signed up for a Copilot Pro subscription, the chatbot should appear on the Home tab as shown in the screenshot above.


Use AI in PowerPoint

Now that we've moved beyond the basics, let's take a look at both tools in action. In the example below, my goal was to create a presentation on general financial literacy that covers the basics of finance such as budgeting, saving, investing, debt management, financial goals, planning, the power of compound interest and its impact on long-term wealth building and the Importance of Emergency Funds.

Let's start our journey first with Copilot.

Generate slides using a text prompt

While PowerPoint includes dozens of templates, I started with a blank presentation.

  1. Open PowerPoint on the desktop and create a blank presentation.
  2. Click on the small Copilot button at the top and select Create a presentation about it.
    Create a presentation with Copilot

  3. A special Copilot dialog box will open where you need to enter the prompt text. This is where things get difficult. To get the results you want, you need to be sharp and descriptive with your prompts. For this presentation I entered the following text. 


Understanding personal finance basics with financial goals and planning, the power of compound interest, and the importance of emergency funds

Copilot talking points for presentation

Copilot quickly generates talking points for your presentation. You can delete a specific section, rearrange it using the six-dot menu, and provide your general feedback.​​​​​​

  1. When you are happy with the results, click Create slides to convert them into actual slides.
    Review the co-pilot's talking points

  2. Copilot starts creating slides based on your talking points and displays all slides under relevant headings.
    Copilot generates slides

  3. You can quickly skim through them and then select them Keep it to import them into your presentation.
    Copilot generated slides


And that's it. In the example above, Copilot generated 15 slides with an introduction and a conclusion. The AI ​​chatbot also adds relevant images and animations to the slides to make your presentation more engaging. Look at the little star icon next to each slide, which represents an active animation.

Copilot also adds required speaker notes under each slide to assist you with live presentations. Neat, right?

Insert Copilot slides into the presentation

Your slides are still AI-generated and accuracy may be compromised on certain complex topics. I would always recommend checking the content once before distributing it.


Change slide designs with Designer

Now it's time to see the designer in action. While Copilot did a good job creating the slides, I don't really like the intro slide. Let's use Designer to change the entire appearance with a single click.

  1. Open the PowerPoint presentation and use Designer to click the slide you want to change.
  2. Choose Designers in the top right corner.
    Open the designer in the presentation

  3. Check the relevant suggestions in the sidebar that uses your existing content and images.
  4. Select a slide you want to use and you're ready to go. Check out the selected slide in the screenshot below, which certainly looks better than the one above.
    Designer ideas in PowerPoint

  5. Likewise, I selected the third slide, which was pretty boring, opened the designer and looked at the suggestions.
    Open Designer in PowerPoint


I chose a better slide with a cool looking background. With Designer you can change all the slides you need and upgrade your presentation in an instant.

Insert a designer image into PowerPoint

Create and insert images with Copilot

Now I want to add a nice image to one of the slides called “The Power of Compound Interest.” Instead of surfing the Internet like I used to, I quickly called Copilot and asked it to generate an image based on a text prompt. Here's how.

  1. Open a corresponding slide and select Copilot at the top right.
  2. Enter the prompt text below.
    Generate an image with Copilot 


Generate an image of A piggy bank overflowing with coins and bills, showcasing the importance of growing money with compound interest.

Copilot uses Microsoft Designer to generate four options. Choose the one you like and click Insert.

Insert an image into PowerPoint

Check out the final slide below. This is just an example of an image generated by Copilot. The possibilities are endless here.


Added designer image in PowerPoint

PowerPoint just got a lot smarter

My presentation creation journey with co-pilot and designer was simply eye-opening. Although there is a learning curve with text prompts and occasional frustration, I was ultimately impressed by the potential of these tools to save a lot of time and effort.

However, the copilot and designer are not without limitations. There were cases where the AI's suggestions missed the mark and required manual fine-tuning. Overall, I'm excited to see how Copilot and Designer will continue to evolve and give users the ability to create more engaging presentations. Aside from PowerPoint, your Copilot Pro subscription also unlocks the AI ​​Assistant in other Microsoft 365 apps. Check out our dedicated post to learn more about my experiment with Copilot in Microsoft's note-taking app – OneNote.


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