How to Use Copilot in PowerPoint to Create a Presentation

The short version

Copilot in PowerPoint turns a prompt or a Word document into a first draft of a deck. It’s fastest when you already know your message. The slides it builds are a starting point: you still decide what each slide says.

Step by step

1. Open a new presentation in PowerPoint for Microsoft 365 (Windows or Mac) or PowerPoint for iPad.
2. Open Copilot with the Copilot icon in the bottom-right corner.
3. Leave the model on Auto unless you have a reason to change it.
4. Pick a brand, if asked. Some organizations require a Brand Kit under Select brand. Home users can skip this.
5. Describe the presentation: topic, audience, number of slides and the one thing listeners should remember.
6. Answer Copilot’s questions about audience, length, template and images, or skip them and let it decide.
7. Review every slide. Rewrite titles so each one states a point, cut extra bullets, and replace images that don’t fit.

From a Word document

Many people already have the content in a Word file. Microsoft’s tips for best results:

• Use Word styles (Heading 1, Heading 2). Copilot uses them to split the content into slides.
• Include the images you want; Copilot tries to use them.
• Start from your template so the deck keeps your theme.
• Keep the file under 24 MB. Microsoft says Copilot works best with Word documents smaller than that.

Then ask Copilot to create a presentation from that document, and tell it the audience and how many slides you want.

Prompts to copy

From scratch:

Create a 10-slide presentation for new employees at a 20-person dental office.
Cover our hours, how to book patients, safety rules and who to ask for help.
Friendly tone, one idea per slide.

For a pitch:

Create a 6-slide pitch for a local bank asking for a $50,000 equipment loan for my bakery.
Slides: the business, the problem, the equipment, the numbers, repayment plan, the ask.

Fix the result:

Rewrite every slide title so it states the main point as a full sentence.
Keep each slide to three bullets or fewer.

Speaker notes:

Add speaker notes to each slide: what I should say in about 45 seconds.

Example

You have: a two-page Word report on last quarter’s customer survey, with headings for each finding.

You ask: for a presentation from that report, for the team meeting, 8 slides.

A good result: one slide per heading, a title slide and a closing slide with next steps. You then fix the numbers to match the report exactly and swap any stock image that looks generic.

Mistakes to avoid

• Giving no audience. A deck for your board and a deck for customers should look different.
• Feeding it a wall of text. Without headings in the Word file, the slides split in odd places.
• Leaving the bullet overload. Ask for fewer words per slide.
• Not checking numbers. Compare every figure with your source document.

When not to use it

For a short talk where you’ll speak without slides, or a deck you’ll present once to two people, writing three slides yourself may be quicker. And if Copilot isn’t in your PowerPoint, Microsoft says your subscription may not include it or your organization may have turned it off.

Related: use Copilot in Word and create images with Copilot.