How do you make a pitch deck with and without AI?

If you want to create a pitch deck, you need con­vinc­ing content, the right tool and a clear workflow. You can build your deck tra­di­tion­al­ly with Pow­er­Point, Google Slides or Canva, or speed up the process with AI.

Which tools are suitable for creating a pitch deck?

You can create a pitch deck using tra­di­tion­al pre­sen­ta­tion software, design tools or spe­cial­ized AI solutions. The best option depends on how much control you want over the design and how much of the process you want to automate.

Pow­er­Point is suitable for creating pre­sen­ta­tions manually, but Copilot can also generate pre­sen­ta­tions or in­di­vid­ual slides from prompts and reference files. Google Slides also provides AI features through Gemini, including the ability to create complete pre­sen­ta­tions. Canva combines a visual editor with AI-generated pre­sen­ta­tion drafts, while Pitch Agent can create complete decks from prompts, files and templates.

What do you need before you create a pitch deck?

Before you start designing your slides, gather all the material and in­for­ma­tion you need for your pitch deck. This typically includes:

• Company and product in­for­ma­tion
• Problem statement and target audience
• Market and com­peti­tor data
• Business model
• Key metrics and results to date
• In­for­ma­tion about the team
• Funding re­quire­ments and planned use of funds
• Logo, company colors and other design guide­lines

You should also decide how the pitch deck will be used. For a live pre­sen­ta­tion, the slides can be more concise because you can provide ad­di­tion­al context verbally. A deck that will be sent to re­cip­i­ents, however, needs to be clear and un­der­stand­able without an ac­com­pa­ny­ing pre­sen­ta­tion. If the deck is intended as the basis for an elevator pitch, a par­tic­u­lar­ly clear structure and concise key messages are essential.

How to make a pitch deck yourself

With pre­sen­ta­tion programs like Pow­er­Point, Google Slides or Keynote, you keep maximum control over structure and design. A sensible workflow helps ensure you don’t spend too much time on in­di­vid­ual slides before the overall structure is in place.

1. Set up the pre­sen­ta­tion and basic design

First, create a new pre­sen­ta­tion and decide whether to use a template or start with a blank deck. Templates are available directly in programs such as Pow­er­Point, Google Slides and Keynote, as well as on platforms like Canva. They are par­tic­u­lar­ly useful if you don’t yet have your own pre­sen­ta­tion design or want to save time on for­mat­ting. Rather than using a template unchanged, adapt the colors, fonts and layouts to suit your pre­sen­ta­tion.

If you already have a corporate design or an in-house pre­sen­ta­tion template, use this as your starting point. A blank deck may be a better choice if you want to create a more in­di­vid­ual design or none of the available templates match the look you have in mind. In this case, define your basic colors, fonts and recurring slide layouts first so that the pitch deck remains visually con­sis­tent through­out.

2. Create a slide plan

Before you start writing or designing content, first decide which slides the pitch deck should contain. Create blank slides as place­hold­ers and arrange the key topics in a logical order. One possible structure is:

1. Title and key statement
2. Problem
3. Solution or product
4. Market
5. Previous results or traction
6. Business model
7. Market entry and sales
8. Com­pe­ti­tion
9. Team
10. Financing and next steps

This sequence is not a strict re­quire­ment. Depending on your company, its stage of de­vel­op­ment and the purpose of the pre­sen­ta­tion, other content may be more important when you create a pitch deck.

3. Dis­trib­ute content across the slides

Now add the prepared in­for­ma­tion to your deck. Try to focus each slide on one central message and write headings that make the key point clear at a glance. Avoid long para­graphs. When you create a pitch deck, figures, product benefits and other key messages are usually easier to com­mu­ni­cate through short text blocks, bullet points or high­light­ed in­for­ma­tion.

Any ad­di­tion­al ex­pla­na­tions you need during the pre­sen­ta­tion can be moved to the speaker notes. For example, Pow­er­Point notes let you save notes for in­di­vid­ual slides and view them in Presenter View without dis­play­ing them to the audience on the main screen. This keeps the slides concise while giving you the ad­di­tion­al context you need when pre­sent­ing.

4. Visualize data and content

Use visual elements instead of text wherever they make the in­for­ma­tion easier to un­der­stand. Depending on the content, suitable options include:

• Charts for revenue, growth or market data
• Screen­shots or mock-ups for digital products
• Simple process graphics for workflows
• Portraits for in­tro­duc­ing the team
• Com­par­i­son tables for com­peti­tors

If you use figures from external sources, always include a ver­i­fi­able source and the relevant reference period.

5. Stan­dard­ize the design

Once the content is complete, the next step is to revise the design. In par­tic­u­lar, check:

• Con­sis­tent fonts and font sizes
• Con­sis­tent colors
• Uniform spacing and alignment
• Suf­fi­cient white space
• A con­sis­tent visual style for charts and images
• Good leg­i­bil­i­ty, even on smaller screens

The Pow­er­Point Slide Master and reusable layouts help you apply changes to several slides at once.

6. Test and finalize the pitch deck

Then read through the entire deck again in the intended order. Remove rep­e­ti­tions, cut back over­loaded slides and verify all key figures.

For a live pre­sen­ta­tion, it’s also worth doing a trial run. This quickly reveals whether a slide contains too much in­for­ma­tion or if important ex­pla­na­tions are missing.

How can you create a pitch deck with AI?

If you want to create a pitch deck with AI, you can automate different parts of the process. Depending on the tool, the AI will either handle only texts and in­di­vid­ual slides, or use just a few details to generate the structure, content and design of a complete deck. However, you should still prepare company data and the basic argument yourself first.

Use the IONOS AI Ac­qui­si­tion Manager as your starting point

If you already use the IONOS AI Ac­qui­si­tion Manager, you can use the content created there as source material for your pitch deck. The AI Ac­qui­si­tion Manager can generate on-brand social media copy, campaign plans and image sug­ges­tions tailored to your company’s tone of voice and po­si­tion­ing.

Example: A startup that has already added product de­scrip­tions, target audience in­for­ma­tion and campaign data to the AI Ac­qui­si­tion Manager can reuse this content in tools such as Pow­er­Point Copilot or Canva. Existing material on market po­si­tion­ing, com­pet­i­tive dif­fer­en­ti­a­tion and customer benefits can provide a useful basis for the relevant pitch deck slides, reducing the amount of prepa­ra­tion required.

1. Choose the type of AI support

How much work AI can take on, and which tasks it handles, depends mainly on the tool you use:

2. Prepare source material for the AI

Even with a largely automated process, AI still needs reliable in­for­ma­tion to work with. Before you focus on how to make a pitch deck, compile the key content you want to include, such as your company and product de­scrip­tion, target market and com­peti­tor analysis. Depending on the tool, you can provide this in­for­ma­tion in a prompt or upload it as a file.

3. First create and review the outline

First, ask the AI to generate an outline, provided your chosen tool supports this. Check whether the proposed slides cover the main arguments, follow a logical order and suit the purpose of the pitch.

A possible prompt is:

Create an outline for a pitch deck for [Company].
The company offers [Product/Business model].
The pitch deck is aimed at [Target audience] and is intended to achieve [Goal].

Use only the following information:
[Company information, key figures and sources]

For each slide, suggest a title, the key message and a suitable visualization. Do not invent key figures, customers, sources or other facts. Highlight any information that is still missing.

4. Generate slides, texts and design

If the outline is coherent, the AI can use it to create a first draft of the pre­sen­ta­tion. How much of the process is automated depends on the tool. Pow­er­Point Copilot, for example, can generate slides with text and images and, if required, use an existing template as the design basis. Canva can also handle the for­mat­ting and layout of the draft, while Pitch Agent generates text, visuals and slide layouts based on the selected template.

Spe­cial­ized tools can automate this step even further. With Slidebean, a company website can serve as the starting point. The AI analyzes the website content and generates a pitch deck draft, which you can then refine in the editor.

5. Refine the AI-generated draft step by step

Revise the deck slide by slide and use AI se­lec­tive­ly for specific tasks, for example:

• Short­en­ing or refining text
• Making headings more mean­ing­ful
• Splitting over­loaded slides
• Merging redundant slides
• De­vel­op­ing al­ter­na­tive vi­su­al­iza­tions

6. Carry out a final facts and design check

Carefully review the finished AI-generated deck. Make sure the slides are con­sis­tent in style, follow the corporate design and present all facts, figures and sources correctly.

Should you create a pitch deck yourself or use AI?

In practice, you don’t have to choose between creating a pitch deck manually and using AI. A hybrid workflow often works par­tic­u­lar­ly well, with you retaining control over the key decisions while AI supports in­di­vid­ual tasks.

How do you export and share a finished pitch deck?

A PDF file is often a good choice for sending a pitch deck because the layout remains con­sis­tent re­gard­less of which pre­sen­ta­tion software the recipient uses. Programs such as Google Slides and Pow­er­Point let you export the finished pre­sen­ta­tion as a PDF. You can also save Pow­er­Point directly as a PDF.

Cloud-based tools also allow you to share the pre­sen­ta­tion via a link. This is par­tic­u­lar­ly useful when several people are col­lab­o­rat­ing on the deck or when you need to provide access to the latest version.

Which mistakes should you avoid when you create a pitch deck?

Typical mistakes are usually caused less by the software itself and more by an in­ef­fi­cient workflow. In par­tic­u­lar, avoid:

• using a template without adapting it,
• per­fect­ing in­di­vid­ual slides before defining the overall structure,
• adding too much text to in­di­vid­ual slides,
• using in­con­sis­tent layouts,
• adding charts or images purely for dec­o­ra­tion,
• relying on AI-generated in­for­ma­tion without checking it,
• entering con­fi­den­tial in­for­ma­tion into AI tools without ap­pro­pri­ate safe­guards, and
• failing to test the final pre­sen­ta­tion file before sending it or pre­sent­ing it.

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