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 spe­cial­ised 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 colours 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 colours, 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 colours, 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. Visualise 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. Stand­ard­ise the design

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

• Con­sist­ent fonts and font sizes
• Con­sist­ent colours
• 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 finalise 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 start-up 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 visualisation. 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.

Spe­cial­ised tools can automate this step even further. With Slidebean, a company website can serve as the starting point. The AI analyses 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 visu­al­isa­tions

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. In Keynote, it can be useful to keep both the original KEY file and a PDF version.

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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