If you've stared down the blank screen of Microsoft PowerPoint and desperately wished that there was someone who could assist you with the daunting task of creating the perfect presentation, Microsoft has decided to take on the role of a genie and grant your wish.

With the latest Copilot Pro subscription, you get the power of an AI companion by your side in Microsoft apps like Word, PowerPoint, Excel, etc. Here's everything you need to know about Copilot in PowerPoint.

Get Copilot in PowerPoint

Once both subscriptions are active for your account, Copilot should automatically appear in PowerPoint. However, if it doesn't, it's easy to get it.

  1. If you can't see the Copilot button, then quit Microsoft PowerPoint – all instances of it. On Windows, it includes simply clicking the 'Close' button.

    On Mac, you'll want to right-click the app icon from the dock and click 'Quit' from the context menu to completely close the app.
  2. Re-open PowerPoint, and you should see the Copilot button on the Home tab ribbon.
  1. If that doesn't work, go to the 'File' option from the menu bar.
  1. Navigate to 'Account'.
  1. Click the 'Update License' button.
  1. You'll need to sign in to verify your subscription. Click on the 'Sign in' button and log into your Microsoft account.
  1. Once you're logged in, close and re-open the app, and you should get the Copilot button.

Using Copilot in PowerPoint

With Copilot in PowerPoint, you can create new presentations, edit and organize existing ones, summarize them, or even ask questions related to them. Copilot can create amazing presentations from scratch using Microsoft templates.

The AI companion is currently available on the web, Windows, Mac, and iPad apps for PowerPoint if you have Copilot Pro and Microsoft 365 Personal or Family subscriptions. The company soon plans to bring support for the feature to iOS and Android apps. Here's everything you can do with Copilot in PowerPoint.

Creating a New Presentation with Copilot

Copilot can help you churn out a new presentation on any topic quickly.

  1. Open a blank presentation in PowerPoint and click the 'Copilot' button from the Home ribbon.
  2. The Copilot panel will open on the right.
  3. Click on 'Create a presentation' to load it into the prompt area and enter your topic in the prompt. You can also add any context, notes, or outlines in the prompt that you want the AI to keep in reference.

    However, the input window for a prompt is only 2000 characters, so that severely limits the context you can provide with Copilot Pro when compared to the Copilot for Microsoft 365 subscription for Enterprise/ Business customers. You also cannot provide your files to create a presentation from with Copilot Pro unlike Copilot for Businesses.
  1. You can also use voice typing to dictate the prompt by clicking the 'Microphone' icon.
  1. Click on the 'Send' button to send your request.
Note: Be careful with your prompt and be as clear as you can be with your request. Once Copilot generates the presentation, it cannot redo it if it understood the prompt wrong. You'll have to delete the presentation and start from scratch.
  1. Copilot will start working on generating the presentation. You can click on 'Stop Generating' if you want to interrupt it in the middle.
  1. Once Copilot is done, you'll have a basic presentation with a few slides with images and text that use a consistent template.

Adding Slides and Images with Copilot

Copilot can also help you add additional slides to your presentation.

  1. Open the Copilot chat interface.
  2. Then, click the 'Add a slide about' option from the interface and fill in the rest of the prompt describing the topic of slide you want Copilot to add. For example, enter the prompt 'Add a slide about Growth Mindset'.
  1. Copilot will add a new slide after the current slide. So, make sure that you select the slide after which you want to insert the new slide before you send your request to Copilot. Of course, you can always drag and drop the slides to rearrange them even if you forget to do that.

Copilot can also add more images to the presentation to make it more appealing.

  1. Go to the prompt area in the Copilot chat panel.
  2. Then, prompt it with 'Add a image about [topic] in [slide number]'.
  1. And it will find and add an image to the slide from the stock images. If you don't mention the slide number, it will add the image to the selected slide.

    It will also redesign the slide to accomodate the image in the best way possible but you can always find more ideas for the layout using the 'Designer' feature in PowerPoint.

Organize Slides with Copilot

Another thing Copilot can do for you in PowerPoint is organize the presentation for you.

  1. Go to the prompt area and send the prompt 'Organize this presentation' to Copilot.
  1. Once Copilot is done processing the request, it'll organize the presentation by grouping the slides into different sections and adding new slides whereever required.
  1. You can see the actions taken by the AI companion outlines in its response as well.

For large presentations with a huge number of slides, this can be of great help.

Interact with a Presentation

Other than creating a presentation, Copilot in PowerPoint can help you interact with and understand a presentation. It's especially great for large presentations that have been shared with you. It can provide summaries, answer questions and more. Here's how:

  1. To get a summary of the presentation, simple ask Copilot to 'Summarize this presentation'.
  1. Copilot will generate a summary of the presentation along with citations from the presentation so you can refer to where the information came from.
  1. Another prompt you can try is 'Show Key Slides from this deck'.
  2. Copilot will then show you slides from the presentation that it considers important.
  1. Similarly, Copilot can also find action items with the prompt 'Show action items in this presentation'.
  2. You can also ask any questions you might have and it'll answer them based on the information in the deck. For example, you can ask if there are any dates or deadlines in the presentation. Or, you can ask about a particular concept and it'll provide answers.
  3. It can also answer your questions from outside the presentation using information from the Internet so you can also use it for research without having to switch apps.

View More Prompts

  1. To get further help from Copilot, click the 'View Prompt' button.
  1. You'll see some examples of different types of requests you can put to Copilot. Click on 'View more prompts'.
  1. This will open the Copilot lab where you can get examples of various prompts you can send to the AI.

That's all. Creating and editing presentations is now more efficient, with Copilot Pro creating new presentations from scratch and simplifying the addition of slides, images, and content organization.