How to Build Professional Presentations in 60 Minutes

Dreading that upcoming presentation because you know it’ll eat up your entire weekend? There’s a better way that takes less than an hour.

I used to measure my presentation skills by how many hours I’d invested. Two full days building a deck? That meant it was good. Twenty animated transitions in Keynote? Even better. I’d convinced myself that time spent equaled value delivered.

Last Thursday morning, that illusion shattered.

I was locked and loaded for my mastermind presentation—a gorgeous 32-slide deck I’d spent two days crafting. Every animation timed perfectly. Every transition smooth. Then, an hour before showtime, a better idea hit me: a completely different topic, but one more relevant to the audience.

My stomach dropped. I had nothing but a big idea and a rough outline in my head. There was no way to build an entirely new presentation from scratch in less than 60 minutes. Or so I thought.

I opened Claude and dumped out my rough outline. Five minutes. Had it write the slide copy. Another ten. Then I copied everything into Gamma and watched something I still can’t quite believe—a complete, professional slide deck materialized in front of me. Animations included. Design choices I wouldn’t have thought to make. Beautiful.

Sixty minutes after that flash of inspiration, I was presenting a brand-new deck that looked better than the one I’d spent two days building.

That’s when I realized: this wasn’t just a productivity hack. This was one of those pivotal moments that changes everything you thought you knew about what’s possible.

Creating professional presentations in under an hour is now possible for any business owner. Here are four simple steps to using Claude and Gamma together to build stunning slide decks.

Step #1: Dump Your Ideas into Claude

The hardest part of any presentation isn’t the design—it’s the thinking. What’s the big idea? How should it flow? What points matter most? This is where AI becomes your thinking partner, not just your assistant.

Start by opening Claude and brain-dumping everything you know about your topic. Don’t worry about structure or polish. Just get your thoughts out. Tell Claude your audience, your goal, and the key message you want to land. Then ask it to help you organize those ideas into a logical flow.

Research shows this approach works. A study published in Science found that professionals using ChatGPT for writing tasks saw a 40% decrease in time spent while output quality rose by 18%.[1] The key insight? AI doesn’t just speed up your work—it actually improves it by helping you think more clearly about structure before you start creating.

The beauty of this step is that you’re not asking AI to think for you. You’re using it to externalize your thinking, see it from a different angle, and refine it. Within minutes, you’ll have a clear outline that would have taken you an hour to develop on your own.

Step #2: Generate Your Slide Copy

Once you have your outline, it’s time to turn those bullet points into actual slide content. This is where most people get stuck—staring at blank slides, trying to figure out how to say something important in just a few words.

Ask Claude to write slide headlines and supporting copy based on your outline. Be specific about what you need: “Write concise headlines—no more than eight words each—and three supporting bullet points per slide.” The more guidance you give, the better your results.

Here’s what makes this powerful: Nielsen Norman Group research shows that business professionals using AI can write 59% more documents per hour than those working manually.[2] That’s not a small improvement—that’s a fundamental shift in what’s possible.

But don’t just accept whatever AI generates. Read it critically. Does it sound like you? Does it capture your key points? This is where you add your voice, your examples, your personality. Think of Claude as your first-draft partner who gets you 80% of the way there so you can focus your energy on the 20% that matters most.

Step #3: Design Your Custom Theme in Gamma

This is where most business owners hit a wall with traditional presentation tools. You need your slides to look professional, but unless you’re a designer, creating something that looks polished and on-brand can take hours.

Gamma changes that equation entirely.

Sign into Gamma and create a new presentation. Before you paste in your content, customize your theme. Upload your logo. Input your brand colors. Select fonts that match your style. Gamma will automatically apply these across your entire presentation, ensuring every slide maintains visual consistency.

According to Canva’s 2024 Visual Economy Report, 91% of business leaders agree that visuals enhance workplace efficiency, and 77% believe they directly improve business performance.[3] Brand consistency isn’t just about looking professional—it’s about building trust. When your presentation looks cohesive and polished, your audience focuses on your message instead of being distracted by inconsistent design.

The remarkable thing about Gamma’s theme system is that it applies professional design principles automatically. Color contrast, font hierarchy, visual balance—all handled for you. You get the benefit of a design team without hiring one.

Step #4: Transform Copy into Visual Slides

Now comes the moment that still feels like magic to me: watching Gamma turn your text into a complete visual presentation.

Paste your slide copy from Claude into Gamma’s AI generation tool. Select “Generate from text” and watch what happens. Gamma doesn’t just put your words on slides—it interprets your content and suggests appropriate layouts, adds relevant imagery, and creates visual hierarchy.

Research from MIT Sloan found that highly skilled workers using GPT-4 completed tasks 25% faster with 40% higher quality scores.[4] That productivity gain comes from offloading the mechanical work—in this case, slide design—so you can focus on strategic thinking.

Gamma will suggest slide layouts based on your content. A quote gets a full-slide treatment with beautiful typography. Data points get clean, visual presentations. Concept slides get supporting imagery. And here’s the remarkable part: you can regenerate any slide with a different style instantly. Don’t like the image? Click regenerate. Want a different layout? One click.

This isn’t about replacing human judgment—it’s about removing the friction between your ideas and their visual expression.

Step #5: Perfect Your Final Presentation

Your presentation is 95% done, but that last 5% matters. This is where you add the human touches that turn a good deck into a great one.

Review each slide critically. Does the flow make sense? Are your key messages landing clearly? Is there anything you’d say differently in your own voice? Make those edits. Swap out AI-generated images for your own screenshots or photos where relevant. Add speaker notes for yourself.

Here’s where Gamma shines even brighter: you can present directly from within the platform. Just like Keynote, you can have your slides in one window while your presenter notes display in another. No downloading. No file conversions. No switching between applications. Everything you need is right there.

Then run through the entire presentation at least once. Time yourself. Read your slides aloud. This isn’t just about catching errors—it’s about internalizing your content so you can deliver with confidence.

One business owner I coached recently used this exact process to create a client presentation in 45 minutes that would have taken her an entire day with PowerPoint. The result wasn’t just faster—it was better. Why? Because she spent her time on strategy and storytelling instead of fighting with design tools.

The math is simple: what used to take two days now takes less than an hour. But the real transformation isn’t about speed—it’s about what becomes possible when you remove the barriers between your ideas and professional execution.

Imagine having the confidence to pivot your presentation an hour before delivery because you found a better angle. Imagine saying yes to speaking opportunities you’d normally decline because you “don’t have time to build a deck.” Imagine focusing your energy on crafting compelling messages instead of wrestling with slide layouts.

That’s what’s possible now. The question isn’t whether AI can help you create better presentations faster. The question is: what will you do with all that reclaimed time?

What presentation have you been putting off because you dreaded the time investment?

Comments

Got a question or story about AI, Reader? Hit reply and let me know.I read every email. Seriously. Your experiences help me write better content, and sometimes the best insights come from readers
like you.Transforming AI from noise to know-how,

Michael Hyatt
​Founder & CEO​
AI Business Lab

P.S. Consider the AI Business Lab Mastermind: Running a $3-10M business? You’re past the startup chaos but not quite at autopilot. That’s exactly where AI changes everything. The AI Business Lab Mastermind isn’t another networking group—it’s a brain trust of leaders who are already implementing, not just ideating. We’re talking real numbers, real strategies, real results. If you’re tired of being the smartest person in the room, this is your new room. 👉🏼 Learn more and apply here.

REFERENCE

1. Shakked Noy and Whitney Zhang, “Experimental Evidence on the Productivity Effects of Generative Artificial Intelligence,” Science 381, no. 6654 (July 2023): 187–192.
2. “AI Improves Employee Productivity by 66%,” Nielsen Norman Group, accessed November 14, 2025.
3. “Visual Economy Report 2024: Trends & Insights,” Canva, accessed November 14, 2025.
4. “How Generative AI Can Boost Highly Skilled Workers' Productivity,” MIT Sloan Management Review, October 19, 202.