How to Use Copilot in PowerPoint

What Do You Need Before Starting?

• A Microsoft 365 Copilot (business) or Copilot Pro (personal) license — see our Copilot pricing guide for CAD numbers.
• Source documents saved to OneDrive or SharePoint — "create from file" can only see cloud-saved files.
• A file started from your corporate template if branding matters — Copilot builds within the open file's theme.

How Do You Create a Deck From a Prompt?

1. Open PowerPoint (from your template file) and click the Copilot button in the ribbon.
2. Choose Create presentation and describe it: "a 10-slide pitch for our bookkeeping service aimed at restaurant owners, with a pricing slide and a case-study slide."
3. Review the generated outline, then let Copilot build the slides with layouts and placeholder imagery.
4. Refine conversationally: "shorten slide 4 to three bullets," "add a slide comparing us to hiring in-house," "make the tone more formal."

How Do You Turn a Word Document Into a Presentation?

1. Structure the source doc first: clear headings become slides, short paragraphs become bullets. A tidy two-page brief beats a ten-page wall of text.
2. In the Copilot pane choose Create presentation from file and pick the document from OneDrive/SharePoint.
3. Copilot maps headings to slides and carries key points across — check that numbers and claims survived the summarization intact.
4. Ask for speaker notes last: "add speaker notes to every slide" produces a workable talk track you can edit.

Where Does Copilot in PowerPoint Fall Short?

It writes serviceable bullets but bland headlines, its image picks are stock-generic, and it cannot invent your argument — a draft is only as good as the brief or source doc behind it. Teams that build the same monthly report deck hit the real ceiling: re-prompting every month is still manual work. Assembling those numbers automatically is an automation project, not a per-seat license.