Use AI to practise a presentation and improve one weakness
"Be more confident" is hard to act on. Ask AI to point to the sentence that buries your request, then practise a clearer version out loud.
What you'll make
one revised passage of your presentation, with feedback that quotes your own words, and one rehearsal of it out loud.
What you'll need
your script or notes, a ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini or Copilot chat in your work account, the audience and what you want them to decide, and about twenty minutes. For spoken feedback, PowerPoint’s Rehearse with Coach or a voice mode helps.
Example result.
Problem: "one thing that might be interesting is to think about trying a different template at some point" — the listener can't tell what decision you want.
Revision: "Please decide whether we should try the stock-check template for one week, using fictional inventory data. It's still a proposal, and we need an owner before we start."
Rehearsal note: the request is now in the first sentence; I stumbled on "fictional inventory data" twice.1. Choose one thing to improve
Say who’s listening and what you want them to understand or decide. Then pick one criterion: a clear opening request, an understandable explanation of a figure, or a next step people can act on. Paste the passage with the facts behind it. If a transcript misheard a number, fix it before asking for feedback on that number.
Why this works: “make it better” invites a general rewrite; one criterion gets one fixable answer.
What you should see: a sentence naming the audience, the purpose and the one criterion.
2. Ask for feedback that quotes your words
Review this presentation passage for [audience]. Its purpose is [what they should understand or decide]. Focus only on [one criterion].
Quote the exact words that cause the main problem, explain why they get in the way of the purpose, and suggest one revision. Keep the facts, uncertainty and commitments as they are. Do not invent audience reactions, delivery problems or scores.
Facts, then the passage:
[facts and passage][audience], the purpose and [one criterion] come from step 1; [facts and passage] is the facts, then the passage itself.
Why this works: an exact quote lets you check the diagnosis, and the facts stop a clearer version quietly becoming a different promise.
What you should see: one quoted phrase, a reason, and one revised passage.
3. Judge the suggested change
Read the quoted words in context. Do they really cause the problem? Does the revision make the request clearer without adding a fact or strengthening a commitment? “Please decide” mustn’t become “we’re launching”.
Why this works: the AI is reading text. It can spot a buried request; it can’t know how the room will react.
What you should see: a revision you’d be happy to say, with the facts unchanged.
4. Rehearse it out loud
Text feedback can’t tell you about pace or filler words. For that, use a tool that hears you:
- PowerPoint Speaker Coach: in PowerPoint for the web, open your deck and choose Slide Show › Rehearse with Coach, then Get Started. It gives live hints on pacing, filler words and reading the slide text, then a Rehearsal Report.
- A voice mode: ChatGPT Voice or Gemini Live can listen to you read the passage. Ask for feedback on your one criterion only: “Did the decision come across in the first sentence?”
Rehearse alone, without recording anyone else. Note what you observed, such as “the request is now first”, separately from any claim about how a real audience will respond.
Why this works: saying it aloud shows you the words you trip over, which a script review can’t.
What you should see: a short rehearsal note, like the last line of the example result.
Check the result
- The feedback quotes words that are actually in your passage.
- Facts, numbers and uncertainty in the revision match your source.
- Nothing claims how an audience reacted, or how you sounded, from a script alone.
- The revision meets the one criterion you chose.
The usual failure: invented delivery feedback. From a script, the AI reports that you “sound hesitant”, that “the audience may lose interest”, or gives you 6 out of 10. None of that can be known from text. Spot it by asking what evidence each comment rests on. Then:
Keep the feedback grounded in the passage. You have no evidence for [claimed reaction or delivery issue]. Remove that claim. Focus on [criterion] and quote the relevant words. Keep this qualification: [qualification]. Suggest one revised passage without adding a commitment.Name the claim to remove, your criterion, and the qualification that must stay.
Worked example: put the decision where the listener can find it
Fictional example.
Facts: the team proposes trying a stock-check template for one week, using fictional inventory data. The pilot isn't agreed. No owner yet.
Passage: "We have been looking at various options for improving the way we organise our stock checks, and one thing that might be interesting is to think about trying a different template at some point."
Criterion: a clear decision request.The first feedback said: “Your opening sounds unsure, and the audience is likely to disengage. Delivery: 6/10. Suggested opening: ‘We’re rolling out the new stock-check template next week.’”
- The failure. Two problems: invented reactions and a score from text alone, and a revision that turns a proposal into a launch.
- The repair. The correction prompt removed the “disengage” claim and the score, and kept “the pilot isn’t agreed”. The new feedback quoted “one thing that might be interesting”, and the revision in the example result names the decision, the duration and the missing owner.
- The rehearsal. Read aloud in Speaker Coach, the revision was clear but “fictional inventory data” tripped twice, which is the kind of thing only rehearsal shows.
Task kit for this job: Download (ZIP) · Reusable instructions
Go deeper
Practise likely questions without inventing answers
Suggest three questions this audience might reasonably ask, based on the passage. Say which words or missing facts prompt each. Label them as rehearsal suggestions. Do not invent approval or the facts needed to answer them.Prepare answers from your real material; “we still need to confirm that” can be the right answer. Prepare the hard questions on a proposal before the meeting goes further.
Practise explaining a figure
Use the same coaching prompt with a new criterion: “explain the 12% stock variance to the finance team”. Check that the passage states what was measured, over what period, compared with what, and any limitation, and check the calculation yourself. For terms the audience may not know, see Make a glossary from documents without inventing definitions.
Keep it proportional
Fix one weakness, rehearse, then stop. Don’t keep rewriting a clear section because another response offers a different style. For a whole deck, see Turn a report into a short presentation.