How it works
What happens behind the scenes when you generate a presentation
When you click Generate, Deliverables AI runs a sophisticated multi-phase pipeline to create your presentation. Here's what happens behind the scenes.
The four phases
1. Setup (~1 minute)
The AI analyzes your selected template to understand its structure—which slides exist, what content types each needs (text, charts, tables, images), and how they should be formatted.
2. Planning (~3-5 minutes)
Before writing a single slide, the AI develops a strategy:
- Researches your sources — Searches your uploaded documents to understand what information is available
- Gathers context — Searches the web for market data, industry trends, and company news not in your files
- Establishes branding — Fetches your brand colors and logos from your company domain
- Plans the narrative — Creates a content roadmap defining what each slide should communicate
- Sets visual style — Determines image aesthetics (abstract patterns, photography style, icon treatments) that will be consistent across all slides
3. Creation (~15-30 minutes)
The AI generates each slide, scaling research depth based on complexity:
| Slide type | Examples | Research depth |
|---|---|---|
| Simple | Title, dividers, agenda | Quick generation using planning data |
| Medium | Overview, single topics | Searches your knowledge base + light web research |
| Complex | Market analysis, financials, competitive landscape | Deep multi-source research combining your documents with external data |
For each slide, the AI:
- Writes content that fits your template's formatting
- Populates tables and charts with real data from your sources
- Generates brand-colored imagery or searches for authentic photos
- Documents all sources with citations
4. Review (~3-5 minutes)
The AI reviews the entire presentation:
- Checks for any remaining placeholder text
- Verifies consistency across slides
- Exports your final files (PowerPoint, PDF, slide images)
What you see during generation
You don't have to wait blindly. As your presentation generates, you'll see:
- Progress bar — Shows percentage complete with status text (e.g., "Generating slide 5 of 20")
- Slide previews — Each slide appears as it's completed, so you can preview your deck in progress
- Cancel button — Click the stop button next to the progress bar to cancel at any time
If you realize you need to change your prompt or start over, cancel the generation—you won't be charged for slides that weren't completed.
Why generation takes time
This isn't ChatGPT with a wrapper. Generation takes 15-30 minutes because the AI is:
- Running dozens of searches across your knowledge base
- Performing web research for market context
- Generating custom images in your brand colors
- Verifying every slide for quality
- Documenting sources for every factual claim
Quality over speed. A thorough, well-researched deck takes time to create—even for AI.
Use Express mode (~10 minutes) for quick drafts when you're iterating on ideas that skips the review phase. Switch to Comprehensive mode (~30 minutes) when you need maximum depth, research and review.
How your sources are used
When you upload documents:
- Indexed — Content is extracted and made searchable
- Searched — For each slide, the AI searches for relevant information
- Synthesized — Content is combined from multiple sources when available
- Cited — Every factual claim links back to document names, page numbers, and exact quotes
If information isn't available in your sources, it either searches the web for public information or marks slides for your manual input by adding "TBD" or "Illustrative".
See Citations for details on how source references appear in your final deck.
How branding works
Provide your company domain (e.g., acme.com) in your prompt and the AI will:
- Fetch your official brand colors automatically from your domain
- Apply your color palette to the entire presentation theme
- Insert your logo where appropriate
No brand kit upload required—it's detected from your domain. You can also specify colors manually if needed.
What makes this different
| Traditional AI tools | Deliverables AI |
|---|---|
| Single prompt → output | Multi-phase pipeline with planning |
| Generic content | Research-backed with citations |
| Random stock imagery | Brand-colored visuals, consistent aesthetic |
| No source tracking | Full documentation with clickable citations |
| Inconsistent narrative | Strategic planning before creation |
The result is a professional draft that's defensible, on-brand, and ready for your final review—not a starting point you need to rebuild from scratch.
Slide layouts
Every presentation is built from professional slide layouts designed by our team. During the planning phase, the AI selects the right layout for each slide based on content needs.
Available layout types
| Category | Layout types |
|---|---|
| Structural | Title slide, table of contents, section dividers, disclaimer/contact |
| Narrative | Executive summary with hero image, content + image, multi-paragraph text |
| Visual | Process diagrams with icons, feature breakdowns with icons, multi-image layouts |
| Data | Financial charts (side-by-side with commentary), data tables |
| Metrics | KPI/stat highlights, quote layouts, timeline layouts |
How layout selection works
- Planning phase — The AI analyzes your prompt and sources to determine what content each slide needs
- Layout matching — For each slide, it selects a layout that supports the required content types (text, charts, tables, images, icons)
- Content fitting — Text is written to fit the layout's character limits; data is formatted for the chart or table structure
Why this matters
Understanding layouts helps you:
- Write better prompts — "Include a competitive comparison table" tells the AI to use a table layout
- Set realistic expectations — Complex custom arrangements require manual editing in PowerPoint
- Understand revision limits — Revisions work within existing layouts; major layout changes require regeneration
The AI handles layout selection automatically. You don't need to specify layouts—just describe what content you need and the AI picks appropriate layouts.