I Hate PowerPoint

and this Claude AI hack means I never have to use it again (hopefully)

I hate PowerPoint. We all do.

There are two specific reasons why, and understanding them helps explain why this Claude AI hack I stumbled into has become such a game-changer for my workflow.

First, PowerPoint is a creativity killer. The moment you start chunking your ideas into slide formats, you're fighting the medium instead of refining the message. You're thinking about bullet points and transitions when you should be thinking about clarity and flow. The structure starts driving the content rather than serving it.

But the bigger problem is what happens next. Seeing your ideas in slideshow form almost guarantees a tweak spiral. Move this section up, expand that bullet point, contract this one. And no matter how much I prefer Google Slides over PowerPoint for its simplicity, you still end up in this productivity-killing loop: draft → format → review → edit → reformat → review again.

Every format switch is a momentum killer.

The Discovery

I was working on a presentation recently and had my outline mapped out in a Claude AI project. As usual, I was riffing on different sections, moving pieces around, expanding some parts, tightening others. The thought of transferring this into Google Slides felt daunting.

That's when it hit me: maybe I don't need slides at all.

Claude's artifacts system can generate HTML documents, React components, even interactive demos. Claude doesn't just help structure the ideas—it can be the slide deck. With a few constraints, yes. But it works.

How It Works (And What You Actually Get)

The solution is surprisingly straightforward. Claude outputs a React component inside a shareable artifact—basically a self-contained slideshow. You get a hosted URL, clean navigation, and a single source of truth for your content.

Instead of this painful workflow:

1. Draft content in Claude

2. Export/copy to Google Slides

3. Format and adjust

4. Review and want to edit

5. Edit in Slides

6. Realize you need to update your source document

7. Make changes in both places

8. Repeat

You get this:

1. Draft and iterate your content with Claude

2. When ready to present, ask Claude to generate the slideshow artifact

3. Present directly from the generated URL

The slideshow is instantly shareable as a URL. It's static, stable, and safe to send to colleagues or display on screen. More importantly, if you need to modify the content, you just continue your conversation with Claude and regenerate the artifact. No format wrestling.

Here’s a slideshow “I” generated for this article using this technique.

Should You Try This?

If you regularly create simple, content-focused presentations and find yourself avoiding the process because of formatting overhead, absolutely.

If you need sophisticated visual presentations with complex media integration, probably not. Traditional presentation software still has clear advantages for high-production scenarios.

But for internal updates, strategy discussions, technical walkthroughs, or any scenario where content matters more than polish, this approach is dramatically more efficient.

The Technical Reality (And What About Gamma?)

Let me be clear about the limitations. This isn't a PowerPoint replacement for complex presentations with sophisticated animations, embedded videos, or intricate layouts. Claude's artifact system has sandbox restrictions that limit what you can do with external media and complex formatting.

The generated slideshows are clean, professional, and focused on content rather than visual flourish. Which, honestly, is usually what you want anyway.

I should mention—after writing this, I got curious about modern alternatives and signed up for a Gamma trial. Gamma is impressive: AI-generated layouts, interactive cards instead of traditional slides, and genuinely better design than anything I'd produce in PowerPoint. It solves the visual polish problem elegantly.

But here's the thing—Gamma still represents a context switch. You develop ideas in one place, then move to Gamma to package them. Even with AI assistance, you're still transitioning from ideation to publication. It's a better publishing tool, not a thinking tool.

My thesis stands: the problem isn't the quality of presentation software. It's that any context switch from brainstorming to presenting breaks creative momentum. Gamma produces beautiful results, but you're still chunking your thinking into "presentation mode" rather than letting ideas flow naturally to their final form.

It's not about killing PowerPoint or replacing Gamma. It's about dodging the parts that kill your flow.

Why This Matters for My Workflow

I use Super Whisper to talk through ideas with AI. There's something powerful about verbalizing concepts and seeing them structured in real-time. This slideshow hack extends that natural workflow all the way to the presentation stage.

No more breaking the creative flow to accommodate presentation software. No more updating content in multiple places. The entire process stays within the conversational, iterative environment where the ideas were born.

The Bigger Picture

This reflects something I've been noticing across my AI workflow implementations: the most valuable improvements aren't the flashy autonomous features. They're the friction removers—the small process changes that eliminate context-switching and maintain creative momentum.

Like my INSTRUCTIONS.md approach for keeping AI tools aligned with my development practices, or training Augment to handle Git workflows to maintain narrative discipline. These aren't revolutionary capabilities—they're workflow optimizations that compound over time.

The slideshow hack follows the same pattern. I'd make the same call again—just with fewer meetings about slide formatting.

Want to see this in action? Drop a note in the comments if you're interested in my exact prompt for generating slideshows—I'll share the specific React template and link to a slideshow version of this very article so you can see what the output actually looks like. I'm sure the community will improve on it once it's out there.

PowerPoint didn't just slow me down. It split my brain in half, Severance style. This keeps everything in flow—and that's the whole point.

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This article is part of our "From the Trenches" series, featuring practical implementations of AI-powered development workflows. For more hands-on guides like this Claude slideshow hack, check our recent coverage of agentic coding tools and workflow optimizations.