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Abacus AI Agent Slides (Presentations)

Create presentation-ready slide decks from a prompt, edit them by chatting or clicking, then download, present, or publish them.

Abacus AI Agent researches your topic, plans the deck, designs every slide, checks the layout, and gives you a PowerPoint file (.pptx) when it's done. You can also use your own PowerPoint file as a design template, or upload an existing deck and have the agent edit it.

This guide covers:

  1. Watch It in Action
  2. How It Works
  3. Key Capabilities
  4. Plans and Slide Limits
  5. Creating Your First Deck
  6. Using Your Own PowerPoint: Template vs. Edit
  7. Editing a Generated Deck
  8. Previewing and Presenting
  9. Downloading and Exporting (PPTX, PDF, Google Slides)
  10. Publishing and Sharing a Link
  11. Presentations in Scheduled Tasks
  12. Limitations
  13. Prompting Tips
  14. Troubleshooting
  15. FAQ

Watch It in Action​

Research a topic and build the deck — Robotics: research, use cases & investments:

Build and edit a narrative deck — The death of traditional consulting:

Iterate on style and content — The future of human-machine collaboration:

How It Works​

When you ask for a deck, Abacus AI Agent runs these steps for you:

  1. Research. It gathers material from the web and from any files you attach. You don't need to ask for research separately
  2. Plan. It decides how many slides the material needs (within your plan's limit) and picks a layout for each slide.. If you give it brand colors, it builds a matching color palette. If you upload a template, it designs around your template.
  3. Gather visuals. It finds images on the web or uses images you uploaded. Charts and icons are generated as part of the slide.
  4. Build the slides. Every slide is designed for 16:9 widescreen (1920 × 1080). Slides are kept concise, and the first slide is a title/intro slide.
  5. Deliver. A PowerPoint file (.pptx) is created automatically and shown in the chat along with a deck card, so you can preview, present, export, or publish it right away.

Key Capabilities​

  • Decks from a prompt: Give it a topic, your notes, a document, or data. It handles research, structure, and design.
  • Rich slide types: Charts, KPI stats, timelines, roadmaps, funnels, tables, quadrants, team slides, quotes, and image galleries.
  • Your brand: Give it brand colors, a website to match, or brand images, or upload your own PowerPoint template (.pptx or .ppt) to reuse its look.
  • Edit your own deck: Upload an existing .pptx or .ppt and ask for changes: fix typos, update numbers, add, remove, or reorder slides. You get a new PowerPoint file, and your original is never modified.
  • Edit generated decks two ways: Ask for changes in chat, or click Edit in the preview to change text and styling directly on the slide.
  • Speaker notes: Available upon request.
  • Export: PPTX, PDF, and Google Slides.
  • Publish: Share a hosted viewer link with slide thumbnails, speaker notes, a full-screen slide show, laser pointer, pen, and a synced Speaker View.

Creating Your First Deck​

  1. Open Abacus AI Agent and choose Slides on the home screen ("Generate polished, presentation-ready slide decks with layouts, charts and visuals"), or just ask for a presentation in any Abacus AI Agent conversation.
  2. Describe what you want: the topic, audience or purpose, and optionally the number of slides, style or brand colors, and any files to use.
  3. Attach files if you want the deck to use your content (reports, notes, data), or a .pptx/.ppt template.
  4. Send the prompt. When the deck is ready, a card appears in the chat with Preview, Slide Show, Export, and Publish buttons, and the .pptx file is attached.

Example prompts

  • "Create a 12-slide investor pitch deck for a B2B SaaS startup that automates invoice processing. Include market size, competition, business model, and a roadmap."
  • "Make a presentation summarizing the attached quarterly report for our leadership team. Use navy and orange as the main colors."
  • "Build a 6-slide training deck on phishing awareness for new employees, and include speaker notes."
  • "Make a deck about Q3 earnings, using the attached file for styling." (attach your .pptx template)
  • "Create a product overview deck that matches the look of our website: https://example.com"
  • "Give me the deck as a PDF." (you get a PDF in addition to the PowerPoint)

Only need an outline? If you ask for a plan or outline to build the deck yourself, the agent answers in chat and doesn't build slides.

Editing a Generated Deck​

Edit by chatting​

Once a deck exists, keep chatting in the same conversation to change it:

  • "On slide 3, replace the bar chart with a pie chart."
  • "Shorten the text on slides 5–7."
  • "Add a slide on pricing after slide 4."
  • "Make the whole deck use a dark theme."

Edit visually on the slide​

For quick text and styling fixes without prompting:

  1. Click Preview on the deck card.
  2. Click Edit in the preview toolbar. It shows "Starting..." while edit mode loads.
  3. Click an element on a slide to select it, then change its text or use the style toolbar: Save it. Click Exit Edit when done.

After your first change, two more buttons appear:

  • Reset reverts all the edits made in this editing session. You'll be asked to confirm: "This action will revert all the code edits that are made in this session. Want to proceed?"
  • Create Checkpoint saves the current state with an optional description. It can take up to 2 minutes.

Important: The .pptx attached in the chat was created before your visual edits and doesn't include them. To get a file with your visual edits, use Export → Export as PPTX (or PDF / Google Slides). Exports are always rendered from the current slides.

Speaker notes​

Speaker notes are created only when you ask for them, for example "include speaker notes". You can ask when creating the deck or later.

  • In Preview, open the collapsible Speaker Notes panel. It sits below the slides, or on the right when the preview is expanded. Slides without notes show "No speaker notes for this slide."
  • Published links include your notes in the notes panel and in Speaker View.

Previewing and Presenting​

Preview opens the deck in the side pane:

  • A thumbnail rail on the left and all slides in a scrollable view.
  • Page controls with previous/next arrows, page numbers, and "Total: N slides".
  • A Shared Link button when the deck is published.

Slide Show on the deck card opens a full-screen slide show.

Downloading and Exporting (PPTX, PDF, Google Slides)​

Click Export on the deck card to open Export Presentation and choose:

  • Export as PPTX
  • Export as PDF: each slide is rendered at full 1920 px width and merged into one PDF.
  • Export to Google Slides

The export runs in the background. You'll see "Export completed successfully!" or, for Google Slides, "Exported to Google Slides successfully!" with an Open in Google Slides link and a Copy Link button. Exports time out after 10 minutes.

Google Slides requirements

  • You need a connected Google account / Google Drive connector. If it isn't connected, the export window shows Connect Google Account. Complete the sign-in in the popup, then the export continues.
  • The deck is uploaded to your Google Drive and converted to Google Slides.
  • Fonts are made slightly smaller for Google Slides so text fits the way it does in the original.

Click Publish on the deck card to create a hosted, shareable link to your deck. Choose who can open it:

AccessWho can view
RestrictedOnly you and the people or groups you add
Anyone in the organizationEveryone in your organization
PublicAnyone with the link, without signing in. Check the deck for secrets or customer data before going public.

After publishing:

  • The card shows who it's shared with ("Shared with your organization", "Anyone with the link", "Shared with N people"), the link, and a copy button. Publish becomes Manage access.
  • Update Published appears when you've changed the deck since publishing. Click it to update the link with your latest slides. The link stays the same.
  • To take the link down, open Manage access, set access to Restricted, remove everyone you added, and click Save. You'll see "Presentation is now private".
  • Only the owner can manage sharing. Other people are told to ask the owner for edit access.

What viewers get

  • Collapsible slide thumbnails and speaker notes panel
  • Full-screen slide show with a laser pointer and pen
  • Speaker View: a second window kept in sync, with your notes, a timer, and a clock
  • Size limit: A published deck can be up to 25 MB. If it's bigger, you'll see "This presentation is too large to share. Reduce embedded images and try again."

Prompting Tips​

  • Mention everything important in the first message. Attach your source material. Reports, notes, spreadsheets, and documents make the deck specific to you rather than based on general web research.
  • Give a slide count when you care about length.
  • Refer to slides by number when editing: "On slide 4…". Only those slides get rewritten.
  • Ask for speaker notes if you'll present live.
  • Ask for PDF in the prompt if that's the format you need.
  • Keep it to one deck per conversation. Start a new conversation for a different deck.

Troubleshooting​

What you seeWhat it means / what to do
The agent says a presentation already exists in this conversationOnly one deck per conversation. Keep editing it, or start a new conversation for a new deck.
Asked for an upgrade when requesting slidesPresentations aren't available on the Free plan.
The deck didn't start / insufficient compute pointsYour account doesn't have enough compute credits. Add credits or upgrade, then try again.
The agent says your template is encrypted or password-protectedRemove the password in PowerPoint, save a copy, and upload that.
"Custom template file must be a .pptx or .ppt file" / "Input file must be a .pptx or .ppt file."Convert the file to PowerPoint format and upload it again.
The agent reports layout issues on specific slidesAutomatic fixing didn't fully resolve those slides. Accept the offered fix pass, or ask e.g. "Fix the overflowing text on slide 6."
I asked for portrait / 4:3 / square slidesOnly 16:9 is supported.
"Restore conversation to preview files" (or to view slide show / export / publish / share)The conversation is archived. Restore it, then try again.
This conversation is archived. Please restore it before exporting.Same as above.
Please enable the computer preview for exporting the presentationThe deck preview wasn't reachable when the export started. Click Preview, wait for the slides to load, then export again.
Export verification failed: the exported PPTX has X slides but the presentation has Y. Please retry the export.The converted file came out with the wrong number of slides. Run the export again.
Export timed out after 10 minutesTry the export again. For very large decks, ask the agent to reduce heavy images first.
Google Drive connector details are required for Google Slides export.Connect your Google account (Connect Google Account in the export window), then retry.
Google Drive authentication has expired. Please re-authenticate. Remove the Google Drive connector and add it again.Remove the Google Drive connector in your connectors settings, add it again, then retry.
Google authentication failed: ... / Authentication succeeded but export failed to startRetry the export. Make sure you finish sign-in in the popup window.
This presentation is too large to share. Reduce embedded images and try again.Published decks are limited to 25 MB. Ask the agent to use fewer or lighter images, then publish again.
My published link shows old slidesClick Update Published on the deck card. The link stays the same.
My downloaded .pptx doesn't have my latest changesDownload the newest .pptx from the chat, or use Export → Export as PPTX. Visual edits are only included in a new export.
The deck was interrupted before finishingThe agent doesn't restart on its own. It tells you how far it got and offers to continue or start a clean deck.

FAQ​

How do I start a presentation? Simply ask for a presentation in any Abacus AI Agent conversation.

Can I make more than one deck in a conversation? No. Each conversation holds one deck. Start a new conversation for another deck.

Can I match my brand without a template? Yes. Give your brand colors, a website URL to match, or brand images, and the agent styles the deck around them.

Can I get a PDF? Yes. Ask for "a PDF" in your prompt, or use Export → Export as PDF any time.

Can I open it in Google Slides? Yes. Use Export → Export to Google Slides. You'll need to connect your Google account the first time.

Can I change the slide size or orientation? No. Decks are 16:9 widescreen (1920 × 1080) only.

Does the agent write speaker notes? When you ask for speaker notes explicitly. Notes show in the Speaker Notes panel in Preview and in the published viewer's notes panel and Speaker View.

Are the facts and numbers researched? Yes. The agent researches the web as part of building the deck, and looks up figures such as market sizes and benchmarks live. Always review numbers before presenting.

I edited slides visually. Why doesn't my download show the changes? The .pptx attached in the chat was created when the agent finished. Use Export to create a new file that includes your visual edits.

If I update the deck, do I need to republish? Click Update Published on the deck card. The link stays the same.

Who can see my published deck? Whoever you choose: Restricted (only you and people you add), Anyone in the organization, or Public (anyone with the link, no sign-in).

Still Need Help?​

If you're still stuck, contact support — we're here for you.