How Generative AI is Changing Presentations

Generative AI is reshaping how we think. Instead of thinking in isolation, we now have a tool that acts like a collaborator. That’s great! And not so great.

In 1964, media theorist Marshall McLuhan famously said, “The medium is the message.” He later introduced a framework called the Tetrad of Media Effects, which helps you analyze what happens when a new medium emerges.

Generative AI has emerged as a new medium for human thought and when I evaluated it against McLuhan’s model, it was easy to see what AI enhances, renders obsolete, retrieves, and reverses.

It doesn’t simply store or deliver information. It interacts. It iterates. It helps us shape meaning in real time. And that changes everything about how we prepare presentations, tell business stories, and influence audiences.

Enhances: A Thinking Partner for Presenters

AI can enhance one of the most time-consuming phases of presentation prep: ideation.

• Want to brainstorm a new way to frame a product launch?
• Need multiple headline variations before building your deck?
• Struggling to get started on a talk track?

AI accelerates all of that. Instead of wrestling with a blank slide or document, communicators can type, iterate, and test phrasing in real time. You now have a collaborator available 24/7.

At Duarte, we’ve always taught that communication is an act of empathy. That’s why when we launched into software, Duarte.ai helps you reframe ideas for your presentation quickly to fit each audience’s mindset.

Obsolesces: What We Risk Leaving Behind

While AI enhances speed, it also displaces something valuable: deep, solo thinking.

In the rush to generate, we risk skipping the reflective pause. The long walk. The notebook sketch. The quiet mental friction that often precedes a breakthrough in thought.

When the first draft can arrive almost instantly, there’s less incentive to wrestle with complexity ourselves. Wrestling through a thinking process produces fresh insight and builds a creative muscle. Now it’s easy to move too quickly. It’s tempting to create polished-sounding prose before even asking ourselves what the real question even is.

AI won’t replace creativity but it might atrophy the parts of our brain where out-of-the-box creativity happens.

Retrieves: The Return of Oral Thinking

Interestingly, generative AI brings back something ancient: the oral tradition of shaping ideas in real time.

Before people could write, we learned through spoken exchange—storytelling, questioning, and active thinking. And now, with AI chat interfaces, we’re returning to that rhythm. We explore ideas by asking, responding, refining.

In the past, before we would share our ideas for a presentation, we felt pressured to have them be highly polished. But AI allows the messiness, flexibility, and interactive thinking back into the creative process.

You’re no longer drafting in isolation. You can refine message through back-and-forth exchanges before you even build a slide.

The New Role of the Communicator: Story Architect

With AI accelerating ideation, communicators take on a new role: story architect. Your job isn’t just to fill slides; it’s to shape the logic, flow, and emotional arc of your audience’s journey.

To do that, you need four human capabilities AI can’t replicate:

• Empathy: Understanding where your audience is coming from
• Message: Testing your message for clarity and resonance
• Visuals: Turning ideas into memorable visuals that guide understanding
• Delivery: Bringing the message to life through presence, tone, and timing

These skills require you to keep frameworks in your mind and apply them as you work with generative AI. Our presentation training programs equip communicators to design every message through these lenses. AI can support the process—but you still need to know how to shape the output.

Reverses: Where AI Can Undermine Your Message

McLuhan’s final media law is about reversal: What happens when a medium is overused or pushed too far?

For AI, that reversal is already showing up in presentation prep:

• Thinking becomes reactive by starting with a prompt instead of the purpose
• Creativity becomes more about remixing than originality
• Speed replaces empathy which means your message won’t resonate

Without human discernment, messages risk becoming efficient but empty. Doubling down on understanding how to resonate with an audience will help make your presentations more impactful. AI can help you start, but you have to know how to shape the outputs to make them effective.

Don’t Just Write Faster: Empathize

So, next time you open a prompt window to plan a big talk, don’t ask “What should I say?” Instead collaborate by saying; “Ask me questions about my audience”. Because every great presentation starts with empathy, not efficiency. And we’ve even built a tool that proposes audience insights to you that make it easier. Duarte.ai helps you shape a persuasive story structure before you build a deck. You’ll even start with an Empathy Walk™ to help you step into your audience’s shoes.

Use the Medium, Don’t Let It Use You

McLuhan’s tetrad reminds us that every new medium gives something and takes something away. AI gives us rapid output, iterative thinking, and low-friction exploration. But it also erodes the very skills that make communication human. Use this medium wisely. Yes, let AI help you iterate. Always remember though that you imagine, you connect and you move the room.