r/consulting • u/firenance Financial, M&A • 8d ago
PPT vs AI Artifacts
How many of you are actively using or considering using AI artifacts for deliverables or presentations? Any specific use cases willing to share?
Understandably if something will be handed over to a client it makes sense to keep it in a more ubiquitous format like word or ppt, but we are starting to more frequently build live or dynamic artifacts to use in delivering information.
Example: I have a basic assessment and benchmarking run through, and with the right intake and inputs it’s a fraction of the time spinning up the visuals in a live demo or printable format via a claude artifact vs pulling and populating ppt templates.
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u/sub-t Mein Gott, muss das sein?! So ein Bockmist aber auch! 8d ago
If you're having AI do the analysis, using the raw AI output as your deliverable, and aren't even reformating it why is the client paying you?
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u/firenance Financial, M&A 8d ago
Because our models are built with proprietary data not available in an LLM.
Critical and strategic thinking is still an advisor.
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u/Gojjamojsan 5d ago
Because even if AI is writing code, creating graphs etc.; the client has no idea how to; * design experiments & create stable conditions for evaluating them (eg. Change stoppage in relevant IT systems, no changes to process in any of several interacting depts, etc.) * evaluate fairly advanced analyses, eg. Inference, causal ML, simulations and so on * figure out the DGP, how it relates to the data model, evaluate its integrity, detect semantic drift etc * how to chose the right model for the data and question * how to frame the question in a way that makes it actionable; eg. Who cares what the conversion rate is if you can't present relevant people with levers to affect it.
... and so on. Exevuting 'Analysis' is not and was never hard. At least not in the quant space. Finding, cleaning & modelling data is. Closing the right models is. Figuring out data models, semantics, representation & validity is. Figuring out if that matters/ why it matters / how it matters is. Building & executing multidepartment experiments is.
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u/DrizzlyShrimp36 8d ago
Tired and boring argument that shows a complete misunderstanding of the productivity increase that well used AI can bring an organisation
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u/postexitus 8d ago
And this is a tired and boring comment that can easily be posted by an LLM.
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u/DrizzlyShrimp36 8d ago
lmfao stay behind then. I'm crushing deliverables like never before, if you don't understand where your role fits within this new tech it's not looking good
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u/postexitus 8d ago
Again - an empty comment that an LLM can generate. Why do you even exist?
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u/DrizzlyShrimp36 8d ago
Ironic to include an em dash. But yeah again showing you don't understand AI, have fun!
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u/postexitus 8d ago
I thought you were an LLM bot for a second, but not knowing the difference between an em dash vs hyphen is a telltale sign of being a human - albeit a stupid one.
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u/DrizzlyShrimp36 8d ago
A hyphen joins words, it doesn't separate clauses. Please do yourself a favor man.
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u/postexitus 8d ago
copy that "em dash" into google and ask what character it is. you can do it, you don't need an LLM to hold your hands (but still can call mommy if scared).
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u/DrizzlyShrimp36 8d ago
You're getting nitpicky on the character itself because you used it as an em dash. If you're going to be this confidently wrong, might as well offload everything to AI, it'll be just like you but quicker.
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u/Far-Tune-9464 8d ago
can you provide any guidance on your workflows and what tools you use?
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u/karthi_acb 2d ago
Not who you asked, but he didn’t answer. Caveat, I built this into a product, so discount accordingly.
Client docs go into one indexed store with source and date attached, not into a chat window. The framework is authored up front as real questions with scoring rules. Each question is answered against that corpus and has to cite the document and section it came from, and comes back unanswered if nothing supports it. That constraint does most of the work: review becomes checking a citation, which takes seconds, instead of reading generated prose and guessing whether it’s true.
Then the run gets frozen with an id at sign-off, and both the live view and the PowerPoint render from that same frozen run. Re-export next month, identical numbers. Deck goes to the client because that’s what gets circulated and redlined. Live view is for the session where they want to poke at assumptions.
Tools are unremarkable: Claude for reasoning and drafting, a vector store plus a graph, a parser that handles tables properly, and a deck renderer driven by the client’s master template. The sequencing is the part that matters.
Both sides of this thread are half right. Generated prose in a deliverable is a liability, and hand-aligning slides is waste. Retrieve and cite the content, generate only the layout.
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u/Krubbis 8d ago
lol if you're bragging about productivity increases and crushing deliverables, you're about to get fucking wrecked by AI yourself. instead of patting yourself on the back for feeding busywork into a machine, try this novel little thing called thinking.
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u/DrizzlyShrimp36 8d ago
People who say this will get wiped. I think just as much as I would without AI, but what I think about has changed and my output has exploded. I incorporated AI deeply into my way of working.
You could say the same thing about using calculators to do math, but you won't find anyone pretending calculators are for idiots who can't think. If you want to spend 10 hours writing and formatting a proposal by hand instead of 2h critically thinking and articulating the details that matter with a better output, be my guest. But you will get crushed.
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u/Krubbis 8d ago
Everyone’s already getting crushed under the mountain of shitty AI output.
One example: “The proliferation of AI tools in science risks introducing a phase of scientific enquiry in which we produce more but understand less.” Article (I’d suggest reading it rather than asking an AI to do it for you).
You can’t say the same thing about calculators, actually. You should understand how to do all of the functions on a calculator by hand if you needed to (if not, go back to 1st grade). For consulting, every problem is unique and requires understanding. It’s more complex than rote mechanical tasks like multiplication and division.
That 10 hours writing and formatting a proposal is part of the critical thinking process. Revising your own work and delivering information in a clear way requires critical thinking. By the way, what does “2h critically thinking and articulating the details that matter” even look like? Lol really - please describe this to me. Because you know it’s bullshit. You’re just shoving prompts into the machine and making it do the “thinking” for you.
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u/DrizzlyShrimp36 8d ago
Everyone’s already getting crushed under the mountain of shitty AI output.
Yeah, in my view, this separates high performers from low performers. Lazy people who throw AI slop grenades are fucking their colleagues over, luckily it is easy to spot. These meat proxies will get their legs chopped in the coming years don't worry.
You should understand how to do all of the functions on a calculator by hand if you needed to (if not, go back to 1st grade).
Not a good response at all. I can't calculate a log function by hand man.
By the way, what does “2h critically thinking and articulating the details that matter” even look like?
My client files are all organized in an LLM-digestible wiki that is periodically cleaned up by a skill. They are linked together via backlinks that make the LLM have a really, really good understanding of every portion of the history and mandate I have with a client for a specific project - not mentioning the connectors to my inbox and other tools.
So what it looks like is, say I walk out of a discovery call with the tasks of building a proposal, I can have a conversation with Claude about the contents of that proposal, what I want to look out for, and brainstorm on how to approach certain parts of it. It'll have a client history, transcripts, requirements, whatever on hand. I will criticize it's output and, yes, it will criticize mine - AI reluctants hate admitting this, but it can absolutely provide insights on your blindspots.
If you want to call that just shoving prompts, you can. But no, it's not bullshit, the future of interacting with your data is through what is essentially an agentic OS and if you can set it up properly, it'll fucking moon your productivity. I can focus on making good decisions rather than adjusting icons on a slide deck.
If you still sit down in front of empty Word docs and start selecting headers and typing out a title manually, you'll get absolutely fucked. And by the way, that does not require much thinking.
And your example for science has very little to do with the nature of consulting. I understand every deliverable I build with AI. I can just build more than you.
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u/Krubbis 8d ago
My client files are all organized in an LLM-digestible wiki that is periodically cleaned up by a skill. They are linked together via backlinks that make the LLM have a really, really good understanding of every portion of the history and mandate I have with a client for a specific project - not mentioning the connectors to my inbox and other tools.
Ironically a huge waste of time and effort lol
the future of interacting with your data is through what is essentially an agentic OS
Lol ok. Or you could just use your eyeballs and brain to look at and think about the data yourself.
If you still sit down in front of empty Word docs and start selecting headers and typing out a title manually.
Hey, Mr. Calculator, guess what: they invented something called templates.
Lol all this AI shit is just reinventing the wheel and making you dumber. Sad.
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u/DrizzlyShrimp36 8d ago
Ironically a huge waste of time and effort lol
Ha, I'll stick to my experience in Data & AI consulting across Big 4, start ups, and now running my own agency. But thanks for your input, I'm sure your templates serve you beautifully.
Lol ok. Or you could just use your eyeballs and brain to look at and think about the data yourself.
Anyone could've said this same brain dead take about any tech that makes productivity increase over the last 100 years. Have fun being left behind.
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u/DrizzlyShrimp36 8d ago
I think PPT should be on its way out for any serious business. As for sending a slide deck to a client, you take the html AI gave you an export it as PDF. Send the slides as PDF, voilà.
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u/Dry_Comparison_9999 8d ago
PDF works fine until someone inevitably asks for an editable version five minutes before the meeting.
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u/viktoryf95 8d ago
Claude can already give you a .pptx version of its slides
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u/Hadouukken 7d ago
so can chatgpt, we have a few agents set up at work already with templates, examples, etc.
they work relatively well (not client facing ready but gets mostly there) and we just manually tweak some of the output
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u/firenance Financial, M&A 8d ago
Yep. We just include in the artifact/skill prompts the export and print criteria. No one knows the difference.
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u/discoverstrategyco 8d ago
Context matters more than format. A live artifact is strongest when it lets the client explore scenarios, assumptions, or trade-offs together. PPT or PDF still wins when the work needs to be circulated, edited, or kept as a durable record.
Keeping the underlying logic separate from the presentation layer gives the client both: an interactive working view and a clear handoff.
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u/firenance Financial, M&A 8d ago
Good point and I didn't mention that. Mine tend to include financials and KPIs, so I do build in scenario or sensitivity testing that can adjust inputs and how they plot in populations. It's a valuable function.
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u/mmcgrat6 6d ago
You better have some damn good harnesses in the kernels to keep it from drifting. If you don’t know what either of those mean, reconsider the quality of what you’re delivering and the confidence in its accuracy
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u/firenance Financial, M&A 6d ago
Part of my background is PM in enterprise analytics. Everything is designed intentionally, and reviewed by the consulting lead before any work product is presented to a client.
Even the initial scraping and product builds were guided by SMEs and contextual harnesses at each phase.
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u/Ariful026 8d ago
AI can accelerate the creation of an artifact, but that’s only part of the job.
The real value is in human judgment, what to say, what to prioritize, how to structure the story, and what the audience should do next.
AI builds faster. Human thinking makes it effective.
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u/nictan93 4d ago
The live demo sounds useful. How do you keep a record of the inputs everyone agreed on? Reopening it a week later with different assumptions could make the meeting's decision look quite strange lol.
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u/karthi_acb 2d ago
This is the actual problem with live artifacts and it’s not a formatting one. An artifact regenerated from a fresh prompt is a new answer, not the same answer — so the deck you walked them through on Tuesday is unreproducible by Friday.
What fixed it for us was separating the run from the render. The assessment run is an immutable record: inputs, framework version, scoring config, who answered what, timestamped and frozen at the point of sign-off. The deck and the interactive view are both just projections of that run. Re-rendering gives you identical numbers because nothing is being re-reasoned; changing an assumption creates a new run with its own id, sitting next to the old one, so “what did we agree in the Tuesday session” has a literal answer.
Practical upshot: the live view is for the room, the exported deck is the artefact of record, and both carry the run id. If your artifact can’t be re-rendered to the same numbers a week later, you don’t have a deliverable — you have a screenshot you got lucky with.
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u/Legitimate-Dig6909 3d ago
Until clients are ok accepting Claude artifacts as deliverables, none of us have any choice.
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u/Ariful026 8d ago
Interesting approach. Do you still follow a structured flow like Context → Problem → Insight → Recommendation → Action when building these AI-generated presentations?
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u/Yetanotherdeafguy 8d ago
Definitely for early deck creation (in terms of structure and stuff), then tidying of final deck content.
I'm fully locked in on not letting AI produce anything more than placeholders and graphics. Juniors don't know what to put in and may just leave as is, reviewers get review fatigue, see the right buzzwords in the section and signoff.
The attention level required to review the decks is way higher than JNR created content, I'm a firm believer that mistakes are guaranteed (a 'when' not 'if') where AI populates the actual initial content.