AI Can Tell Your Story. Here Is Why You Should Still Show Up
Introduction: The Second Great Disruption
For millions of years, the only way to transmit information was through storytelling. In Marrakesh's Djemaa el-Fna square, the tradition still lives: a storyteller called Mahmoud holds crowds with nothing but his voice. In the business world, we call those people presenters — and they tend to do it in a considerably less fascinating way.
Two seismic shifts have changed the landscape. First, algorithms took over distribution — Facebook and Instagram became the real communication artists, deciding which stories spread. Now, with AI, computers are not just spreading stories. They are creating them. For the first time in history, it is no longer exclusively up to humans to generate the information other humans consume.
So where does that leave presenters? Nils Finger went looking for answers — by testing AI tools against the three problems that come up most in every presenter's workflow.
Problem 1: Getting Ideas for Slides
Most people give ChatGPT a vague brief and get a generic result. Nils did the same thing early on and moved on. What changed everything was giving it real context: the setting, the content, the goal, and a request for multiple options. The output for a comparison of three AI chatbots came back with three progressively bolder ideas — a data table, a radar chart, and persona cards with nicknames like "The All-Rounder" — each with a speaker tip on how to use it.
Going one step further and defining the presentation goal ("I want to truly inspire my audience") produced something even more interesting: ChatGPT recommended abandoning PowerPoint entirely, and suggested a physical sticky-note wall exercise instead. Takeaway: tell ChatGPT what you want to achieve, not just what you want to show, and it will take you places standard slide thinking never would.
Problem 2: Practising Your Talk
Generic coaching advice is everywhere online. What presenters actually need is feedback on their specific presentation. Nils tested Yoodli — a tool that lets you upload or record a video of yourself presenting and returns detailed, personalised feedback: pacing, eye contact, filler words, and even content-level recommendations with suggested rephrasing.
The feature that stood out most is the role-play function. You build a fictional audience — Nils created a sceptical German COO who loves football metaphors, his polar opposite, and himself — then pitch to them. The AI responds in character. Every question from the German COO included a football metaphor. Every single one. The verdict: Yoodli can do the time-consuming, repetitive part of coaching — the 60% that costs clients budget and coaches energy — and it can make that coaching accessible to anyone who does not have the budget for a real coach.
Problem 3: Performing on Stage
Can an AI avatar just do the presenting for you? Technically, yes. HeyGen creates a personal avatar from a two-minute video, then generates a presentation in any language from text or voice input, complete with facial expressions and gestures. The audience's reaction was mostly disagreement — not personal enough, not emotional, not fully synchronised.
HeyGen's Avatar 4 (released the day before the talk) addresses exactly those points: gesture control lets you map specific movements to specific moments in the script, and a voice director lets you set the emotional tone via prompt. Nils' honest assessment: for some people, in some contexts, it is already in the top 30% of presentations he sees. But it cannot do the one thing that makes live presentations uniquely valuable — interact with the audience in real time.
The Sweet Spot
We are at an interesting moment. AI-generated communication is setting the benchmark higher than ever, which means audiences expect more. At the same time, digital overload is making live, human communication increasingly rare and valuable. Presentations are becoming genuine opportunities — but only if you show up well. The good news: the tools that could outperform you are available to you. Let them do the dishes. Keep the moment on stage for yourself.
Final Thoughts: Let AI Do the Dishes, Keep the Stage
AI can handle slide ideation, delivery practice, and even a reasonable substitute for the presenter. What it cannot replace is the human in the room — curious, responsive, present. That is still yours, and right now, it matters more than ever.
Join the Conversation
Would you use an AI avatar to present on your behalf — and where do you think the line is between helpful tool and missed opportunity? Share your thoughts below.
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