Google's Gemini Canvas recently announced that it can now create presentations with a single prompt. But can an AI workspace that does everything from writing documents to analysing data actually create compelling presentations?

We tested Gemini Canvas's presentation capabilities and spoiler alert: the results are...underwhelming.

In this review, we'll break down exactly what Gemini Canvas can and can't do when it comes to creating presentations, how it compares to dedicated AI presentation tools, and whether it's worth your time and money.

Quick Answer: Gemini Canvas can technically generate presentations, but it's far from the seamless experience and quality that dedicated AI presentation tools like Alai offer.

Unless you're willing to invest serious time crafting detailed prompts and making manual edits in Google Slides, you'll likely find yourself frustrated with generic outputs that miss the mark on both design and content.

We recommend Gemini Canvas for:

• Teams comfortable with extensive manual editing in Google Slides

• Users who are okay with spending hours or even days prompting AI to achieve the first usable draft all while having zero design control

We don't recommend Gemini Canvas for:

• Anyone looking to create polished presentations quickly and seamlessly

• Non-designers who want professional-looking slides where AI does the heavy lifting

• Teams needing customizable templates and design control upfront

What is Gemini Canvas? Understanding Google's Interactive AI Workspace

Gemini Canvas is an interactive workspace within Google's Gemini app designed for creating, editing, and collaborating on various projects with AI assistance. Originally built for documents, emails, and other written content, Google recently expanded Canvas to include presentation creation capabilities.

Gemini Feature Overview: What Can It Actually Do?

How Do I Make Presentations on Gemini Canvas? Step-by-Step Guide

Creating presentations with Gemini Canvas follows a prompt-dependent process:

Step 1: Access Gemini Canvas at gemini.google.com

Step 2: Input a detailed prompt. Vague prompts = generic results

❌ Weak: "Create a presentation about marketing."

✅ Strong: "Create a 10-slide presentation about digital marketing strategies for B2B SaaS companies. Include sections on content marketing, LinkedIn advertising, and SEO. Use a professional blue and white color scheme with modern fonts."

Step 3: Choose your editing path:

• Stay in Gemini and iterate via chat prompts

• Export to Google Slides for manual editing

Chat interface for iterations in Gemini Canvas

Step 4: Download final results

• Export to Google Slides, or,

• Download as a PDF

Do Gemini's Presentations Look Good? The Design Reality Check

If I am being honest - unless you’re extremely specific with your prompts, Gemini's design output lacks quality with bare minimum image and text layouts accompanied with poor font and colour scheme choices. The only thing saving its design is its decent image output.

The Core Problems

• No Template Foundation: Every presentation starts from scratch with random unpredictable templates that can only be controlled via detailed prompts.

• Lack Of Presentation Based Design Principles: Unlike other AI presentation tools, Gemini’s output lacks design knowledge specific to presentations. This leads to designs feeling dated - think 2015-era PowerPoint.

Decks without detailed design prompts end up with repeated usage of the same basic layouts like text on one side and images on the other, text-only slides with bullet points/icons. As you can see in the example below the layout used by Gemini seems flat and simple compared to the one used by Alai.

As seen above Gemini lacks the quality of design AI presentation tools like Alai have to offer

How To Make It Work

With detailed prompts specifying fonts, colours, and layout styles you can get decent results which still require a lot of iterations. But for non-designers, this is tedious guesswork.

Bottom line: Design quality depends entirely on your ability to direct an AI with no visual editor.

Do Gemini Presentations Read Well? Content Quality Assessment

Gemini's content generation is decent, but it's not optimized for presentation formats.

What Works

• Good research capabilities: Pulls information effectively

• Clear writing: Grammatically correct and coherent

What Doesn't Work

• Not Presentation-Ready: Unless you’re sharing the exact draft you want to use in the slides, Gemini often ends up creating content that is not always fit for presentations (e.g. - lengthy hard to read texts and long and heavy paragraphs).

• Generic Without Guidance: Gemini uses corporate-bland tone unless you specify voice and style preferences in your prompt. Other AI presentation tools like Alai tackle this by providing options to choose tone along with other guidelines.

Alai allows users to customize their content in terms of tone, focus, length and intent

Bottom line: If you need AI that understands how to write/edit content meant for presentations, Gemini isn't fully there yet.

How Easy Is It To Create Presentations On Gemini Canvas?

Ease of use rating: 3/10

Gemini Canvas has a steep learning curve that contradicts its promise of simplicity.

Why It's Difficult

Zero Visual Control: No templates or element options leaving you stuck with whatever the AI creates or with the option to edit the slide from scratch on Google Slides.

Prompt Engineering Required: Getting good results means writing detailed briefs with design terminology and clear vision before starting.

Iteration Headaches: Design and content changes require tedious chat-based feedback or manual Google Slides editing, no drag or drop or direct editing options available on Gemini itself.

No Preview Options: Can't see what your presentation will look like before generation.

Unlike Gemini, Alai allows you to preview and pick from 4 variations for each slide

Who Might Find It Easy

Gemini works if you're already a Google Slides expert, have crystal-clear vision, can articulate it perfectly, and don't mind extensive manual editing.

Gemini's Pricing: What Does It Cost?

Gemini Canvas: Is It Worth The Price?

Value if using for presentations only: Not great. At $20/month, alternatives like Alai are better with presentation-specific features.

How Does Gemini Compare To Other AI Presentation Tools?

Let's do an honest comparison across the criteria that actually matter when creating presentations.

The bottom line: Dedicated AI presentation tools were built for one purpose: creating great presentations quickly. Gemini Canvas was built as a general workspace and feels like it. The lack of design and content controls, template options, and editing capabilities makes it harder to use than tools designed specifically for slides.

Alternatives to Gemini's AI Presentation Maker

Being honest, if you’re looking to build high-quality presentation, Gemini Canvas won’t cut it for you, here are three solid alternatives worth considering:

1. Alai: The AI Tool That’s Made For Presentations

Key Features:

• Four slide options per idea: Every time you generate a slide, Alai gives you four distinct design options so you can choose what fits best

• Responsive canvas: Everything adjusts automatically as you work. No manual resizing or pixel tweaking

• Rich element library: Add Compare Two, Feature Matrix, Funnel, Hub & Spoke, Pie Chart, and other visuals that adapt perfectly to your content

• Full creative control: Edit anything, either manually or with AI. Rewrite text, restyle visuals, or change layouts in seconds

• Context-aware AI: Every AI action in Alai understands the full deck. When you rewrite, summarize, split or merge slides, or generate visuals, it considers context so everything fits naturally

• Customizable styles: Change themes or try different looks for each element. Alai adapts layouts and designs automatically to keep your deck cohesive

• AI image generation: Create or edit images directly inside your deck with model options that fit your visual style

Pricing: Free plan with 200 AI credits, $16/month paid plans.

Why choose over Gemini: Get four professionally designed options per slide instead of hoping one prompt works. Specialized AI understands design and content principles that make a good presentation.

Learn more: GetAlai.com

2. Gamma: The AI Design Tool Made for Documents, Websites & Presentations

Key Features:

• Card-based format: Presentations work like scrollable webpages instead of traditional slides. Fit for web sharing or sharing info in doc formats

• 30+ modern themes: Preview and select from professionally designed themes before generation. Each theme includes coordinated colours, fonts, and layouts

• Built-in AI image generation: Create custom visuals directly in your deck using AI. No need to switch to external tools or stock photo sites

• Rich embeds: Add YouTube videos, Loom recordings, Figma prototypes, charts, polls, and GIFs that work interactively within your presentation

• Real-time collaboration: Multiple team members can edit simultaneously with live updates. Comment, suggest, and iterate together seamlessly

Pricing: Free plan, $10/month Pro, $20/month Team.

Why choose over Gemini: Provides better optimization of content for slides, offers preview-able themes, and delivers polished drafts in minutes. Visual control from start to finish.

Worth noting: While Gamma outperforms Gemini in both design and content, its AI is trained to create assets across multiple formats (docs, presentations, websites). This multi-format approach means it often applies the same design and content principles across all outputs, which can lead to drafts that feel somewhat generic and flat. If you need more specialized presentation capabilities, explore these Gamma alternatives.

Learn more: Gamma.app

3. Beautiful AI: The Design Tool Made For Templatized Presentations

Key Features:

• Smart Slides technology: AI automatically formats/switches your content into pre-set layouts

• Premium templates: Choose from 20+ professionally designed templates depending on your use-case

• Brand Kit integration: Upload your logo, colours, and fonts once. Beautiful.ai applies them consistently across all presentations automatically

• Team collaboration: Work together in real-time with role-based permissions. Share feedback, make edits, and maintain version control seamlessly

• Extensive visual library: Access high-quality icons, images, and design elements optimized for business presentations

Pricing: Free trial, $12/month Pro, $40/month Team

Why choose over Gemini: Smart templates and auto-formatting eliminate all design guesswork, just add content and Beautiful AI handles the rest.

Worth noting: Beautiful AI's large template library lets you control what your first draft looks like - a clear advantage over Gemini's blind generation. However, the tool relies heavily on static templates. While features like Smart Slides and AI rewrites help with formatting, if you need deeper AI-powered customization and elements beyond template constraints, check out these Beautiful AI alternatives.

Learn more: Beautiful.ai

Final Verdict: Is Gemini The Best AI Presentation Tool Out There?

Short answer: No. Not even close.

Gemini Canvas delivers what you'd expect when a general-purpose AI tries presentations as a side feature - functional, but nowhere near the quality of purpose-built tools.

Our recommendation: Unless you're locked into Google ecosystem and getting Gemini for other purposes, invest in a tool built for presentations. Your time is worth more than fighting with an AI that doesn't understand the medium.

Rating: 4/10 - Not recommended when better alternatives exist.

FAQs About Gemini Canvas and AI Presentations

Is Gemini Canvas free to use?

A limited free Gemini version exists, but presentation features are restricted.

Can Gemini Canvas create PowerPoint presentations?

Yes and no. Gemini creates Google Slides presentations natively, which you can download as PDF files. However, formatting may break during conversion. If you work primarily in PowerPoint and want seamless AI integration, consider exploring tools that work within your existing workflow.

How long does it take to create a presentation with Gemini Canvas?

Initial generation takes 1-2 minutes. Realistically? Expect 3-4 hours with iterations, revisions, and manual Google Slides editing. Dedicated tools like Alai create usable first drafts in 5 minutes.

Can I use my own brand templates with Gemini Canvas?

No. Gemini doesn't support custom templates upfront. You can manually apply brand guidelines in Google Slides after creation, but this defeats AI automation's purpose.

Can multiple people collaborate on Gemini presentations?

Collaboration happens through Google Slides after export, not within Gemini Canvas itself. Google Slides has excellent collaboration features, but they're not specific to Gemini's AI capabilities.