From Decks to AI-Native Documents
Grant Lee, co-founder of Gamma, on rethinking the primitives of presentations
The key divide in presentation software is no longer better slides, it is whether the product still assumes work starts from a fixed slide canvas at all. Pitch and Beautiful.ai mostly improve the old workflow by making decks prettier, faster to edit, and easier to share. Gamma is aiming at a different job, turning rough ideas into web native cards that can be read, shared, and remixed without rebuilding the same content for live presenting versus async reading.
-
Pitch is the clearest example of better slideware. It keeps the familiar deck model, then layers on real time collaboration, templates, analytics, and pitch rooms where sales teams bundle decks, docs, videos, and links for buyers. That is a stronger workflow around slides, not a replacement for slides.
-
Beautiful.ai attacks the formatting tax inside the slide itself. Its Smart Slides auto align, resize, and restyle content as a user edits, and even its PowerPoint add in keeps users inside Microsoft's deck workflow. The product makes slide making easier, but still treats the slide as the core unit.
-
Gamma and Tome both point to a broader shift from decks to interactive business documents. Gamma uses cards that flex to different screen sizes and can become presentations, docs, or simple websites, while Tome similarly pushes toward interactive reports and proposals. The competitive battle moves from design polish to owning the full communication surface.
This market is heading toward fewer standalone slide beautifiers and more AI native communication tools that generate, adapt, and publish content across formats. The winners will be the products that can start with a prompt, produce something usable immediately, and still plug into the distribution channels where PowerPoint, Google Slides, and Canva remain deeply embedded.