Presentation Tools Becoming Knowledge Systems
Grant Lee, co-founder of Gamma, on rethinking the primitives of presentations
The shift to async work turns presentation software into a knowledge management problem, not just a design problem. In a distributed team, the winning tool is the one that lets people find an old update, reuse part of it, add context, and send it around without a meeting. That is where fixed slide decks break down, because they were built for live presenting on a shared screen, while newer tools are being built for searchable, web native, reusable content.
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Gamma frames the old slide model as print and project, a format shaped by paper pages and one shared screen. Its product direction moves toward cards that can expand, embed apps, hold video, and work as something to read alone or present live, which fits remote workflows much better than linear decks.
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The closest product analogue is Notion, not PowerPoint. The key job in async teams is not making prettier slides, it is storing information in a structure people can search, link, and update over time. Grant Lee points to Notion's hierarchy and block based organization as the model that slide tools failed to offer.
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Competitors have moved in the same direction. Pitch added async video, remote handoffs, and hosted presentation rooms, while Gamma evolved into interactive web native documents and microsites. The market signal is that presentation software is being pulled toward document workflows, collaboration, and post meeting sharing rather than one time delivery.
This heads toward a world where the boundary between doc, deck, and lightweight webpage keeps collapsing. Presentation products that become the system of record for team communication will keep gaining ground, while tools centered on page by page formatting will be pushed toward narrower use cases like polished live talks and final external collateral.