Tool Friday #1 — Gamma: The Presentation Tool That Killed My PowerPoint
I stopped using Pitch 3 weeks ago.
Not because something better came along in some abstract sense. Because I ran the numbers and realized I was spending a third of my presentation time moving boxes around a canvas. That’s not work. That’s decoration.
Here’s what I replaced it with — and what actually happened.
What is Gamma and how does it work?
Gamma is an AI-powered presentation tool that turns structured text into fully designed slide decks — no drag and drop, no template hunting, no manual layout work.
Gamma is an AI-powered presentation tool. You give it text — structured text, with headings and bullet points — and it generates a complete, designed slide deck.
No drag and drop. No template hunting. No grid alignment hell.
You write the content, Gamma handles the design. That’s the whole pitch. And it works.
My workflow (the exact steps)
Over the past three weeks I built 7 presentations:
- 3 sales decks for client proposals
- 2 Academy modules for Stratega School
- 1 pitch deck for a new product
- 1 competitive intelligence report
Total time: roughly 4 hours across all seven.
The workflow is the same every time.
Step 1 — Brief Claude with context and structure.
I tell Claude: who the audience is, what the goal is, what I want each slide to cover. I ask for output in clean markdown — heading per slide, 3-4 bullets max per section.
Claude writes everything. Slide by slide. I don’t touch the copy yet.
Step 2 — Copy-paste into Gamma, hit Generate.
Gamma reads the markdown structure and builds the deck. Takes about 20 seconds. The first output is usually 80-90% there — the hierarchy reads correctly, the visual flow makes sense.
Step 3 — Fix two colors. Export.
I adjust the accent color to match the client or project. Sometimes I swap one image. That’s it. I don’t move a single box.
The whole point is that the hard part — thinking, structuring, writing — happened before Gamma. Gamma just materializes it.
What surprised me
The quality of the default output. I expected something generic. What I got was actually presentation-ready on the first generation — not in a “it’ll do” way, but in a “I’d send this to a client” way.
The second thing: it changed how I think about presentations. Now I plan decks the same way I plan articles. Structure first. Writing second. Design is automatic. That mental shift alone is worth something.
The third: no friction on sharing. Every Gamma deck has a live link. No PDF attachment, no version confusion. You send a URL and the client sees the latest version every time.
What are Gamma’s limitations?
Be honest about the limits before you commit.
| Use case | Works? | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Narrative sales deck | Yes | Strong |
| Academy / training modules | Yes | Very clean |
| Simple pitch deck | Yes | Solid |
| Complex data charts | No | Bring your own charts |
| Custom image generation | No | Use your own images |
| Pixel-perfect brand control | Partial | Colors and fonts, not full layout |
| Annual reports | No | Wrong tool |
If your deck lives or dies on a specific chart, Gamma isn’t going to build that chart for you. You export the chart from wherever you made it, drop it in as an image. Not a dealbreaker — just know going in.
Same with images. Gamma doesn’t generate images. If you want photography or illustrations in the deck, you source them yourself. Again: not a problem once you expect it.
How much does Gamma cost?
Gamma is free for unlimited decks with a watermark. Plus plan at ~€10/month adds PDF/PPT export and custom fonts. Pro at ~€20/month adds analytics and custom domains.
| Plan | Price | What you get |
|---|---|---|
| Free | €0 | Unlimited decks, Gamma watermark, no PDF export |
| Plus | ~€10/mo | PDF + PPT export, no watermark, custom fonts |
| Pro | ~€20/mo | Analytics, custom domains, priority support |
For most of what I do, the free tier is enough. I export PDFs maybe 30% of the time — usually for formal proposals where a client expects an attachment. The Plus plan at €10 covers that.
If you’re evaluating this: start with the free tier, see if it fits your workflow, upgrade only if you’re exporting regularly.
Alternatives
| Tool | Best for | How it compares |
|---|---|---|
| Pitch | Team collaboration, brand templates | Better for teams that need shared brand kits and real-time collaboration. Worse for speed — you’re still designing manually. |
| Beautiful.ai | Auto-design without AI content | Handles layout automatically but doesn’t write content for you. Good middle ground if you want design help without the AI writing layer. |
| Canva | Drag-and-drop with massive template library | More templates than anything else. But you’re back to moving boxes around a canvas — the exact thing I left PowerPoint to avoid. |
My take: if you work in a team with strict brand guidelines, Pitch is worth trying. If you’re solo and want the fastest path from idea to deck, Gamma + Claude is the workflow I haven’t found a reason to leave.
Verdict
Gamma removed an entire category of friction from my week.
The combination I use — Claude writes the content, Gamma generates the deck — works because both tools do exactly one thing well. Claude doesn’t try to design. Gamma doesn’t try to think. Together they cover the full job.
I’m not going back to Pitch. I’m not going back to PowerPoint. The ROI isn’t close.
Score: 8/10. Loses 2 points for chart limitations and the fact that you still need a paid tier for PDF exports. Gains everything else back through the time it returns.
Try it: gamma.app
Tool Friday is a weekly series where I review one tool I actually use in my workflow. Just tools that made my work better.