Ted Hisokawa
Feb 06, 2026 11:01
Independent testing of 12 AI presentation makers shows Manus AI leading on content quality while Gamma and Canva dominate speed and design categories.
The AI presentation maker market has ballooned to an estimated $2 billion in 2025, with projections pointing toward $10 billion by 2033. A comprehensive three-week test of 12 leading tools reveals stark differences in what each platform actually delivers versus marketing promises.
The testing methodology used identical prompts across all platforms, measuring generation time, export quality, content accuracy, and speaker note usefulness. The results challenge assumptions about which tools deserve their premium pricing.
Top Performers by Category
Manus AI scored highest overall at 9/10, distinguishing itself through research-backed content generation. Unlike competitors that immediately jump to slide creation, Manus spends its first minute actively researching topics before synthesizing information. The trade-off? Generation takes approximately four minutes compared to under 60 seconds for speed-focused alternatives.
Canva AI and Gamma tied at 8/10, excelling in different areas. Canva’s template library remains unmatched for visual polish, though its AI-generated content often requires substantial manual input. Gamma produced scrollable, web-style presentations in roughly 95 seconds—the fastest generation time tested—but delivered shallower content depth.
Pitch matched the 8/10 score by offering collaboration features that testers described as “Google Docs for presentations,” with version history and team commenting workflows that justify its $20 monthly price tag for multi-contributor environments.
Budget Options Show Mixed Results
Presentation Intelligence ($19.80/month) and NoteGPT (free tier available) both earned 8/10 scores. NoteGPT’s ability to convert YouTube videos, documents, and links into slides addresses a specific use case other tools ignore, though visual alignment issues require cleanup work.
The bottom tier—AI PPT and SlidesGPT at 6/10—demonstrated why free doesn’t always mean value. SlidesGPT’s output required so much editing that testers concluded starting from scratch would save time.
Export Quality Emerged as Hidden Differentiator
The most surprising finding involved PPTX export reliability. Several tools that appeared polished in native interfaces broke during conversion to PowerPoint or Google Slides. Formatting shifted, fonts substituted unexpectedly, and some elements disappeared entirely.
Speaker notes proved another weak point industry-wide. Only Manus generated notes testers would actually use during delivery, including transition phrases and audience engagement cues. Most platforms either skipped notes or produced generic filler like “Discuss the key points on this slide.”
The broader AI software market reached $122 billion in 2024 and heads toward $467 billion by 2030, with generative AI driving the fastest growth. Presentation tools represent a small but rapidly expanding slice of that pie, with the 25% compound annual growth rate suggesting enterprise adoption is accelerating beyond early adopter phases.
Image source: Shutterstock
