How AI Transformed My Public Speaking

Public speaking is one of those skills that seems straightforward—get on stage, share your wisdom, and engage the audience. However, what often goes unseen is the behind-the-scenes process of brainstorming, structuring content, and ensuring the message truly resonates. Over the last few years, I’ve had the opportunity to speak at around a dozen events, and in that time, I’ve discovered both the pitfalls of poor presentation planning and the power of an unexpected ally: artificial intelligence.

The Struggle to Make It Stick

When I first started speaking publicly, my biggest challenge wasn’t the actual delivery—it was making sure the content flowed in a way that felt authentic and valuable to my audience. I’d sit down to brainstorm, whiteboard ideas, and outline potential slides. But time and again, I’d come across the same issues:

• Information Overload: I had so many ideas, but not all were relevant.

• Lack of Flow: Even if the individual points were great, they sometimes felt disjointed.

• Disconnected Audience: It’s all too easy to create a presentation that doesn’t stick because it’s too advanced, too basic, or simply not what people expected to hear.

I’ve been on the receiving end of those lackluster talks, too. You know the ones: the speaker is clearly smart, and the content might be interesting in theory, but it fails to connect. Either the information is old news to the audience, or there’s no clear takeaway that attendees can bring back to their own work or lives. I vowed never to deliver that kind of presentation myself.

How AI Became My Digital Thought Partner

Enter AI. Initially, I was skeptical. After all, a great talk comes from personal insight, experience, and empathy for your audience. But I found a way to harness AI as a tool—rather than letting it speak for me. Here’s the approach:

1. Ask for Questions, Not Answers
   Instead of telling AI what I want to say, I prompt it to ask me questions. For example, I’ll say, “Ask me 15 questions, one at a time, about my topic.” This dialogue is surprisingly powerful. It draws out ideas and details I might have overlooked and helps me see different angles I could cover in my talk.

2. Record and Summarize
   I’ll record myself speaking spontaneously or chatting with a friend about my topic, then use AI to generate a summary. This process captures the authenticity of my voice and ensures I’m not merely regurgitating AI-generated text.

3. Refine, Don’t Replace
   One of the biggest mistakes people make is letting AI create their entire presentation. That risks losing the speaker’s unique perspective and voice. AI should be a catalyst for your creativity, not a substitute. After I gather my ideas and refine them with AI’s help, I’ll manually craft my final outline and slides so they truly represent my own insights.

Real-World Use Cases vs. Theoretical Hype

A lot of AI discussion these days is purely hypothetical—grand ideas without tangible results. But real-world application matters. Through trial and error, I’ve seen firsthand how AI cuts down my prep time. My process used to take 20–30 hours per talk—from brainstorming to designing slides and following up post-event. Now, between honing my own craft and using AI as a supportive tool, I’ve managed to bring that down to around 10 hours.

That’s a huge difference. It means I can spend more time perfecting my delivery or even juggling multiple projects at once—without compromising the quality of any single talk. And yes, I’m still putting in the hours. But AI’s assistance helps me work more efficiently so I can accomplish more without burning out.

Finding the Right Balance

What I’ve learned in this journey is that balance is everything. AI isn’t a magic bullet. It can’t replace genuine expertise and authenticity—but it can enhance them. In practice, that means:

• Strategic Brainstorming: Use AI to organize your raw ideas, but trust your instincts on what matters most to your audience.

• Continuous Improvement: Over time, you’ll discover AI’s strengths and weaknesses. Double down on where it’s good (like posing new angles or automating repetitive tasks), and rely on your own voice and judgment elsewhere.

• Staying Authentic: Always, always review and tweak any AI-assisted output to align with your personal style and goals. Your audience comes to hear you, not a robot.

The Competitive Edge in 2025 and Beyond

As the landscape of work evolves, the ability to efficiently produce high-quality, authentic content will only become more critical. Integrating AI into your workflow—even just a bit—can elevate your game. It allows you to:

• Generate fresh ideas

• Communicate with impact

• Save time for what truly matters

We’re not here to shorten our work weeks necessarily, but to make each hour count. By offloading tedious tasks and letting AI augment our creativity, we free ourselves to excel in the human elements—like empathy, storytelling, and real connection.

Take it from someone who’s been through the trial-and-error process: AI is a powerful partner in crafting, refining, and delivering presentations. Embrace it, shape it to your needs, and keep your unique perspective front and center. When you do, you’ll not only sharpen your public speaking skills—you’ll also stay on the cutting edge in a rapidly changing world.