When preparing for a group meeting presentation, I used to start with "opening the PPT template" and end with "there's no time left." Now I start with a deliverable checklist.
The four items on the checklist
- A one-page outline (Word): what this talk covers, how many sections, and one sentence per section.
- A slide deck (PPTX): no more than fifteen slides.
- A data table (Excel): the raw values behind the charts.
- Half a page of speaking notes (Word): one opening sentence, the supporting page number for each conclusion, and three questions I might be asked.
For each one: what I provide, what it produces, what I revise
Outline.
I provide three sentences: what this presentation is for, who the audience is (same group or cross-group), and what counts as done (my advisor has listened and can give next-step feedback). It produces a one-page structured outline. What I change is the order—it tends to organize by workflow, while I switch it to "conclusion first."
Slides.
I provide the outline and a few key figures. It produces a PPTX that can be previewed and further edited. I revise three things: delete decorative pages, change each slide title into a declarative sentence, and increase the font size of figure captions. I revise formulas and units myself afterward; I don't hand this part over to it.
Data table.
I provide the raw data. It produces a table. What I change are the column names and units, and I check the values one by one—it handles formatting, not calculation on my behalf.
Speaking notes.
I provide the outline and my three conclusions. I generally use only half of what it produces: I keep the opening sentence and supporting page numbers, but I rewrite the entire "questions I might be asked" section myself, because that is my read on how reviewers think, not something it can infer.
I turn a "one-sentence request" into three sentences
What to do, who it's for, and what counts as done.
The official description of the office assistant agent is "describe your request in one sentence and get editable PPT, Word, and Excel deliverables", and it supports multiple output formats; the outputs can be previewed and further edited. This kind of editable deliverable is crucial to me—for materials I hand in, I always still have to revise them again according to the college template. In my experience, this one sentence is best written with all three elements; otherwise the deliverable you get is "something you can look at" rather than "something you can submit."
There are three places where I don't cut corners
- Every number in the charts: go back to the original file and check it once.
- A conclusion slide must have supporting slides; if it doesn't, add the data first—do not write the conclusion first.
- Reference formatting is changed manually according to the school template.
Boundaries and costs
- Unpublished data is not uploaded. For sensitive values that must appear in the presentation, I use illustrative placeholder values and fill them in verbally when speaking.
- A deliverable of a dozen or so pages at a time consumes noticeably more credits than I expected. So I now split it into two steps: first produce the outline, confirm the structure and conclusions are fine, then produce the final deliverable—if the order is reversed, rework is more expensive.
- The materials are not thrown together on the spot: images and data come from MuchSci's personal knowledge base, and the references' DOI and citation information were filled in ahead of time using MuchSci's paper search assistant, and only then was the final deliverable handed to MuchSci's office assistant agent.
What am I doing the night before the presentation? Reading through the speaking notes and thinking through the three questions I might be asked one more time. The materials themselves had already been handed in that afternoon.
This is how I now understand the AI assistant for graduate students: it turns "making materials" into a checklist-driven process, while the judgment and trade-offs are still mine.