Public speaking is incredibly stressful. Most people rehearse their presentations by talking to an empty room, but an empty room cannot tell you if you are speaking too quickly, saying “um” too often, or simply reading directly off the slides in a monotone voice.
To solve this, Microsoft built an AI-powered Presenter Coach directly into PowerPoint. This hidden tool listens to you rehearse via your computer’s microphone and provides real-time, on-screen feedback about your pacing, pitch, and use of filler words, helping you polish your delivery before you step in front of an actual audience.
How to Launch the Presenter Coach
To use this feature, you must have a working microphone connected to your computer, and you must have a completed PowerPoint presentation ready to rehearse.
- Open your presentation in Microsoft PowerPoint.
- Click the Slide Show tab located in the top ribbon menu.
- In the “Set Up” group, look for the button labelled Rehearse with Coach.
- Click the button. Your presentation will immediately launch in full-screen mode, just as it would during a real presentation.
A small dialogue box will appear in the bottom-right corner of the screen. Ensure the “Show real-time feedback” checkbox is ticked, and then click the blue Start Rehearsing button.
How to Use the Real-Time Feedback
As you begin speaking and clicking through your slides, the Coach is actively listening. If you make a common public speaking error, a small, unobtrusive notification will pop up in the corner of your screen.
The Coach actively monitors for several key issues:
- Pacing: If you get nervous and start rushing through your material, the Coach will tell you to slow down. If you are speaking too slowly, it will encourage you to pick up the pace.
- Filler Words: If you rely heavily on crutch words like “um,” “ah,” or “like,” the Coach will gently flag it.
- Reading the Slides: The worst presentation mistake is simply reading the text on the screen aloud. The AI compares your speech to the text on the current slide. If you are reading verbatim, it will warn you to summarise the points instead.
- Inclusivity and Profanity: The Coach will warn you if you use culturally insensitive terms, profanity, or non-inclusive language (e.g., saying “you guys” instead of “everyone”).
- Pitch: If you are speaking in a flat, robotic monotone, it will encourage you to vary your pitch to keep the audience engaged.
How to Review Your Final Report
When you finish your presentation, press the Esc key on your keyboard to exit the slideshow mode.
PowerPoint will immediately generate a comprehensive, highly visual “Rehearsal Report.” This dashboard provides a total summary of your practice run.
The report will show you your average pacing (measured in words per minute), a graph of your pitch variations, a count of how many filler words you used, and specific notes on which slides you struggled with the most. You can use this data to identify your weakest points, make adjustments to your script, and launch the Coach again for a better second attempt.