We already know that AI-powered tools to generate presentations exist, and we also know that static slides in your presentations do nothing for audience engagement. As generative AI becomes more talented, a new capability is emerging: animating presentations with AI. Is using AI tools to animate presentations really worth the learning curve, or should we just keep up the manual work?
We tested the following tools to see how well they animate presentations with AI:
The testing criteria we used:
- Automation: Does the tool auto-animate slides, or does it need refining?
- Flexibility: Can you adjust timing, effects, and movement?
- Variety: Are the animations diverse or repetitive? Does it just slap on a template?
- Export: What are the sharing options, and how does it affect the final product?
Let’s dive in to see how these tools perform to animate presentations with AI.
Gamma
Gamma creates working presentations from text in just a few steps. It’s already popular and praised for presenting your information accurately while creating a logical flow, clear slides, and now, added AI animation features.
We entered a short prompt, and Gamma structured a multi-section deck with headings, analytics, AI-generated images, icons, and text. The tool provides a wizard to guide you through generating your first deck, showing you how and where to edit each element of each “card”. It also makes suggestions for layout based on your headings, but it’s hard to know how intuitive this is. You can embed links, add expandable elements, and the cards are very responsive.
Here’s where the animation comes in: there is an “Animate” toggle in the Page Setup tab. When you activate this, each element animates in as you scroll through the presentation, with the AI having done the formatting for you. These transitions are automated and, due to that, cannot be modified if desired. In terms of animation scope, Gamma seems quite basic, but it definitely delivers on the ease of creating a fully realized presentation with a few clicks.
While export options are available, Gamma’s native format is web-based, limiting the dynamic elements to viewing within the app only. Slides can be shared as a viewable Gamma link or exported to PowerPoint and Google Slides, but the AI presentation animation ends there.
Gamma delivers smooth presentation creation and animation with minimal heavy lifting, thanks to AI. It’s ideal for presenters who want speed and polish more than in-depth editing and control.
Impressive Features:
- Automatic animations are created seamlessly
- Built-in data visualization
- Live previews and quick edit tools
Best for:
Easy presentation generation; presenting within Gamma otherwise these impressive elements are lost.
Canva
Canva’s AI Magic Design generates a full slide deck from a brief prompt. After the draft, the AI’s Magic Animate lets you add motion to the deck with preset animations. These features are within Canva’s Pro version ($12.99 monthly).
Canva’s AI feature is tucked away within the dashboard, but you can find it on the left-hand panel. From there, you select “design for me” and “presentation”.
After you generate a presentation using a prompt, a Canva project, or your existing brand kit, Magic Animate is the AI tool to animate presentations with a single click. You can apply a selected animation style to all elements like text boxes, charts, and images, or add each one individually.
The preset animations are visually polished and consistent across slides, but customization is limited for the same reasons. You can adjust the duration of an animation (short, medium, or long), although there’s not much more control over start times, delays, or the path of the motion. There is no timeline editor or event-based triggers (click or hover) and animations play automatically during presentation mode.
Magic Animate is designed more for speed and polish than control, making it best suited for users who want presentable results with minimal effort. Canva’s strength, as many are already familiar, lies in ease of use and aesthetic consistency. Your projects can be exported in numerous formats (some only apply to Canva Pro plans), but a live link or MP4 would be best for this.
Notable features:
- Consistent Presets Across Elements
- One-Click Global Animations
Best for:
Simple steps to get a presentable product with minimal customization.
Storydoc
Storydoc takes a user prompt like most other AI presentation tools, but takes a storytelling approach and incorporates immersiveness into the final product, even for a business report.
Storydoc’s AI engine analyzes your input, be it a prompt or an uploaded document, and auto‑generates animated “scenes” with effects, visuals, and scroll-activated transitions. It also calls its AI assistance tool the “StoryBrain” to add to the theme of storytelling to animate presentations with AI.
Storydoc transforms basic slide decks into a scrollable storyboard format, reinventing what we expect from a slideshow. It builds dynamic ‘scenes’ that feel more like a well-designed website and make for an immersive experience, compared to clicking through slides.
The final product it offers is much more effective in the storytelling aspect of our test. It includes animated progress bars and hover effects, and can also integrate video if you want it to. The scene‑graph panel lists all animated elements and their timelines, making it easy to reorder animations. Storydoc also integrates with HubSpot, Salesforce, and Google Analytics (pro version), so you can track viewer engagement down to which animation they paused on.
Impressive Features:
- Smart templates for vertical scrolling
- Video embeds are built in
- Timelines and charts animate as you move through them
Best for:
Creating immersive narratives shared with a link to view on the platform.
Simplified
Simplified offers a clean, Canva-like interface where the user can add text, media, AI-generated elements, and animations. The tool offers both the convenience of using AI to speed up the initial creation of your presentation, while still providing enough editing control for most user levels.
Animations can be toggled on and off and edited via a simple control panel, and new slides are auto-animated to match the rest of your deck. You can adjust or regenerate slides by prompting the “ask ai” feature, although Simplified has some room to grow to animate presentations with AI.
While not as powerful as the more intense motion design tools, Simplified offers flexibility and customization that the other “AI-automation only” platforms don’t. The transitions are basic, but the tool does the job in terms of getting that head start from AI assistance.
Your Simplified project can be exported as a PNG (without animations), an MP4, or as a shareable link.
Best for:
Users wanting to create a simple animated presentation with some AI help initially.
Presentations.ai
Presentations.AI leans more heavily into AI-first design and offers one of the quickest ways to go from prompt to AI presentation animation. This tool creates a polished slideshow without having to slave over creating one.
After entering your prompt, the tool generates a structured deck complete with varied layouts, images, and automatically applies slide animations and transitions. The tool uses a familiar slide-based layout but adds AI assistance for suggesting layouts and generating content. It also automatically suggests animations and transitions, but it’s hard to know how much of the recommendation is based on the data or context you’ve provided. While manual frame editing isn’t possible, timing controls let you customize entrance, exit, and highlight animations.
What stood out most was the simple user interface and the balance between automation and customization. The tool allows voice-over narration, AI-generated summaries, and team collaboration, which makes it a useful tool for remote teams. The AI can even auto-sync the timing of the animations to your voice-over.
Presentations.AI allows the user to export their project as a PPTX with the animations integrated (paid plans only) or you can share a link to present on the platform.
The final product has a depth of animation and interest, but feels a little less polished. Overall, its ease of use and effortless result make it a great middle-ground option for users looking to animate presentations with AI.
Standout Features:
- Automatic transitions between slides
- AI-suggested design choices
- Option for voiceover and AI summaries
Best for:
Professionals wanting to present with minimal prep.
Genially
Genially isn’t a pure AI presentation tool, but its strength lies in adding interactivity and motion. It seems to target a more casual and creative audience, perhaps more suited for students and teachers than corporate professionals.
When creating a new presentation, you can choose from hundreds of Genially templates, many of which include timed transitions, animated icons, dynamic charts, and scroll-triggered movement.
While Genially has begun integrating AI tools like content suggestions and design assistance, its animation capabilities remain largely manual unless you’re working from one of its perfectly animated templates. Animations are added per element via a timeline panel, so as far as AI tools to animate presentations, it is rather hands-on.
The platform is structured more like a digital design tool than a presentation editor. However, for those comfortable with a learning curve, it offers amazing customization in how objects enter, move, and interact on the screen and with the viewer. You can add interactive tooltips, pop‑ups, mini‑games, and quizzes directly in the slide. For example, embed a multiple‑choice question that reveals the answer when the viewer clicks.
The upside of this manual control is flexibility: you can create complex sequences, layer effects, and design non-linear flows. The downside is time. Genially is not built for speed, and doesn’t cater well to those seeking plug-and-play automation.
When it comes to sharing, Genially prefers web-based presentation. You can embed your work on websites, share a live link. Unfortunately, exporting in any other way means the animations and interactivity won’t survive the transition.
Standout Features:
- Rich interactivity
- Engaging, polished templates to build on
Best for:
Educators, marketers, or designers who want complete control and interactivity, when the presentation will be shared online.
Final thoughts
Each tool brings different strengths for each user’s ultimate goal:
- Fast, animated slides: Use Presentations.ai or Gamma
- Polished visuals: Go for Canva
- AI-assisted but editable: Try Simplified
- Help wth storytelling: Storydoc
- Hands-on design and editing: Try Genially
Choose your next go-to based on whether you need quick animation, more control, or if you want to engage your audience in richer viewing. One thing is for certain: in the age of constant stimulation and short attention spans, static slideshows are no longer cutting it. Thankfully, we now have ways to animate presentations with AI.
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