Use Copilot in PowerPoint to turn your legal update into a board deck

What This Does

You write the legal update once, in Word, and Copilot in PowerPoint builds a first-draft deck from that document. The written update stays the source of record. The deck is a presentation of it, so every slide should trace back to something you wrote.

Before You Start

• Copilot in PowerPoint needs a Microsoft 365 Copilot license, and Microsoft's page says Copilot may be missing from your subscription or hidden by your organization's settings. Look for the Copilot icon in the lower-right corner of a slide. If you do not see it, ask IT which license you have.
• The update may contain privileged analysis, pending litigation, or material nonpublic information. Keep both files in your company's licensed Microsoft 365 environment, and follow your company's policy on what goes to the board in writing versus orally.
• Write the Word document first. Use Word heading styles (Heading 1 for each topic, Heading 2 for sub-points). Microsoft's page recommends Word styles because Copilot uses them to understand how to split the document into slides.
• Keep the Word file under 24 MB, which is Microsoft's stated limit for best results.
• If your company has a standard presentation template, start from that file. Microsoft's page says doing so keeps the theme and design.

Steps

1. Prepare the Word update

Write the update in plain language with one heading per item: for example, matters to watch, a regulatory development and what it means for the company, policy changes, and requests of the board. Put a bottom-line sentence under each heading. Save the file where you can reference it.

2. Start the deck

Open PowerPoint with your template, or a new presentation. Select the Copilot icon in the lower-right corner of the slide. Microsoft's page describes this route for a new presentation: click the Add Content button in the input box, choose Agent Mode from the drop-down, and type a description of the deck. Then submit it with the arrow button.

3. Point Copilot at the Word document

Microsoft's page describes creating a presentation from a Word document and notes a limit: when you build from a file, you cannot add extra context in the same prompt. It also says file referencing in Agent Mode was listed as coming soon. So look in the Copilot box for the option to add or reference a file, and choose your Word update. If your version does not offer it, ask for a deck from a short outline that you paste in from your Word headings.

Copilot may ask clarifying questions about audience and style, and Microsoft's page says you can answer or skip them. It then shows an outline first. Read the outline, adjust it, and tell Copilot to generate the slides when it matches your document.

4. Check every slide against the Word document

Open the Word update next to the deck. For each slide, find the sentence in the Word document that supports it. Delete any bullet, number, statistic, case reference or recommendation that is not in your document. Copilot can add generic material, and a board deck must not carry statements you did not write. Check that you kept every qualifier from the original, such as "we expect" or "outside counsel has not yet advised".

5. Tighten and finish

Ask Copilot for edits through the chat, such as "Shorten slide 4 to three bullets without changing meaning". Then re-check that slide. Remove speaker notes you do not want circulated. Microsoft's page notes that slides with AI-generated images carry an "AI-generated" source note in the speaker notes, so check them before you send the file.

Real Example

Scenario: The general counsel asks for a ten-minute legal update for the next board meeting.

What you do: Your Word document has four Heading 1 sections: Litigation Watch, Regulatory Development, Policy Changes, and Decisions Needed. You build the deck from it, and Copilot proposes an outline with a title slide and one to two slides per section.

What you get: On review, one slide has a bullet about "industry-wide enforcement trends" that appears nowhere in your document. You delete it. Another slide drops your qualifier that the risk assessment is preliminary. You restore it.

Tips

• Put the decision you need from the board in its own Heading 1 so it gets its own slide.
• Keep a short document. A long one gives Copilot more room to summarize unevenly.
• Version the pair together. If you change the Word document, rebuild or update the deck.

Tool interfaces change. If a button has moved, look for the Copilot icon or similar AI options near the slide area.