Gamma Tech Inc., a maker of artificial intelligence-powered services for presentations, social media and websites, today introduced a rebuilt version of its platform designed to give presentations and other visual content more distinctive designs, while connecting the creation process to companies’ internal information and tools.

The release, Gamma 5, combines a redesigned editor, a more capable AI agent and an expanded library of visual styles. Gamma said it addresses complaints that AI-generated presentations are increasingly suffering from repetitive layouts, generic imagery and predictable design choices.

Gamma co-founder and Chief Product Officer Jon Noronha said the company has heard more complaints about sameness and what he called “AI smell” in presentations since early this year.

“They all have a distinctive tell,” he said. “There’s been more and more discussion by people saying they wish they could make AI-generated content where it’s not clear they made it with AI.”

Gamma has expanded its library to thousands of templates, such as the one pictured above, through a combination of human design and AI. The platform combines more than 20 AI models, including those from Anthropic PBC, OpenAI Group PBC and Google LLC, along with several image generators. The company selects models through internal evaluations and user experiments, measuring responses such as whether people edit and share their creations or become paying customers.

Much of the rebuild reflects improvements in AI models since Gamma gained traction in 2023, Noronha said. Earlier versions restricted users to a limited set of design components. The new editor gives them greater freedom to create layouts and individual elements.

“These agentic models have gotten much more capable,” he said. “Because of that, we can give them the full power to write custom code, draw shapes and arrange elements on a canvas. They do a really good job now.”

The agent operates in a sandbox where it can generate images, manipulate files, conduct web research and review its own output. Automated checks address problems such as text spilling off slides or images being cropped awkwardly.

Users can revise individual elements directly through a freeform editor. Before generating slides, they can work with the agent on an outline, refining the argument, intended audience and visual approach. AI can suggest ways to better tune a presentation to the audience’s interests.

Image orientation

For visuals, Gamma emphasizes illustrations over AI-generated photos. Noronha said illustrations can convey business and educational information effectively while avoiding the problems often associated with photorealistic images such as distorted anatomy, inconsistent lighting and implausible details.

The platform has around 20 connectors for bringing outside information into presentations. Supported sources include Salesforce Inc.’s Slack and transcription services such as Granola Inc.’s Granola, Fireflies.ai Corp.’s Fireflies and Fathom Video Inc.’s Fathom. Connectors applly users’ existing authorizations, and the agent can flag sensitive material for discussion, Noronha said.

Gamma also supports importing PowerPoint presentations, PDFs and other existing materials for editing. Noronha said an internal benchmark measuring the visual accuracy of imports has improved from roughly 30% early in development to over 97%.

Gamma 5 also retains brand preferences, custom instructions and workspace templates across projects. The company said that lets teams reuse design choices and company context as they develop new materials, helping maintain consistency across work.

Noronha said some users have reported that Gamma reduces the time needed to create presentations from between eight and 10 hours to about 30 minutes, largely due to reduced formatting. Less measurable but no less important is quality improvements that make presentations more relevant to intended audiences, he said.

Founded in 2020, Gamma has had about 110 million sign-ups for its free version. Noronha declined to specify active-user or subscriber counts. The company has raised $90 million in venture financing from investors that include Andreessen Horowitz LLC and Accel Partners LP.

Noronha said the company’s roadmap includes more graphic design and video generation, along with workflows that automatically update sales presentations when new customer information arrives through connected business applications.

Image: Gamma