Artificial intelligence has entered British education with remarkable speed. For many teachers and lecturers, ChatGPT has moved from being a curious novelty to a dependable tool—one capable of generating explanations, lesson plans, text summaries and, increasingly, entire presentations. Its ability to produce cleanly structured, visually coherent teaching slides within minutes has made it particularly attractive to educators who are stretched thin by growing workloads.
Yet despite the rapid adoption, public understanding remains uneven. Some imagine AI-generated teaching materials as cold, robotic or intellectually shallow; others fear a future in which teachers are replaced by automated lesson-making systems. As someone who serves on an academic committee and works closely with schools and universities across the United Kingdom, I see a more complex and ultimately more hopeful picture emerging.
This article examines how ChatGPT can be responsibly used to create teaching presentations, what advantages it offers, what risks must be navigated, and why—if used wisely—it could enhance rather than diminish the craft of teaching. The aim is to offer clarity for British readers who may have heard the hype but have not yet seen how the technology works in practice. I will draw on examples from UK classrooms, insights from teachers, and the broader educational context in which AI is reshaping pedagogy.
For educators, one of the most time-consuming tasks is the creation of teaching slides. Whether in a Key Stage 3 maths class, an A-level history seminar or a university engineering lecture, the process usually involves hours spent gathering content, organizing explanations, designing layouts and selecting images or diagrams.
ChatGPT accelerates this process dramatically. When asked to generate a teaching presentation, it follows a predictable structure:
Breaks content into logical sections
Usually including learning objectives, context, key explanations, examples and concluding summaries.
Proposes narrative flow
Ensuring each slide introduces a single concept and transitions smoothly to the next.
Offers visuals and design suggestions
While the AI cannot insert ready-made images directly into PowerPoint, it can describe what type of visual or diagram would strengthen understanding.
Adjusts for audience level
A GCSE slide deck and a master’s-level presentation will differ significantly; ChatGPT is capable of adjusting register, pacing and vocabulary accordingly.
Incorporates accessibility standards
When prompted, it can make slides friendlier for dyslexic students, low-vision readers and English-as-an-additional-language learners—an area where UK institutions have become increasingly attentive.
Consider a typical prompt used by teachers:
“Create a 12-slide teaching presentation on photosynthesis for Year 8 students, including diagrams, definitions, comprehension questions and a five-minute plenary activity.”
Within seconds, ChatGPT produces an outline that would otherwise take a teacher 45 minutes to map out. This is not merely a time-saving trick; it allows educators to focus more deeply on tailoring explanations, adding anecdotes, designing assessments or preparing for classroom discussion.
In effect, ChatGPT does not replace the teacher; it replaces the busywork surrounding the teacher.
Across the UK, surveys consistently show teachers face extraordinary workloads. According to multiple reports over the past years, teachers work an average of 50–60 hours per week, with administrative and planning duties consuming the largest share of time outside teaching hours. Creating presentations—especially in subjects requiring frequent updates, such as computing, economics or science—can become a Sisyphean task.
ChatGPT offers relief. It enables teachers to build high-quality slides for a brand-new lesson in a fraction of the usual time. For early-career teachers, this is transformative: instead of reinventing the wheel for each lesson, AI can provide a robust starting point.
UK schools and universities pursue consistency across departments—ensuring that students in different classes receive comparable quality. ChatGPT can support this by providing a baseline structure for presentations, aligning vocabulary, explanations and topics.
Of course, human oversight is essential. But the AI provides a template that departments can adopt, modify and adapt.
Some teachers are brilliant communicators but not natural graphic designers. ChatGPT bridges this gap by recommending stylistic conventions—font hierarchy, colour usage, spacing and slide composition—that produce cleaner, more readable presentations. When combined with tools such as PowerPoint Designer or Google Slides’ layout suggestions, the output becomes truly polished.
One of the strongest arguments for AI-assisted slide creation is its adaptability. UK classrooms are among the most diverse in Europe, and differentiation is a constant challenge. ChatGPT can generate:
simplified or extended versions of slides
vocabulary support for bilingual learners
more visual explanations for autistic students
additional scaffolding for lower-attaining pupils
extension tasks for high achievers
A single teacher could not produce all these versions efficiently—but ChatGPT can.
The debate around AI in education often focuses on ethics and risk. While these are crucial, we must also examine what intellectual benefits AI can bring to the craft of teaching itself.
Many teachers report that ChatGPT improves the clarity of their explanations by proposing structured analogies, step-by-step reasoning and cleaner conceptual distinctions. The AI is particularly good at:
breaking down complex ideas
proposing alternative ways to phrase a concept
spotting definitions that may confuse learners
suggesting examples drawn from everyday life
This is especially powerful when teaching abstract topics such as genetics, constitutional law or macroeconomic policy.
When teachers compare their own slide drafts with AI-generated ones, it prompts reflection. Why has the AI ordered topics differently? Why has it given more emphasis to one example and less to another?
These comparisons spark pedagogical conversations in departments—conversations that might not have occurred otherwise.
By reducing the time spent on slide preparation, teachers have more time to:
engage students through Socratic dialogue
prepare hands-on activities
analyse student misconceptions
conduct assessments that require individual feedback
AI, if used strategically, strengthens the human part of teaching rather than diminishing it.
AI integration requires thoughtful safeguards. British educators cannot ignore the risks, especially given the UK’s emphasis on academic integrity and safeguarding.
If teachers rely too heavily on AI, their own pedagogical skills might stagnate. The remedy is simple: AI should be used for drafting, not decision-making. Every presentation must still undergo human review.
ChatGPT occasionally produces inaccuracies. Teachers must verify factual details—particularly in subjects like science, history and law, where precision matters. The best practice is to use AI for structure and explanation, and cross-check with authoritative sources.
A classroom presentation is not merely a set of slides; it is the expression of a teacher’s voice, rhythm and personality. Good educators infuse their materials with humour, stories, cultural references and lived experience.
AI is a baseline. The teacher makes it human.
Not all schools have equal access to AI tools. Wealthier institutions may adopt AI more quickly than under-resourced ones. Policymakers must ensure equitable access so that all pupils can benefit from raised teaching quality.
Teachers must avoid uploading sensitive student information into AI systems. Presentations should be generated without sharing personally identifiable data. UK guidance is already evolving on this issue, and institutions should provide clear rules.
A Year 5 teacher used ChatGPT to generate slides for a lesson on the water cycle. The AI produced diagrams, vocabulary definitions and interactive questions. The teacher modified the language to suit local pupils and added photos from a recent field trip. The result? Pupils reportedly found the lesson clearer and more engaging, and the teacher saved nearly two hours of preparation time.
An English teacher preparing a unit on Shakespeare asked ChatGPT to outline 15 slides introducing Macbeth. The AI provided structured learning objectives, character maps and historical context. The teacher refined the themes to align with GCSE assessment objectives. Colleagues later adopted the slides for their own classes, creating department-wide consistency.
A lecturer redesigned a third-year economics lecture using ChatGPT. The AI proposed visual metaphors for supply-and-demand shifts, which the lecturer transformed into interactive clicker questions. Students reported greater clarity, and the lecturer found she could dedicate more time to students struggling with mathematical modelling.
The more specific the prompt, the better the result. Include:
audience (e.g., “Year 9 biology students”)
number of slides
tone (formal, friendly, academic)
required visuals
examples or case studies
accessibility needs
Ask ChatGPT for two or three variants. Choose the best elements from each.
Insert your own explanations, jokes, stories, cultural notes and questions tailored to your students.
Check dates, definitions, scientific claims and historical events. AI is a tool, not a referee.
Create differentiated versions for SEN learners, EAL students and high achievers.
This builds digital literacy and teaches learners to evaluate information critically—an essential skill for the future.
AI-generated teaching materials will soon be as normal as digital whiteboards or document cameras. In the coming years:
ChatGPT will integrate directly with PowerPoint and Google Slides.
AI will automatically generate differentiated versions of lessons.
Teachers will be able to upload their past slide decks to train personalised AI teaching assistants.
Departments will create centralised, AI-supported curriculum libraries.
AI will help assess student understanding and suggest revisions to teaching materials.
Yet throughout these developments, the teacher remains at the centre. AI cannot manage behaviour, sense student frustration, respond to emerging misconceptions or offer pastoral support. What AI can do is extend the teacher’s reach—amplifying, not replacing, their expertise.
The question is not whether ChatGPT should create teaching presentations—it already does. The real question is how educators, policymakers and the public understand and guide this shift. Used recklessly, it could dilute quality. Used wisely, it can elevate it.
For Britain’s teachers, ChatGPT is less a threat than a relief. It frees time, strengthens clarity, broadens inclusion and—perhaps most importantly—allows educators to reclaim their professional energy for what matters most: the human relationship with students.
As long as teachers remain the authors of meaning, AI-generated slides are simply another tool—one that brings us closer to a more equitable, innovative and humane education system.
