Not just another deck: how MBZUAI’s okkslides is redefining executive communication

No more “death by PowerPoint.” Thanks to a student-led startup from MBZUAI, the era of overloaded, messy decks, and late-night rewrites may finally be over. 

Born inside the University’s Incubation and Entrepreneurship Center (IEC), okkslides is reimagining the humble presentation as something smarter, sharper, and much more human. Far from being another slide generator, its founder and chief executive officer, Lan Wei, calls the platform and “AI-native presentation coworker” – working alongside professionals to transform messy inputs into executive-grade narratives that actually drive decisions. 

Wei studied computer science and literature at Brown University and is now a first year Ph.D. candidate in the Computer Science department at MBZUAI, where she focuses on multi-agent systems and preference alignment. Her co-founder, Steve Liu, is a professor at MBZUAI and a globally recognized AI researcher and educator. No stranger to research-to-market success stories, he previously served as Vice President of Research and Development and Chief Scientist at Samsung AI Center, and as Chief Scientist at Tinder. 

Together, they are tackling the surprisingly persistent challenge of transforming scattered research, notes, data, and legacy decks from multiple sources into rounded, finished presentations with clear messaging for the executives in the room.  

“okkslides is an AI-native presentation coworker built for professional and enterprise use,” says Wei. “Instead of generating slides from prompts, it works alongside users to structure thinking, synthesize research, and iteratively refine content into executive-grade presentations. It solves a core gap in knowledge work: turning messy context – documents, notes, data, and previous decks – into clear, decision-ready narratives without losing organizational logic, tone, or intent.”

Seeing beyond slide generation 

Wei traces the idea for okkslides back to a common assumption about large language models (LLMs) and white-collar work. 

“People often say white-collar work will be the first to be replaced by LLMs, but we see a different reality,” she says. “Organizational wisdom, decision-making, and contextual understanding remain far from solved in current AI tools.” 

Many existing tools can produce slides from a prompt. Few understand how organizations actually think, decide and communicate. This is the difference of okkslides – it augments such human reasoning using AI. 

“Most systems can generate slides, but they can’t capture the nuance of brand, tone, or professional taste, or support the iterative, human-led back-and-forth that real teams need,” says Wei. “okkslides was built to bridge that gap, enabling full human control while helping professionals create on-brand, context-aware presentations that reflect how organizations actually think and decide.” 

As an MBZUAI Ph.D. student, Wei turned naturally to the University’s IEC for support. The center provided mentorship, strategic feedback, and a sounding board as she refined the product vision and enterprise go-to-market strategy. The result is a research-driven startup shaped by both technical depth and market discipline. 

An AI-native coworker, not a command tool 

At its core, okkslides positions itself differently from traditional slide software. 

“It is human-in-the-loop by design,” Wei explains. “Users can edit, interrupt, and redirect at any point, while the system maintains state, intent, and consistency – more like collaborating with a colleague than issuing commands to a tool.” 

The platform ingests documents, notes, and prior decks, extracts structure and intent, and iteratively organizes them into narratives, layouts, and visuals suitable for executive audiences. Behind the scenes, it combines multi-agent coordination, preference alignment, and quality-first reinforcement to optimize for accuracy, clarity, and strategic usefulness. 

For enterprises, that means teams can transform scattered reports, meeting notes, and research into context-aware presentations that support proposals, decision-making, and reporting, while staying aligned with brand and tone. 

Competing in a crowded landscape 

The AI presentation space is increasingly crowded, from office-native tools to fast-design platforms and prompt-based startups. Wei has tested them all. 

Microsoft Copilot for PowerPoint, and Google Gemini and Nano Banana for Slides benefit from built-in distribution and enterprise reach. Canva and Beautiful.ai focus on templates and visual speed. Startups such as Gamma, Pitch, and Plus AI emphasize rapid generation and layout intelligence. 

okkslides, however, draws a clear line.  It does not compete on whether slides can be generated. This is a given. It competes on how well content outputs align with organizational thinking, preferences, and iterative decision-making. 

Wei says its differentiation centers on: consulting-style; human-in-the-loop workflows; multi-agent depth instead of single-prompt generation; preference learning that compounds over time; and fully editable, true PowerPoint-native editable outputs designed for sharing. 

Wei also sees a broader strategic opportunity. By anchoring on presentations – where strategy and decisions crystallize – okkslides establishes an entry point to expand into what she describes as “a broader executive AI workspace, deeply embedded in enterprise workflows.” 

From pilots to paying users 

Market response so far has been encouraging. okkslides already has paying users across the United States, Europe, the Middle East, and Asia, with strong repeat usage. Enterprise pilots are underway with regional companies and global organizations. 

The product is publicly available at okkslides.com via a monthly subscription or one-time credits-based purchase, with major upgrades scheduled in the coming weeks.

During the next 12 to 24 months, the team plans to scale enterprise adoption, grow its professional user base, deepen integrations into organizational workflows, and expand beyond presentations into a broader executive AI workspace. 

Love it or hate it, PowerPoint is not going away 

Few workplace tools inspire stronger feelings than PowerPoint. Some predict its demise. Wei disagrees. 

“Some say PowerPoint will disappear as organizations evolve – either because future teams will be entirely human-driven, or because slides will give way to documents, cards, or web pages. We see it differently,” she says. “Future organizations will still be human-in-the-loop, and PowerPoint will remain both a hub for decision-making and a node for human intervention. The effectiveness of visual, page-paced communication will only grow in importance. 

“We don’t confine PowerPoint to the Microsoft office product; we see it as the most natural, visual-centric format for human comprehension. And for those who already love PowerPoint, okkslides simply makes it work the way professionals think – with all the clarity, speed, and control they expect.” 

Built inside a research-driven ecosystem 

Wei credits MBZUAI and the Abu Dhabi AI ecosystem for helping bridge research and product. 

“The ecosystem provides access to Silicon Valley-level resources and operates with an enterprise-like structure, making it an ideal environment for incubation,” she says. “It allows us to combine deep research with product development without losing go-to-market focus, and it sets a strong example in how to communicate and market innovation effectively.” 

From multi-agent systems research to executive boardrooms, okkslides reflects MBZUAI’s broader mission: translating advanced AI into practical tools that shape how organizations and industries work. 

And if it also means fewer slide deck revisions and less manual inputting, that may be one startup outcome everyone can get behind.