How to Make a Pitch Deck for an AI Startup [Practical Guide]
- Ink Narrates | The Presentation Design Agency
- Jan 4
- 7 min read
Updated: Jun 25
When our client Erin asked us, “What actually makes investors pay attention to an AI startup pitch deck?”
Our Creative Director didn’t miss a beat. He replied, “Clarity, not complexity.”
As a presentation design agency, we work on dozens of AI startup pitch decks throughout the year. And if there’s one recurring challenge we’ve observed, it’s this: Founders often mistake technical depth for storytelling.
So, in this blog, we’re breaking down how to build a pitch deck that investors actually want to sit through, one that explains what you do without making anyone feel like they need a PhD to understand it.
In case you didn't know, we specialize in only one thing: making presentations. We can help you by designing your slides and writing your content too.
Why Most AI Startup Pitch Decks Don’t Land
You already know the AI space is crowded. Every week, investors are pitched by startups claiming they’ve built the next-gen LLM, a revolutionary predictive engine, or some never-before-seen computer vision breakthrough. The problem? Most decks sound like a research paper, not a business.
Here’s what we’ve seen up close: Even when the tech is brilliant, if the story is a mess, the pitch flops.
You’re not just selling your algorithm. You’re selling belief — in your team, in your market insight, in your ability to actually execute. And belief is built through clarity, structure and human connection, not by throwing jargon and metrics onto a slide.
Investors aren’t looking for the smartest person in the room. They’re looking for the most investable one.
So, if your pitch deck doesn’t show them the market opportunity, the traction, the team, and why now — without them having to work hard to “get it” — you’re already behind.
That’s why getting your pitch deck right isn’t optional. It’s survival.
How to Make a Pitch Deck for an AI Startup
We’re going to assume you already have an actual product, a founding team, and some understanding of your market. If that’s not in place, you don’t need a pitch deck — you need to go build. But if you’re here because you’re trying to land investor meetings or raise a round, then let’s walk through what your AI startup pitch deck actually needs to do.
Not theoretically. Practically. Because here’s the truth most people don’t hear: your deck is not about you. It’s about what the investor needs to see to say yes.
1. Start with the Problem — But Keep It Human
Founders often open with a technical architecture or the headline feature. That’s a fast way to lose the room.
Instead, start by clearly stating the problem. But don’t describe it like a thesis abstract. Say it like a human would.
Bad example: "We leverage multimodal learning models to address multi-vertical data fragmentation.”
Better: "Healthcare providers waste hours each week entering and re-entering the same data across systems. It’s slow, error-prone, and costs billions annually.”
See the difference? The second one is grounded in real-world pain. It doesn’t require the investor to decode anything. And it gives you a clean runway to introduce your AI solution as the obvious next step.
A good problem slide does two things: it frames the stakes and tees up your solution. That’s it. Don’t overcomplicate it.
2. The Solution Slide Isn’t About Features
When we design pitch decks, this is where founders tend to go wild with technical diagrams. They want to show the neural network layers, the training dataset size, the edge deployment specs. We get the impulse. You’ve built something complex and powerful. But here’s the hard truth: most investors won’t care — not at this stage.
What they want to know is:
What does your product do?
Who is it for?
What changes when someone starts using it?
If you can’t explain that without getting into the weeds, you don’t have a solution slide. You have a science experiment. That’s not what closes funding rounds.
This slide should be focused on impact, not internals. Think headlines, not documentation.
3. Traction Talks Louder Than Hype
If you have users, revenue, pilots, partnerships, a waitlist, literally anything that proves someone outside your team sees value in what you’ve built — show it here. Early traction is the most credible signal you can offer.
And please: no vanity metrics. 10,000 page views mean nothing if no one signed up. “100% growth” is empty unless you show what it grew from.
Put your traction in context.
For example: "Since launching our beta two months ago, we’ve onboarded 12 enterprise clients in healthcare, generating $72k in ARR.”
That sentence tells the investor more than 10 bullet points of marketing spin ever could. It says you’re building something real and people are paying for it.
If you don’t have traction yet, use this slide to show clear milestones you’ve hit — like a working prototype, letters of intent, or key hires. Make it obvious that progress is happening.
4. Show the Market Like You Understand It (Not Like You Googled It)
Here’s another common error: the infamous “$100B market” slide. Founders drop in a massive number from some McKinsey report and assume that’s impressive.
It’s not.
Investors don’t care about the total market size. They care about the slice you can actually reach — and why you’re positioned to reach it.
So, skip the inflated TAM slide. Instead, walk them through your realistic addressable market, the customer segments you’re targeting first, and how you’re reaching them. If you’re building an AI tool for legal teams in mid-sized US firms, then say that. Be specific. Show you’ve thought this through.
Smart investors want to back founders who understand the market, not just those who found a big number online.
5. Why You? Why Now?
AI is having a moment. Everyone’s raising. Everyone’s building. That doesn’t make you special.
This slide is where you convince investors that you are the right team to do this right now. Think of it like answering two unspoken questions:
Why hasn’t this already been done?
Why are you the ones to pull it off?
Your answer can be based on timing (a new capability that just became possible), a team advantage (deep experience in a narrow domain), or market shift (regulation, consumer behavior, platform change).
The key is to make it believable. Not grand. Not epic. Just grounded.
For example: "Our founding team built fraud detection models at Stripe and Coinbase. We saw the same gap in crypto compliance tooling across both companies — and we’re solving it.”
That’s the kind of “why now” that gets attention.
6. Make Your Business Model Simple
Yes, AI pricing models can be complex. Tokens, usage tiers, custom enterprise SLAs — we’ve seen it all.
But your deck is not your contract. It’s a first impression. So your business model slide needs to be stupidly simple.
Are you SaaS? Are you usage-based? What’s your average deal size? Who pays you and how often?
If you’re pre-revenue, describe how you plan to charge. Even a ballpark helps.
Avoid things like: "We’re exploring multiple monetization avenues.”
No. Pick one. Show that you’ve thought about it. You can always refine later. Right now, you’re pitching investability, not flexibility.
7. Don’t Just List Your Team — Prove Why They Matter
A bunch of LinkedIn headshots isn’t enough. You need to show why this group of people has the right mix of skills and experience to pull this off.
If your CTO spent six years building ML infrastructure at Nvidia, that’s relevant. If your Head of Growth scaled another AI startup to Series B, that’s worth highlighting.
This slide should feel like a team that should already exist — not one you slapped together last month.
And if you’re a solo founder, that’s okay. But you’ll need to address how you’re handling product, ops, fundraising, etc. Investors will wonder. It’s better to acknowledge it directly.
8. Competitive Landscape — And Don’t Fake It
The classic 2x2 grid is fine if you do it right. But most people don’t. They either make themselves look like the only serious player in the space (which is never true) or they list irrelevant companies to fill space.
Be honest. Who else is solving a similar problem? What do you do differently? And why does that difference matter to your customer?
Your goal isn’t to pretend there’s no competition. It’s to show that you understand where you fit in the market and how you plan to win.
Smart investors know there’s always competition. Pretending otherwise just makes you look naïve.
9. Your Ask Shouldn’t Be Vague
We’ve seen pitch decks that end with: "We’re currently raising.”
Raising what? From whom? For what?
Be specific. Investors want to know:
How much are you raising?
What stage is this round (pre-seed, seed, Series A)?
How will the funds be used (team, product, sales)?
What’s the runway you’re aiming for?
Example: "We’re raising $1.5M seed to grow the engineering team, launch our enterprise pilot, and extend runway to 18 months.”
Clear. Credible. Direct.
If you’re already in conversations, you can mention soft commitments. If you’ve raised before, include that too.
The more confident and clear you are, the more real you feel.
10. Design. Yes, It Matters.
Look, we’re a presentation design agency. Of course we care about design. But this isn’t about fonts or colors. It’s about readability and focus.
Investors go through dozens of decks every week. If yours looks like it was thrown together in a rush, it sends a signal — and not a good one.
Every slide should have one idea. One purpose. If we need to squint, scroll, or guess, it’s not working.
Your deck is your first product. It should feel like you put effort into it. Not perfection. Just intention.
Example of a Pitch Deck for an AI Startup
Take VoxMind, a London-based AI startup. We crafted both their pitch deck and sales deck. A solid example of how clear storytelling and clean design can turn complex tech into a compelling business case.
Why Hire Us to Build your Presentation?
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