Can AI build my next pitch deck?

One tool launched today that could save you an afternoon on your next sales pitch or client proposal. The rest of the week's AI news was lab research — which makes this a good week to get more from what you already pay for.

Can AI build my next pitch deck?

Anthropic launched Claude Design this weekend. You describe what you want in plain English — "a three-page proposal for a dental practice, cream background, our logo top left, sections for scope, timeline and price" — and it builds the first draft. You tweak it by leaving comments the way you'd mark up a Word doc.

It's included free on any paid Claude plan (Pro starts around £17 a month), so if anyone at your firm is already subscribed, it's there now. No new login, no training, no separate bill.

Where it saves real time: proposal decks, client one-pagers, capability statements for tenders, price list updates, a flyer for a seasonal offer, a handout for a trade show. The sort of job you'd normally pay a freelancer £200-£500 to turn around in a week.

Where it won't help yet: your brand identity, anything longer than a few pages, or work where editorial judgement matters. It's in "research preview" — rough edges expected.

What to do this week: if you have a proposal or pitch due, open Claude, pick Design, and try it on that. If you've been paying a designer for quick-turn flyers, brief one next to a freelancer quote and compare.

One caution before staff start using it. If you handle client data, check two things: whether your Claude subscription is a personal Pro account or a business Team plan (only Team and Enterprise come with the data processing agreement your GDPR register needs), and write a one-pager for staff telling them what they must not paste into it — client financials, contracts, anyone's personal details. Do that before the first pitch goes in.

What if I already pay for ChatGPT and never use it?

This is the other thing worth an hour this week. Most businesses of 5-50 people are paying £20-£30 a head per month for ChatGPT, Microsoft Copilot or Google Gemini seats that barely get touched. Two practical moves:

Audit your admin console. Log in, look at actual usage per seat. If someone hasn't opened the tool in 60 days, cancel their seat. That's £240+ a year back per dormant user.

Train the staff who do use it. One hour, one task. Pick something your team currently outsources or dreads — a job advert, a client follow-up sequence, a quarterly client summary, a training handbook, social posts for the month. Get whoever uses AI the most to draft it live, then share the prompt with the team. The gap between "I use it for emails" and "I use it for the work I hate" is one session.

The quiet risk if you don't: staff who want to use AI drift onto personal accounts where you have no record of what went in. If a client ever asks you what you did with their data, that's a problem.

Quick hits

• HMRC republished five customs declaration guidance pages. If you import or export, your freight agent handles this — nothing for you to action unless they flag it.
• Cursor (a developer tool) doubled free usage this weekend. Skip unless your business writes software.

Bottom line

One new tool worth trying if you do pitches or flyers, and one afternoon well spent cleaning up what you already pay for — which is probably the better use of the hour.

That's today's briefing. Subscribe free to get this in your inbox every morning.