Public speaking in the age of AI feels a bit like sharing the stage with a brilliant—but occasionally unpredictable—co-presenter.

Below are three areas to consider concerning how AI can enhance your public speaking:

Human Presence vs. Machine Precision

Audiences now expect clean visuals, clear data, and smooth delivery because AI tools make them easy to achieve.

What they can’t get from AI is emotional resonance, lived experience, or the odd, charming imperfection that makes a speaker feel real.

The human connection between a speaker and their audience is key to conveying the maximum information and to influencing the audience to implement it.

The best STEM presenters lean into storytelling, metaphor, and authenticity—elements no algorithm can fully mimic.

The key to using AI to enrich your public speaking is to use AI to offload the tedious parts of preparing a presentation (e.g., preparing slides, working out timing, etc.) so you can concentrate on what only you can do as a human (e.g., developing a relationship with your audience, answering questions in an empathetic style, etc.).

You bring humanness to your presentations. Your facial expressions, body language, and vocal variety bring meaning to what you say and are what keep your audience enthralled or put them to sleep.

AI can certainly shorten your presentation preparation time, but it cannot tell a relevant story, react to your audience, or use pauses in your delivery for emphasis. Only you can do these.

One area that matters concerning public speaking in the age of AI is human presence vs. machine learning.

Another is AI-enhanced preparation and feedback loops

AI-Enhanced Preparation and Feedback Loops

Your presentation preparation is greatly enhanced by an AI tool called Gamma.

Gamma can literally create slides from an outline. Gamma lets you enter a prompt or upload content (text, URLs, or docs), and the system automatically generates a structured presentation, document, or webpage.

Gamma won’t help you with clear data (garbage in, garbage out) or a smooth delivery, but it will reduce the time it takes to draft your slides.

Tools like Yoodli, Orai, and virtual rehearsal platforms can track filler words, pacing, gesture frequency, and even eye-contact zones.

Yoodli is an AI-driven speech coach that lets you practice presentations, pitches, or interviews and then gives you real-time and post-session feedback on areas like filler words, pacing, sentence structure, and even eye contact.

Orai is a mobile-first public speaking app that uses AI to analyze your recorded speech and generate metrics on pace, energy, filler words, clarity, and conciseness. Then it guides you with micro-lessons and progress tracking.

Virtual rehearsal tools include Speeko, Microsoft PowerPoint Speaker Coach, and Read AI coach, which help you deliver your presentation effectively.

Speeko is an AI-driven speech-coach app (iOS + Mac, Android coming) that analyzes your vocal delivery (pace, clarity, filler words, confidence) and provides coaching modules.

Microsoft PowerPoint Speaker Coach (within Microsoft PowerPoint) is built into PowerPoint (for Microsoft 365) — you rehearse your slide show, and it gives feedback on pacing, pitch, filler words, informal language, reading aloud from slides, and more.

While not purely “public speaking in front of a crowd,” Read AI (meeting/conversation tool) provides real-time meeting analytics (voice metrics, engagement signals, speaking time, etc.).

These create a data-driven coaching cycle that used to require a whole Toastmasters club.

Technical presenters gain speed: faster draft creation, smarter slide generation, and rehearsal analytics that actually “move the needle.”

Two areas that matter concerning public speaking in the age of AI are human presence vs. machine learning and AI-enhanced preparation and feedback loops.

A third area is ethical communication and trust in an AI-saturated world.

Ethical Communication and Trust in an AI-Saturated World

The moment AI enters your workflow—whether for drafting slides or analyzing questions—audiences quietly wonder, “How much of this is you?”

Remember, the audience comes to see you speak. They expect the majority of what you say is coming from you, not AI.

You must attribute what you say to the source. Disclosing information from other sources as your own is unethical.

Clear disclosure, careful fact-checking, and explicit ownership of your message help maintain trust.

Remember also that AI is not fallible. AI does “troll” the Internet for information, but it does not vouch for that information.

You should corroborate the information you deliver during presentation preparation with at least three (3) reputable sources that agree with it.

In an era of deepfakes and hallucinated citations, credibility becomes a speaker’s most defensible asset.

Three areas that matter concerning public speaking in the age of AI are (1) human presence vs. machine learning, (2) AI-enhanced preparation and feedback loops, and (3) ethical communication and trust in an AI-saturated world.

AI will affect all our lives in the future.

The question is, will you “be on board” the AI train or will you be “left at the station?”

Call to Action

• Let AI free you from the mundane tasks of presentation preparation (e.g., creating slides, determining timing, etc.) to perform those functions only you can perform (e.g., developing a relationship with your audience, answering questions in an empathetic style, etc.)

• Use AI tools like Gamma, Yoodli, and Orai to perfect your presentation slides and delivery

• Ensure you attribute what you say to the source. Disclosing information from other sources as your own is unethical.

References

• Cialdini, R. Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion (on trust and credibility)

• Duarte, N. Resonate (on human connection in presentations)

• Carnegie Mellon University, Human-AI Interaction Research Group (studies on trust and transparency in AI-mediated communication)

• MIT Sloan Management Review (2023). “How AI Is Changing Communication Skills.”

• Yoodli AI Coaching Whitepaper (2024). “AI-Assisted Speaking Feedback and Performance Metrics.”

Being a confident, engaging, and effective STEM speaker is a vital personal and professional asset. With more than 40 years of engineering experience and more than 30 years of award-winning public speaking experience, I can help you reduce your presentation preparatory time by 50%, overcome your fear of public speaking and be completely at ease, deliver your presentations effectively, develop your personal presence with your audience; and apply an innovative way to handle audience questions deftly.

Working closely with you, I provide a customized protocol employing the critical skills and tools you need to create, practice, and deliver excellent STEM speeches and presentations. Let’s connect and explore how I can help you become the exceptional speaker you were meant to be. Please reach out to me at frank@speakleadandsucceed.com or 703-509-4424 for a complimentary consultation. Schedule a meeting with me at calendly.com/frankdibartolomeospeaks