AI presentations with citations: why sources matter.
AI writing tools produce fluent slides quickly, and they can also produce a statistic, customer name or quote that sounds right and isn’t. In a sales deck, that becomes a promise in writing. Citations, meaning a link from each claim to the source it rests on, are how a team uses AI and still sends only what it can stand behind.
Why do AI tools make things up?
General AI models write the most likely next words based on their training. When asked for a figure they don’t have, they can produce a plausible one. Without a link to a source, a reader cannot tell a real number from an invented one.
How do you check an AI-made slide before a customer sees it?
Find every number
Each figure, percentage and date on the slide.
Trace each one
To a document your company has approved: a page you can name.
Check names and quotes
Customers, partners and people quoted must be real, and allowed to be named.
Remove what has no source
Or replace it with something that does.
Keep the trail
So a colleague, or compliance, can check it later.
What should an AI presentation tool do instead?
- Build from your material, not only from its training data.
- Link each sentence to its source, at the level of a file and page.
- Refuse to fill gaps: flag what it cannot support instead of writing it in.
- Keep your edits, and mark a source out of date when you change the words.
That is how Coadie’s source-traced decks work.
Questions about AI and sources.
Can AI make presentations with sources?
Yes, if the tool builds from documents you give it and records which document each sentence came from. General chat tools don’t do this by default.
Why do sources matter in a sales deck?
Because a customer can quote any claim back in a negotiation or contract. A sourced claim can be defended; an invented one cannot.
See it on your own material.
Bring a handful of your decks. We’ll set up your workspace and build a first deck from them, with every line traced.