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How to Get Copilot in PowerPoint to Follow Your Brand
No premium brand tools? Here’s the workaround I use to get Copilot to create PowerPoint presentations with my colours, fonts, and presentation style.
Copilot can create a PowerPoint presentation in seconds.
Getting it to create one that actually looks like it belongs in your organisation?
That’s another story.
I’ve spent a lot of time experimenting with Microsoft Copilot in PowerPoint, and Microsoft still isn't giving corporate users what they need.
So, how do you get Copilot to consistently create presentations using your brand?
Copilot in PowerPoint has come a long way. But if you're frustrated that when you ask it to create a presentation, you end up with generic-looking slides, you're not alone.
I feel you pain, and rest assured, myself and the other PowerPoint MVPs are fighting the battle for you..
Why does Copilot create generic PowerPoint slides?
Without enough information about how you want a presentation to look, Copilot makes design decisions for you.
The result might be perfectly usable, but generic.
The good news is that you can give Copilot much better instructions.
And Microsoft’s latest guidance backs this up.
Microsoft says that Copilot primarily learns from the sample slides in your template, and then uses your template structure and layouts to understand how your organisation communicates visually. [support.mi...rosoft.com] This information helps us to provide the right guidance.
The quick way to improve Copilot PowerPoint branding
If you just need something quickly, start simple.
Give Copilot your corporate colour palette and tell it which font you want it to use.
Just snip your colour scheme and paste a screenshot of the corporate colour swatch into the Copilot conversation. You'll get a better result immediately. improved the result considerably.
It's not the most sophisticated solution, but when you're pushed for time, sometimes good enough is good enough.
And if you don't create presentations often, that's enough. The problem arises when you want to take one of those slides and drop it in another pack. It needs your theme!
Giving Copilot your PowerPoint theme
Got a little more time?
Create an empty PowerPoint presentation with your organisation's theme attached and give that presentation to Copilot.
That gives Copilot much more information about how the presentation should look.
But there's an important distinction here.
A professional PowerPoint presentation isn't simply a collection of slides that happen to use the right colours.
Your presentation should use:
theme heading fonts
theme body fonts
colours from the theme palette
consistent line styles
consistent shape styles
consistent transparency
consistent positioning and alignment
That's particularly important if you regularly reuse slides across presentations.
If a presentation has been built properly using its theme, it's much easier to reuse those slides and have them inherit the branding of another presentation.
That's where things get interesting.
Teach Copilot what a great presentation looks like
Instead of simply telling Copilot:
Create me a PowerPoint presentation.
Give it an example of what good looks like.
Build a small presentation containing some of your best slides.
Take your time with this bit. Your example presentation should demonstrate the design language you want Copilot to reproduce.
Think about questions such as:
What size are your headings?
Do you use sentence case or capital letters?
Are your headings bold?
Are titles left-aligned or centred?
Do your shapes have rounded or square corners?
How thick are your lines?
Do you use transparency?
What does one of your tables look like?
What kinds of images do you generally use?
These details matter.
And Microsoft now specifically recommends optimising templates using sample slides. Microsoft says sample slides help Copilot understand things such as content density, visual hierarchy, layout structure and the relationships between objects. [support.mi...rosoft.com]
So don't just build a template.
Show Copilot what a finished presentation should look like.
Now create a PowerPoint skill for Copilot
This is where I took the experiment further.
Once I'd created a presentation demonstrating exactly how I wanted my slides to look, I asked Copilot to investigate it and create a reusable skills file describing those rules. That's right! Copilot creates the skill file - but you have to give it the information.
Copilot analysed my example and turned those decisions into documented presentation rules called a skill or .md file. You can also put it all in a Word document - but using a skill file .md gives Copilot more of a heads up that its full of instructions it must follow.
My resulting instructions included details such as:
use the theme heading and body fonts
use the theme accent colours
define line styles
define alignment
capture heading positions
record preferred text case
specify transparency
describe the intended audience and purpose of the presentation.
This isn't just about colours and fonts either.
My instructions include things such as tone, audience and the purpose of the presentation, so Copilot has more context about the type of content it is creating.
Review your Copilot skill carefully
Don't assume Copilot has interpreted everything correctly.
Read the file.
If something isn't right, change it.
This is really important because you are creating a reusable definition of what good looks like.
And the document doesn't need to remain static.
As your presentation standards change, update the instructions. - just issue the instruction to update the skills file.
How do you use the skill with Copilot?
When you're ready to create a new presentation, give Copilot the skills file alongside your request and explicitly tell it to follow those instructions.
That gives Copilot three useful pieces of information:
What you want to say.
Who you want to say it to.
What you want the resulting presentation to look like.
I tried to be clever and embed this in memory and custom instructions, but it didn't work.
Microsoft has taken this concept further in its newer Brand Kit functionality. Microsoft now supports sharing skills through a Brand Kit for use with Copilot in PowerPoint.
So this idea of combining brand + examples + explicit instructions is increasingly becoming part of how Copilot and PowerPoint work together. - however, it's only in the Premium licence and i know most corporate users only have basic.
So, did it work?
Well...
Not immediately.
The first time I tried it, Copilot didn't follow the skills document properly.
I reminded it.
Still not right.
Eventually, I had to upload the skill directly and amend the instructions several times before I got the result I wanted. I needed to remind it to use heading and body theme fonts. I had to tell it not to hard-code the colours, they should be accent colours from the swatch. But we got there!
And that's probably the biggest lesson from all my experimentation with Copilot:
Don't expect perfect results from your first prompt
Copilot is a tool you work with.
If something isn't right, show it what's wrong.
Take a screenshot. Paste it into the chat
Explain the problem.
Update your instructions.
Try again.
That iterative approach is how I eventually got from generic Copilot slides to something much closer to the presentation standard I wanted.
One thing I still watch very carefully
Even once I had the process working, I found Copilot would often revert to hard-coded colours and fonts instead of consistently using the PowerPoint theme.
For me, that difference matters because I need to repurpose for different brands without manually recolouring every slide - that may not be so important for other users and they can let it slip.
What about Microsoft Brand Kits?
Microsoft is developing much stronger native branding capabilities for Copilot.
Current Microsoft documentation says a Brand Kit can store elements including logos, templates, fonts and colours, and brand managers can control how Copilot uses branded PowerPoint templates. [support.mi...rosoft.com]
Microsoft also provides a strict brand adherence setting that can restrict Copilot to approved templates and Slide Master layouts. [support.mi...rosoft.com]
That's a significant step forward.
But organisations won't all have exactly the same Microsoft 365 licensing, configuration or access to these capabilities.
So understanding how themes, templates, examples and instructions influence Copilot is still incredibly useful.
My biggest tip for creating branded PowerPoints with Copilot
Don't spend all your time trying to write the perfect prompt.
Spend some of that time creating the perfect example.
Show Copilot:
what a great title slide looks like
what a great content slide looks like
how you use colour
how you use typography
how you display data
how you structure information
what you never want it to do
Then capture those decisions as reusable instructions.
You do the hard work once.
Then let Copilot do more of the heavy lifting.
And yes, you might want a glass of wine handy while you're getting it working. 🍷
But when it finally produces a presentation that actually looks like your presentation?
Worth it.
Frequently asked questions
Can Copilot create branded PowerPoint presentations?
Yes. Microsoft says Copilot can use PowerPoint templates and Brand Kit assets when generating and editing slides. Sample slides are particularly important because Microsoft says Copilot primarily uses them to understand how an organisation communicates visually. [support.mi...rosoft.com], [support.mi...rosoft.com]
How do I get Copilot to use my PowerPoint template?
Give Copilot a well-structured template containing representative sample slides. Microsoft says sample slides are the primary source Copilot uses, followed by template structure and layouts. [support.mi...rosoft.com]
Why doesn't my Copilot PowerPoint match my brand?
Microsoft says that without sufficient information in the template, Copilot may generate generic layouts, minimal formatting or slides that don't match the intended brand. [support.mi...rosoft.com]
What is a Copilot skill for PowerPoint?
Microsoft currently supports custom skills and allows brand managers to share skills through a Brand Kit for Copilot in PowerPoint. [support.mi...rosoft.com]
Does Copilot use the PowerPoint Slide Master?
Yes, but it isn't the only source. Microsoft says Copilot primarily uses sample slides and secondarily uses template structure and layouts. If there aren't enough sample slides, Copilot can fall back to the Slide Master. [support.mi...rosoft.com]
👉 Learn more about our Microsoft Copilot Training for Teams:Microsoft Copilot Training
Who is Sharon Connolly?
Sharon Connolly is a six-time Microsoft MVP, international speaker, trainer, and change leadership specialist who helps organisations embrace AI, improve productivity, and successfully adopt new ways of working. Sharon delivers Microsoft Copilot training, keynote presentations, change leadership programmes, and workplace productivity workshops, helping teams build confidence and capability in an increasingly AI-powered world.
👉 Find out more about Sharon Connolly:https://www.changesuperhero.com.au/about
What is Change Superhero?
Change Superhero provides practical training, resources, templates, keynote presentations, and capability-building programmes designed to help organisations navigate change successfully. From Microsoft Copilot and AI skills training to change leadership, workplace productivity, and change management resources, Change Superhero helps individuals and teams build the knowledge and confidence needed to thrive in the modern workplace.
👉 Explore Change Superhero:https://www.changesuperhero.com.au
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