OpenAI Acquires NextSlide Team to Bring AI-Powered Presentations to ChatGPT

OpenAI is bringing the team behind presentation startup NextSlide into the company, as it looks to expand ChatGPT's capabilities around creating and communicating ideas.

Ahmed Beshry, founder of NextSlide, announced the move, saying the entire NextSlide team is now joining OpenAI to help build ChatGPT. Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed.

Founded just over a year ago, NextSlide built an AI-powered presentation tool designed to turn prompts, notes, documents and research into polished, editable slide decks. The startup's pitch was that creating effective presentations should not require extensive design skills or hours of manual work.

"We wanted to make visual communication more accessible and help more people express their ideas clearly," Beshry said in the announcement.

The move gives OpenAI a team that has been focused specifically on AI-assisted visual communication and presentation creation.

While Beshry did not disclose what the team will build at OpenAI, its experience could potentially support new presentation and document creation capabilities inside ChatGPT.

NextSlide's shutdown also reflects a growing consolidation in the AI startup ecosystem, as established AI companies increasingly absorb smaller teams that have built specialised products on top of rapidly advancing foundation models.

For NextSlide, Beshry said the company's original mission will continue at OpenAI. The team will work on products intended to help people "create, communicate, and turn their ideas into meaningful work."

Earlier this year, OpenAI acquired tech-focused media platform TBPN, to strengthen how the company communicates and engages with the broader AI ecosystem.

It also announced plans to acquire Promptfoo, a startup focused on testing and securing artificial intelligence systems, as the company moves to strengthen safety and evaluation tools for enterprise AI agents.