The presentation software landscape is about to get a seismic shake-up. Chronicle, an AI-powered presentation platform that’s been quietly building in stealth mode, has emerged with 100,000 waitlisted users and a mission that feels both audacious and overdue: to completely reinvent how we create and deliver presentations.

The Broken Promise of PowerPoint

For decades, we’ve been stuck in a presentation purgatory. Microsoft PowerPoint dominates with a 19.51% market share. Unfortunately, however, most presentations still look like they were assembled by someone with the design sensibilities of a DMV pamphlet. The presentation software market is valued at $6.7 billion in 2025 and projected to reach $16.5 billion by 2032, yet we’re collectively burning through 55 billion hours annually crafting slides that, more often than not, fail to engage anyone.

Chronicle’s founders, CEO Mayuresh Patole and Tejas Gawande, aren’t just presentation enthusiasts—they’re self-proclaimed “presentation nerds” who’ve lived this pain firsthand. Patole spent years engineering creative hacks within PowerPoint, transforming standard slides into something unrecognizable while his classmates wondered what specialized software he was using. The irony? It was still PowerPoint underneath all those creative gymnastics.

The AI Revolution Meets Design Philosophy

What makes Chronicle different isn’t just that it uses AI—plenty of presentation tools now offer AI features. It’s how they’ve approached the fundamental problem. While most AI presentation tools generate generic content or slap intelligence onto existing slide-based paradigms, Chronicle has built what they call an “intelligent agent” that collaborates on messaging, design execution, and narrative flow.

Think of it as the difference between having an intern auto-generate bullet points versus having Steve Jobs personally design your presentation. Chronicle’s bet is that quality should be the primary focus, not just speed. They’ve built a free-form, real-time smart canvas—a technical achievement that took years but fundamentally changes how presentations are constructed.

The platform doesn’t just create slides; it creates interactive, media-rich widgets that function more like building an interactive webpage than assembling traditional slides. Each widget comes pre-engineered with world-class information design and motion built-in. It’s presentation software that thinks like a designer and moves like a developer.

The Attention Economy Challenge

Chronicle particularly shines when it comes to engagement. They’re not just solving the creation problem—they’re tackling the engagement crisis. Since 2000, attention spans have reportedly shrunk by 33%, with most audiences tuning out after just 50 seconds. Chronicle has responded with features like “Peek” and “Deep Hover,” giving presenters unprecedented control over audience focus.

This isn’t just about prettier slides. It’s about understanding that in our hyperconnected, notification-saturated world, holding attention is increasingly difficult. Chronicle’s approach feels like they’ve studied what makes TikTok addictive and applied those principles to business communication.

Market Timing and Validation

The timing couldn’t be more perfect. The latest presentation apps have made it easier than ever to format slides and create professional-looking slideshows, but most still feel incremental rather than revolutionary. Meanwhile, AI presentation startup Presentations.AI just raised $3 million and reached 1 million users in 84 days without spending a dollar on marketing, proving there’s massive pent-up demand for better presentation tools.

Chronicle’s 100,000-person waitlist, built entirely through word-of-mouth, suggests they’ve struck a similar nerve. When was the last time you heard of a productivity app generating that kind of organic demand? It’s the kind of grassroots excitement that typically indicates genuine product-market fit.

The Technical Innovation

What sets Chronicle apart technically is their decision to take “the hard route.” Most presentation tools limit layout freedom to keep things manageable, but Chronicle built a free-form canvas that doesn’t constrain creativity. This technical complexity—years in the making—is what enables the platform to feel less like software and more like having a professional designer and storyteller collaborating with you in real-time.

The founders describe their approach as “AI-augmented storytelling.” It’s not about AI taking over the presentation process; it’s about creating an intelligent partner that actively contributes to communication effectiveness. The AI handles research, distills insights, and ensures every element strengthens the narrative, while humans focus on the message and delivery.

Beyond the Hype Cycle

What’s refreshing about Chronicle is their resistance to the “one-click automation” trend that dominates much of the AI presentation space. They’re betting that the future isn’t about soulless slides churned out by algorithms, but thoughtful collaboration between human creativity and AI efficiency. It’s a more nuanced vision that acknowledges presentation design as both an art and a science.

Following their $7.5 million seed round led by Accel and Square Peg in 2023, Chronicle has been refining their product with select beta users. The consensus from early adopters is telling: they’re not just using Chronicle alongside PowerPoint—they’re replacing their existing presentation tools entirely for critical meetings and speaking opportunities.

The Bigger Picture

Chronicle represents something larger than just another presentation tool. They’re part of a wave of “Cursor for X” companies—specialized AI agents that deeply understand specific domains rather than trying to be everything to everyone. Just as Cursor revolutionized coding by deeply integrating AI into the development workflow, Chronicle is doing the same for presentations.

The company’s remote team of 10, operating across the US, India, and Australia, has attracted thought leaders from Apple, Google, Slack, Stripe, Superhuman, OnDeck, and Adobe. That’s the kind of talent constellation you see when people believe they’re working on something genuinely transformative.

The Road Ahead

As Chronicle enters public beta at chroniclehq.com, they’re not just launching a product—they’re testing a thesis about the future of business communication. Can AI truly eliminate what they call “slide debt”? Can presentations become memorable Chronicles rather than forgettable slide shows?

The early signs are promising. In a market where competition from free alternatives poses challenges to traditional tools, Chronicle’s approach of focusing on quality over quantity feels like a necessary evolution. They’re not trying to be the cheapest or fastest—they’re trying to be the best.

Whether Chronicle succeeds in their mission to “eradicate bad quality presentations” remains to be seen. But their emergence signals something important: the presentation software landscape is finally ready for genuine innovation. After decades of incremental improvements, we might finally be getting the tool that matches our ambitions.

In a world where ideas matter more than ever, having a tool that helps those ideas reach their full potential isn’t just nice to have—it’s essential. Chronicle’s bet is that when it comes to presentations, we’ve been settling for mediocrity for far too long. Time will tell if the market agrees.