Here’s the tomeline…
tome was released in September. It reached 1m users 134 days later, was valued at 300m last week, and is still “pre-revenue.” Given its impressive credentials, we decided to put it to the test.
What is tome?
tome’s software rethinks the PowerPoint system of slide-friendly, uniform tiles.
Unlike a traditional presentation, tome tiles are modular, with changes to one dynamically updating others. This means it can automatically place and size text and images dropped onto its canvas.
How does tome work?
Courtesy of its AI integration, Tome uses multiple large-language models to run queries behind-the-scenes—and, ultimately, to fulfill a user’s presentation prompt.
First, its software generates a framework for the output, setting its length and style. Next, smaller queries to the AI models fill out corresponding images and text. Users can then fine-tune the results or ask the AI to generate more pages via additional prompts.
tome can generate everything from children’s bedtime stories to 3-D prototypes, but it has resonated most as a PowerPoint and Slides killer. For example, AI meeting notes startup Supernormal raised a funding round using a pitch deck built in tome.
How we put tome to the test…
We needed to put tome to the test FAST – they’re about to start charging $10/mo, and the AI Marketing School endowment is running dry.
We started by asking ChatGPT to come up with a ridiculous marketing campaign. It dutifully obliged, and a new line of high-end bottled water called “Caviar H2O” was born.
Now, all we needed was a swanky presentation to get buy-in and budget. This is where tome comes in.
We started off by using stable diffusion to create an image for the campaign. To be honest, what it came up with is pretty great. Credit where credit’s due.
We then chose a template in tome, before following the prompts to add the right messaging and imagery.
Our Take…
It was incredibly easy to use—tome makes Powerpoint seem like a joke. Every time you drag in some text or an image, it works beautifully; it’s formatted perfectly and aligned to a tee.
HOWEVER, calling this an AI solution is a bit of a stretch. It does have text and image-generative abilities (you can click on three dots in the corner of any text box and get it to write for you). But this is a very light touch. It wouldn’t be much harder (and, in fact, might be easier) to just copy and paste from ChatGPT.
So in terms of AI, it’s not really bringing anything new to the party. Yet. That said, it is wonderful to use, and the next time I have to prepare any kind of presentation, which thankfully isn’t that often, I would 100% use it.
Score
10/10 for slides. 5/10 for AI.