The training simply does not exist. That is how Vikram Venugopal, SVP at Prezent, explains why most corporate presentations fail. People go to school to learn technical functions, even journalism, even speech and debate. But the art of translating expertise into slides that move audiences to action is rarely taught. When employees reach the corporate world, they have to figure it out themselves, usually by hunting for slides in old decks and hoping for the best.
The Hidden Cost of Poor Presentations
The scale of wasted time in corporate communication is staggering. Executives and managers spend an average of 23 hours per week in meetings, of which nearly 50 percent is considered unproductive time. Research shows that 15 percent of an organization's collective time is spent in meetings, with about 25 to 50 percent of that time considered wasted. Much of that waste traces directly to poorly constructed presentations that fail to communicate clearly.
A standard 30-slide strategy deck can take a consultant 40 to 60 hours of structuring, formatting, and charting. For life sciences companies where regulatory precision matters, that time investment often doubles. When presentations fail to move decisions forward, the cycle repeats, compounding the productivity drain.
Why Life Sciences Communication Matters More
Venugopal spent decades at companies like Abbott Laboratories, Genentech, AbbVie, and Novartis teaching teams how to bring drugs to market. He learned that poor communication does not just waste time. It delays decisions that ultimately affect patients waiting for therapies.
"The speed at which we make the decision allows pharma companies and the people working there to bring drugs to market," Venugopal explained. "And that's what I think about as a patient, as a North Star."
The stakes in pharmaceutical development are uniquely high. New drug approval in the United States takes an average of 12 years from preclinical testing to approval. The FDA's drug approval process typically spans 12 to 15 years and involves several critical phases. Every internal delay from miscommunication, unclear presentations, or decision meetings that end with requests to come back in two weeks adds time to an already lengthy process.
The pattern Venugopal observed repeatedly goes like this: someone delivers a presentation, but the audience did not quite understand the question being asked, or information was missing, or the format did not match how the decision makers process information. The response is predictable: great presentation, we have some questions, can you come back in two weeks? By then, circumstances have changed, new questions arise, and the cycle continues.
Understanding the Audience First
Prezent's approach starts with what Venugopal calls a fingerprint. When users join the platform, the first question is not what slides they need but how they like information presented to them. The second question asks who they commonly present to, building fingerprints for those audiences as well.
"Most of us think, well, this is the way I'd like it, so let me build a slide this way," Venugopal said. "But my audience is Russ. I need to move him. The platform allows you to take what Russ needs, take your content, and build the presentations that you're successful with."
This audience-first approach addresses a fundamental gap in how professionals learn to communicate. Great presenters are not born. They take the time and the commitment to learn and practice them and make them their own. Most corporate training focuses on technical skills rather than the communication abilities that determine whether those skills translate into organizational impact.
The system can remind presenters that Roger wants an executive summary upfront and then details, or that Barbara prefers visuals over data tables. It functions like a secret chief of staff, Venugopal suggested, helping users adapt their natural style to what each specific audience needs without doing all that cognitive work manually.
Purpose-Built AI for Life Sciences
Generic AI tools produce generic results. Venugopal hears this complaint constantly from customers who tried other solutions before coming to Prezent. Standard large language models do not understand the difference between a phase three clinical chart and a sales graph. They do not know the regulatory considerations, the scientific communication standards, or the specific visual conventions that life sciences professionals expect.
Prezent built what they call Astrid, an AI designed specifically for the unique demands of life sciences communication. The platform has indexed millions of slides to understand what excellence looks like in this domain. When a clinical trial team needs to present complex data to an advisory board, Astrid can simplify that information in ways that enable robust discussion rather than confusion.
The market for such specialized tools is expanding rapidly. The global life science software market size grew to $23.54 billion in 2025 and is projected to reach around $70.37 billion by 2034, expanding at a CAGR of 12.94 percent. Currently, AI accounts for approximately 16 percent of drug discovery efforts, but this figure is expected to grow by a staggering 106 percent over the next three to five years.
"We actually recommend that AI and humans work together," Venugopal emphasized. "The humans understand the context. They understand the background. They understand all of the enterprise knowledge that comes in."
The company now serves 45 of the top 50 pharma companies and over 150 life sciences companies overall. That penetration gives them continuous feedback on what works, what fails, and how to improve the platform for the specific challenges these organizations face.
More Than Time Savings
Customers typically come to Prezent looking for productivity gains. Building presentations takes enormous amounts of time, especially when teams lack standardized templates, consistent brand elements, and clear guidance on how to structure information. The average worker spends an hour and nine minutes simply preparing for each meeting. The platform addresses all of those pain points.
But Venugopal sees the deeper value in what happens after the time savings. When people walk into high stakes moments with confidence, when they can convey information clearly and decisions happen on the first meeting rather than the third, their corporate identity changes. The audience recognizes them as experts. They get trusted with more complicated assignments. Their careers accelerate.
"It's not just a time savings and a cost savings," Venugopal said. "You have high stakes moments and you want to be successful your first time."
The platform extends beyond slide creation to include Zenith master classes in presentation delivery, coaching avatars that provide feedback on presentations, and human experts who can help users become extraordinary at presenting. a WebEx call, a conference room meeting, and a national sales meeting in front of thousands of people requires different skills, and Prezent aims to support all of them.
Leveling Up, Not Dumbing Down
A reasonable concern about AI assisted communication is whether it flattens everyone to the same mediocre baseline. Venugopal sees the opposite happening. The platform gives everyone a solid starting point, but super users are taking it further. They are learning the nuances, helping shape the product roadmap, requesting features like automated speaker notes, and setting themselves apart through the investment they make in their own expertise.
"AI is not going to replace humans, but humans that understand how to use AI are going to be that much more impactful," Venugopal said.
The evidence shows up in unexpected ways. One brand launching an important product had their commercial team, medical affairs team, and communications team all deliver impressive presentations to leadership. What the executives discovered was that each team had been using Prezent. The styles were different, the content was different, but the foundation of great communication was consistent across all of them.
The Future of Life Sciences Communication
Prezent is evolving toward what Venugopal describes as a life sciences AI enabled communications agency. The platform already supports brand plans, long range plans, financial documents, clinical studies, medical affairs decks, medical science liaison training, scientific exchanges, and publication planning. Bringing all of this under one umbrella, with an AI layer that simplifies while reducing cost and time represents the roadmap ahead.
The global AI in pharma and biotech market size is projected to grow from $8.54 billion in 2026 to $154.10 billion by 2034, exhibiting a CAGR of 43.55 percent. Communication tools that integrate with this broader AI ecosystem will become essential infrastructure for life sciences organizations.
The mission remains constant: democratize great business communication so that the important work life sciences companies do reaches patients faster. Every week that a decision gets delayed because of poor communication is a week that someone who needs a therapy does not have access to it. That urgency drives everything Prezent builds.
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