Beta Feature: The Narrative Agent is currently in beta and available for Google Slides and PowerPoint templates. Contact your Technical Account Manager for access.
Every tag in Matik fills a spot you picked in advance. The Narrative Agent works on the generated presentation itself. You give it instructions on the template, and on every generation it can decide which slides belong, add slides that were never in the template, and reshape a slide after its content has landed.
You set it up once on the template. End users generate as they always do, and each presentation records what the agent did, so you and your end users can see which slides changed and why.
When to Use the Narrative Agent
Matik gives you several ways to tailor a presentation to each account, and each is the most efficient for a different kind of decision. The Narrative Agent runs as an extra step after the first round of generation, so it is the right choice when the decision needs judgment about the finished presentation, and a tag or a rule is the better choice when it does not.
| If the decision is... | Use | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Content that goes into a slide and text box you already know | Insights Dynamic Content | It runs during generation, produces the same shape of output every time, and you can test it on its own. |
| A rule about your data that decides whether a slide appears | Slide Conditions | A rule is deterministic and adds no generation time. |
| Judgment about the presentation itself: which slides belong, a slide that does not exist yet, or how a slide should look once its content is in | Narrative Agent | Nothing else in Matik can change which slides are in the presentation, or restructure a slide, after it is generated. |
Good fits for the Narrative Agent:
- Slide selection that cannot be written as a condition. A Slide Condition compares a value your data returns. When which slide belongs depends on reading free text, such as call notes or a goal the end user typed, an instruction in plain language does what a condition cannot.
- Restructuring a slide to match its content. A tag fills a box that already exists. The agent can add or remove boxes to match how many items the data returned, lay out the ones that remain, or color a status indicator to match what the data says.
- A slide that is different for every account. An executive summary written from the finished presentation, or a slide whose points and structure vary per account, built on the design of a slide already in the presentation so it stays on brand.
How It Works
- You add instructions to the template. Each instruction names the slides it applies to, or describes a new slide to build. See Adding Agent Instructions.
- End users generate as normal. Inputs, Generation Settings, and slide selection work the same way as on any other template.
- Matik generates the presentation first. All Dynamic Content runs, Slide Conditions are evaluated, and loops expand, exactly as they would without the agent.
- The agent plans. It reads the generated presentation and your instructions, with any Dynamic Content and input references resolved to this generation's values, and produces an outline that marks every slide as Unchanged, Update, Add, Remove, or Reorder. Slides with no instruction are left as they are.
- The agent applies the plan. It first settles which slides exist and in what order, then works on the slides that change, a few at a time, checking that the text it wrote fits each box.
- The finished presentation is released. Every step is recorded in the presentation's Generation log, and the presentation page shows the instructions and outline the agent applied.
Note: The agent works from what is in the generated presentation plus any Dynamic Content or inputs your instructions reference. It does not write new queries against your data sources.
Adding Agent Instructions
Open the template's Outline page. Select the slides an instruction should apply to and click Narrative in the floating bar, or open the Narrative tab in the right sidebar and click Add Agent Instruction. The tab appears on Google Slides and PowerPoint templates once the beta is enabled for your enterprise.
Each instruction has one type:
| Instruction type | What it does |
|---|---|
| Modify slides in this template | Select one or more slides and describe how the agent should handle them. The agent applies the instruction to exactly those slides. Select several slides and tell the agent how to choose among them, and it keeps the ones that fit and removes the rest. |
| Add slides from a slide library | Pick a Slide Library in the same format as the template and select candidate slides. The agent decides which of them belong in each presentation. |
| Add an AI-generated slide | Describe a slide that is not in the template. The agent builds it on the design of a slide already in the presentation. Choose Let the agent choose or At position for where it goes. To pick which slide's design it copies, add it from the Outline page instead: hover between two slides, click +, open the AI tab, and select a base slide. |
Instruction text can reference inputs and Dynamic Content the same way Insights Dynamic Content can: &:account_name for an input and {{next_steps}} for Dynamic Content. Matik resolves these to the generation's actual values before the agent reads the instruction, and Dynamic Content referenced only in an instruction still runs even if it is not tagged on a slide.
The agent runs on every generation as long as the template has at least one instruction. There is no separate switch. Remove the instructions and it stops running.
Asking Matik's AI to write the instructions
You do not have to write instructions by hand. Open Matik's AI while viewing the template and describe what you want, for example "Keep whichever value slide best matches the concerns in the latest call notes, and add an executive summary before the agenda." Matik's AI reads the template's current instructions, adds or updates them, and tells you what it changed. Review the result in the Narrative tab.
Reviewing what is set up
The Narrative tab lists every instruction on the template, with the slides each one covers, and states what the agent is allowed to change as a result. Slides covered by an instruction are also marked on the Outline page.
| What is on the template | Mode | What the agent may change |
|---|---|---|
| Agent instructions only | Targeted | Only the slides named in the instructions. Every other slide is left exactly as it is. |
| A prompt for the whole presentation | Full deck | Any slide. The agent reviews every slide and may add, remove, reorder, and rewrite. |
| Both | Mixed | The whole presentation, under the prompt. Slides named in instructions are always handled exactly as the instruction says. |
Most templates only need instructions. The Prompt field at the top of the Narrative tab describes the story the whole presentation should tell, and it is the right place for guidance that applies to every slide. In every mode, the agent never removes a slide because of its Slide Condition, and never removes a slide only because it has no tags on it.
When you test selected slides from the Outline page, the agent applies your instructions to the content of those slides only and does not add, remove, or reorder slides. Generate a full presentation to see the complete result.
Examples
Choosing which value slide to keep
A customer review template has four slides that each make one value argument: adoption, time saved, risk reduced, and room to expand. The right one or two for a given meeting depend on what the customer has been raising, which lives in the Dynamic Content {{recent_call_notes}} and in a &:meeting_goal input the end user types in plain language.
- On the Outline page, select the four value slides and click Narrative, or click Add Agent Instruction in the Narrative tab and choose Modify slides in this template.
- Enter the instruction:
These four slides each make one value argument: adoption, time saved, risk reduced, and room to expand. Read {{recent_call_notes}} and &:meeting_goal. Keep the one or two slides whose argument most directly addresses the concerns and priorities raised there, and remove the others. If the notes and goal are empty or do not point to any of these arguments, keep only the adoption slide.Matching the number of boxes to the data
A recommendations slide has three boxes side by side, one per recommended next step. The Dynamic Content {{next_steps}} returns one to three items depending on the account. A tag can fill the boxes, but when an account has two items, the third box is left empty. The agent can remove it and lay out the remaining two.
- Select the recommendations slide and add an instruction of type Modify slides in this template.
- Enter the instruction:
Add or remove boxes so there is exactly one box per item in {{next_steps}}. Put each item's title in the box heading and its detail in the box body, shortened to fit. Then arrange the remaining boxes evenly across the slide and centered, keeping their size, spacing, and styling the same as the original boxes.Why it works: it names both halves of the job. The first sentence says how many boxes there should be and what decides that. The last sentence says how the remaining boxes should sit. An instruction that only says to remove a box tends to leave a gap where it used to be.
An executive summary written from the finished presentation
A leadership audience wants one slide that reflects what actually ended up in the presentation, including slides that were conditional or that the agent removed. An Insights Dynamic Content cannot do this, because it runs before the presentation is assembled.
- On the Outline page, hover between the title slide and the agenda slide and click +, then open the AI tab.
- Select a base slide whose design the summary should copy, such as an existing single-column text slide.
- Enter the instruction and click Insert AI slide:
Write an executive summary of this presentation for a VP-level reader who will not read the rest of the deck. Lead with the single most important result and its value. Then give at most three points: the headline result, the biggest risk, and the recommended next step, each with a specific figure taken from the slides. Headline under 10 words, each point under 25 words. Do not repeat the wording of any other slide.Why it works: it names the audience, says what to lead with, limits the number of points, asks for figures from the presentation rather than general statements, and sets a length that fits the slide. Choosing a base slide means the summary inherits the template's real styling rather than a generic layout.
Best Practices
- Let Matik's AI write the instructions. It knows what the agent responds to, phrases instructions the way the agent expects, and places each one on the right slides. Describe the outcome you want and review what it wrote.
- Use the most efficient tool for each decision. Content that goes into a known slot is faster and more repeatable as Insights Dynamic Content, and a rule about your data is faster as a Slide Condition. Save the Narrative Agent for judgment about the finished presentation, which keeps generation quick and results predictable.
- Choose a base design for AI-generated slides. A slide built on one of the template's own slides keeps your fonts, colors, spacing, and decoration. Add the slide from the Outline page's AI tab so you can pick the base, and pick a slide whose structure matches what the new slide needs.
Limitations
- Adds a step to generation. Because the agent acts on the generated presentation, it runs after the first round of generation completes, which adds to generation time. How much depends on how many slides actually change, not on how many slides the presentation has.
- Presentations only. Google Slides, PowerPoint, and PowerPoint 365 templates. Document, spreadsheet, and email templates are not supported.
- Uses the data already in the presentation. The agent cannot write new queries against your data sources. It works from the generated presentation plus any Dynamic Content or inputs your instructions reference, so to bring in a data point, reference the Dynamic Content that fetches it.
- Keeps the template's design. Unless an instruction says otherwise, the agent writes into the text boxes that already exist and shortens text to fit rather than resizing them. Fonts, colors, backgrounds, and logos stay as they are.
- Not configurable on sub-templates. A sub-template inherits the instructions that apply to the slides it kept, but its instructions cannot be edited there.
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