3.5 – Creating Backgrounds for Presentations or Zoom Calls Lesson

Lesson Overview

In this lesson, you’ll see practical methods for creating versatile AI-generated backgrounds using ChatGPT. Simple, well-designed backgrounds play a key role in digital communication, helping your focus stay on the speaker, text, or foreground visuals. Whether you’re updating your Zoom background, preparing slides for a PowerPoint presentation, or designing YouTube thumbnails, the right background can set a professional tone while staying subtle.

Many common use cases—like webinars, virtual meetings, ad visuals, or team headshots—benefit from backgrounds that are visually appealing but don’t compete for attention. Here, you’ll learn to describe your ideal background, selecting from environments such as minimalist offices, soft pastel gradients, or cozy cafés. We look at the impact of prompts that specify things like image width, minimalist features, color palette, blur, and lighting. You’ll see how different prompts help you create tailored visuals that work well in a range of settings, with no need for stock photos or outside assets.

Who This Is For

If you create or present content in a digital setting, this lesson will help you design backgrounds that look distinctive and professional.

• Presenters or educators seeking engaging slideshow or webinar backgrounds
• Team members who want to personalize their Zoom or virtual meeting environment
• Marketers, content creators, or designers building branded media assets
• Anyone making headshots or social profile images with custom backgrounds
• Users who want simple, non-distracting backdrops for YouTube, ads, or portfolios
  

Where This Fits in a Workflow

You’ll use this skill when you need to upgrade the look of your presentations or online meetings, or when building any digital project that can be elevated by a subtle, attractive background. For example, before presenting to clients, you might use ChatGPT to generate a minimalist office backdrop for your Zoom call that matches your company’s brand. Or, while building a pitch deck, creating a soft gradient slide background can help your content stand out without adding clutter. The process fits naturally before sharing or publishing finished work and can become a go-to step whenever you want a quick, custom background without searching stock sites.

Technical & Workflow Benefits

Traditionally, making high-quality backgrounds meant searching through stock libraries, downloading large files, or working in graphic design tools—often resulting in generic or overused images. By describing what you want directly to ChatGPT, you can quickly create backgrounds that fit your exact scenario or audience, saving you time and reducing asset costs. For example, a custom Zoom background with blurred office decor can make your meetings feel thoughtfully branded, while a soft-textured abstract slide background keeps focus on your content. This method speeds up production, reduces distractions, and results in visuals that feel unique—without specialized design skills.

Practice Exercise

Try using ChatGPT to create a background image for your next virtual meeting or presentation.

1. Choose a scenario (for example: Zoom meeting, headshot, or slideshow title slide).
2. Write a simple prompt describing the style, image width (wide or tall), lighting, and desired visual features (such as “minimalist”, “pastel gradient”, or “blurred”); include notes like “no people” and preferred colors.
3. Use the generated image in your chosen platform and compare it to a common stock background.

Reflect: Does your custom background better match your setting or brand? Is it less distracting or more appealing than off-the-shelf options?

Course Context Recap

This lesson builds on prompt-writing skills from earlier in the course and shows you how to tailor AI-generated images for real-world presentation and communication needs. Having practiced creating main subject images already, you now focus on backgrounds that complement your content. Up next, the course will move into more advanced uses and customization techniques for your AI-generated visuals. Continue to explore the course to master the full set of creative AI-powered tools at your fingertips.