Original · Unique Research · 2026-03-05
Editor's note: This is a full translation of Unique Research's historical founder interview; first-person narration belongs to the original interviewer. Product rankings, speed and price comparisons, the QR-code scale, revenue mix, investment and ROI statements are claims in that source, not independently audited results. The source refers both to more than 100 competing products and to a 35-competitor comparison without defining the latter sample. Its narrative infers positive ROI, whereas the quoted answer only says the founder is satisfied and gives no figure. Aikeyi Intelligence and Biyou Technology are romanized/descriptive company names; MindShow is the English product name used in the source's own questions. ATOA.AI's Chinese brand name, Ai Zhineng, uses “ai,” the sound of the Chinese word for love. In Q16, the source's wording about a marketing approach he “moved away from” is unclear and is retained rather than silently corrected. Event references and product plans are historical, not current invitations or guarantees. The source quotes its price as 19 yuan per month without an explicit currency code; this translation retains that notation.
FOUNDER PROFILE
Gu Chenggang: The Man Who Wants to Rid the World of PPTs, Yet Found Love in AI
A Bloodbath of 100 AI PPT Products—Yet on His Office Wall He Wrote: Rid the World of PPTs
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“Rid the world of PPTs.” Gu Chenggang has posted those words in bold type in the most prominent place in his office. A founder who makes a living from AI PPTs actually wants to bury the PPT with his own hands. It sounds absurd, but only after speaking with him did I understand—this may be the most romantic and honest entrepreneurial declaration of the AI era.
From QR Codes to AI Office Tools: Three Startups, All for That One Moment When Someone Paid
Gu Chenggang’s entrepreneurial journey reads like a concise history of China’s internet industry.
For his first startup, he built a “one product, one code” marketing platform, placing QR codes on products on the scale of 10 billion to help brands connect with consumers. For his second startup, backed by investors, he built the largest O2O e-commerce platform in northwestern China. For his third, he chose AI office tools.
“At first, we tried every part of the C track—content creation—in AIGC,” Gu Chenggang recalled. “We approached it from all kinds of content-creation directions and eventually found that AI office tools brought together all those forms of content creation.”
The real turning point came in the 5th second after MindShow AiPPT went live.
“A user paid within 5 seconds.” Gu Chenggang’s tone was calm as he said this, but you could feel the distinctive shiver an entrepreneur experiences when the market validates an idea. “At that moment, we knew we had it.”
Over the past two years, MindShow AiPPT has remained firmly in the first tier of the AI PPT field. But Gu Chenggang was not satisfied. Recently, he launched a dual-brand strategy: MindShow will continue to focus deeply on AI PPT, while the new brand “ATOA.AI” is targeting a much larger goal—AiOFFICE, an all-in-one AI office suite.
“With the name ATOA, we want to convey three visions,” Gu Chenggang explained. “Ai TO Ai, Anyone TO Anyone, Anything TO Anything. In other words: AI interconnected with AI, people interconnected with people, and everything interconnected with everything.”
He also said something memorable: “AI is not only artificial intelligence; it is also an expression of love.”
This idea had already taken shape when he first entered AI in 2018. His company’s Chinese name, Aikeyi Intelligence, begins with the character for “love.” In Gu Chenggang’s view, the great AI applications of the future will inevitably “empower through love.”
Surrounded by 100 Competing Products, He Still Dares to Ship Weekly: The Secret of the X-Men Team
Just how fiercely competitive is the AI PPT field?
Gu Chenggang offered one figure: more than 100 competing products. The leading players have funding, traffic, and brand recognition. How can a startup team survive?
His answer came down to three words: fast, focused, and deep.
“Fast” means weekly releases. MindShow maintains a cadence of launching a new module every week. “Many product concepts in this industry, such as converting images into PPTs, were first introduced by us.”
“Focused” means concentration. Over the past two years, the entire team has poured all of its energy into this single product.
“Deep” means breadth in depth. MindShow may be the only team in the industry that simultaneously offers consumer subscriptions, API services, MCP integrations, private deployment, and designer services. From individual users to enterprise customers, and from standardized products to customized solutions, it covers the entire value chain.
Supporting this pace of iteration is a distinctive organizational structure—the X organization.
“Internally, we call ourselves X-Men,” Gu Chenggang said with a smile. “For example, a technical role is called TX: the person must know both front-end and back-end development and must even be able to work on mini programs and APP products. This ensures that the team has exponential capabilities.”
I asked him: among 35 competing companies, yours is the only organization that has insisted on weekly releases. What part of that organizational capability is hardest to replicate?
“The team itself,” he replied without hesitation. “It is normal to be surpassed in the short term. As long as we maintain rapid iteration, keep pace with the times, and keep pace with users, the product may fail in the short term, but the team will certainly win in the long run.”
How Can an AI PPT Product Priced at 19 yuan Survive?
MindShow’s pricing is surprising: 19 yuan per month.
It can be described as the least expensive AI PPT tool in the industry. But Gu Chenggang says users do not choose MindShow solely because it is inexpensive.
“The fastest generation speed, a flexible sharing mechanism, and the best visual design—users have given us all kinds of feedback,” he said. “But ultimately, there is only one key decision point: it is useful. As long as it genuinely helps users, whether by improving efficiency or producing a satisfying result, they may be willing to pay.”
Currently, MindShow’s consumer-side and business-side revenue split is approximately 6:4. In the past, the consumer side grew faster, but this year its business-side API services have begun to show signs of acceleration.
What about paid acquisition?
“That is the most important work of our marketing colleagues,” Gu Chenggang said. “I am very satisfied with our current ROI performance.”
He did not disclose specific figures, but the confidence in his voice said everything. In the cash-burning AI application field, achieving a positive ROI is itself a form of validation.
He Wants to Send PPTs to the Museum of History
Back to the sentence on the wall: “Rid the world of PPTs.”
Gu Chenggang’s ambition goes beyond making a useful AI PPT tool. In his view, the PPT is only a transitional form.
“In the future, the PPT will be one mode of expression, while what we are building may give rise to an entirely new form of expression—a fully multimodal and dynamic form of expression powered by AI.”
What does that mean?
Imagine this: no more static slides, but intelligent presentations generated by AI in real time, integrating text, images, audio, and video, and adjusting dynamically in response to the audience. The human role shifts from “the person who makes the PPT” to “the person who defines the problem” and “the person who steers the direction.”
“AI can replace almost any stage,” Gu Chenggang said, “but human initiative and creativity are irreplaceable. Always remember: AI is only a calculator.”
He offered an interesting example: in MindShow’s user feedback, the part most often adjusted manually after AI generation is, unexpectedly, the “mode of expression.”
“Sometimes users would rather express a paragraph in one sentence; sometimes they want to express an idea with one complex image. It varies from person to person. This is where AI and each individual user are still learning to work together.”
After AI Takes Over PPTs, Only One Human Capability Cannot Be Replaced
This was the central topic of the Unique Awards Panel session. Gu Chenggang’s answer was crisp and direct:
People are irreplaceable.
“AI will not truly shed tears,” he said. “What remains irreplaceable about human expression is love and emotion. Of course, someone may also suddenly fly into a rage in the middle of an otherwise ordinary passage because of something the other person did.”
In Gu Chenggang’s view, this kind of “inefficient emotional redundancy” is precisely an advantage.
“We have a digital-human narration feature designed for explanatory scenarios that do not require much emotion. It is simple and efficient. But a real presentation and real communication will always need human warmth.”
If AI can generate a PPT with one click, do people still need to learn how to make PPTs?
“No,” Gu Chenggang answered unexpectedly. “PPT skills will evolve, become widely accessible, and no longer be so difficult to learn. It is like typing 25 years ago: it was once a profession, and later became a capability everyone possessed.”
Then will presentation skills improve or deteriorate?
“They will definitely improve. Ai TO Ai, Anyone TO Anyone: AI will be enhanced, and people will be enhanced too.”
In 2026, ATOA.AI Is Preparing for an AiOFFICE Campaign
For 2026, Gu Chenggang has a clear battle map.
“2026 is critically important to us,” he said. “We will make breakthroughs across AiPPT, AiDOC, AiCHART, and AiLOGO.”
The vision is expansive: overturn the concept of traditional office software through intelligent cloud-based office applications; enable teams to use AI to achieve “real-time connection, seamless work”; break down the silos among documents, charts, and presentation software.
Beyond product iteration, two other matters carry great weight for him.
The first is fundraising. After the previous investment round from Pudong Venture Capital, Gu Chenggang is looking for the next supply of “ammunition.” “Our destination is there, and we need more resources to help us reach the other shore.”
The second is education. “There is another slogan on our wall: Make education more equal. We look forward to working with partners in education to realize this vision with the help of AI technology.”
Sharing a Stage with a Kingsoft Veteran, He Actually Said: Why Don’t We Merge?
During the Unique Awards Panel session, Gu Chenggang will share the stage with Zhou Ze’an of Biyou Technology and Pang Dawei of ChatExcel.
Zhou Ze’an is a former product director at Kingsoft Office, and ChatPPT competes directly with MindShow. Faced with this opponent of impeccable pedigree, there was no hostility in Gu Chenggang’s voice—only a sense of mutual appreciation between entrepreneurs.
“Mr. Zhou is someone we greatly admire and learn from,” he said. “He is a perfectionist and a successful entrepreneur. A large-company background does help a team and its products; our company also has people who came from Tencent, Alibaba, and JD.com.”
He even joked: “If everyone is working this hard, perhaps we could simply merge.”
As for Pang Dawei’s “enhancement thesis”—“do not replace Excel; enhance it”—Gu Chenggang agrees completely.
“That should be one direction. We all hope to provide users with simpler tools that have a lower barrier to entry, replacing the complexity of the original software.”
No Matter How Powerful AI Becomes, It Cannot Calculate Human Love
As the interview neared its end, I asked Gu Chenggang a question: if ATOA.AI had not become what he envisioned by the end of 2026, where would it most likely have gone wrong?
He did not answer directly. Instead, he said:
“Every new technology is born to prepare humanity to enjoy this world more fully.”
That sentence reminded me of what he had said at the beginning of the interview: “AI is also an expression of love.”
In an era dominated by algorithms and the pursuit of efficiency, Gu Chenggang seems to retain a certain “out-of-step” romanticism: a belief that technology ultimately serves human feeling, that warmth exists beyond tools, and that no matter how powerful AI becomes, it cannot replace human love and emotion.
Perhaps that is why MindShow has survived amid the melee of more than 100 AI PPT tools.
Not because it is the cheapest or because it competes the hardest, but because two sentences are posted on this team’s wall:
Rid the world of PPTs.
Make education more equal.
One points toward the future; the other points toward the original aspiration.
When algorithms push efficiency to the limit, ATOA.AI reminds us in another way: technology must ultimately serve human feeling.
This may be the real reason MindShow has survived among more than 100 products and become increasingly loved by users.
What do you think is the human capability that can least be replaced in the AI era?
Gu Chenggang, founder of ATOA.AI, will attend the 2026 Unique Awards Hangzhou Summit Panel discussion: When AI Takes Over Data Flows, Humans Focus on Creating Value.
Selected Interview Q&A
Interviewee Snapshot
Q1: Introduce yourself in one sentence. What does the name “ATOA.AI” seek to convey?
A: Thank you, everyone. I am Gu Chenggang from Aikeyi Intelligence. ATOA is our AiOFFICE application built around the vision that “intelligence is office work.” With ATOA, we seek to convey three visions: Ai TO Ai; Anyone TO Anyone; Anything TO Anything. That means AI interconnected with AI, people interconnected with people, and everything interconnected with everything. This is the future we hope to see.
Follow-up: You have said that “AI is not only artificial intelligence; it is also an expression of love.” How did this idea take shape?
A: We actually first proposed this idea in 2018, when we were just beginning to explore artificial intelligence. It is embodied in our company name, Aikeyi Intelligence. There is an interesting double meaning: AI means artificial intelligence, while “ai” is also the Chinese pinyin for love. The great artificial-intelligence applications of the future will inevitably empower through love—our ATOA.AI, for example.
Q2: What was your background before entering AI, and why did you choose AI office tools in 2021?
A: Our team has actually launched several code-related startups. The first was a “one product, one code” marketing platform that provided 10 billion QR codes on products, empowering brands to conduct customer marketing and related services. The second was an O2O platform: with backing from investors, we built the largest O2O e-commerce platform in northwestern China. When we chose AI office tools this time, we first explored every part of the C track in AIGC—content creation—and found that AI office tools brought together all those forms of content creation. Moreover, a user paid within 5 seconds of the launch of our first product, MindShow AiPPT. We were extremely surprised.
Rapid Positioning and the Moat
Q3: What is MindShow’s core business model? How is it differentiated from the AI PPT tools on the market?
A: Yes, MindShow is currently the flagship product under ATOA.AI. It focuses on AiPPT, and we will continue iterating it. Of course, competition in this field has gone to an extreme. We estimate that there are currently more than a hundred AiPPT tools on the market, and the leading few have greater advantages. Our differentiators are speed, focus, and depth. Speed means maintaining a cadence of weekly module updates; many product concepts in this industry, such as image-to-PPT functionality, were first launched by us. Focus means that our entire team and all of our time have gone into building one product. Depth means that we are also an industry team offering both 2B and 2C services, including API and MCP services, private deployment, and designer services.
Q4: Who are your typical users? Why do they choose you rather than WPS AI or Gamma?
A: Office-work scenarios apply to almost everyone, though beginners are currently the main users. There should be many reasons why they choose us. For example, we are the least expensive in the industry at 19 yuan per month. Our generation speed is the fastest in the industry. Our sharing mechanism lets users earn VIP access for free by sharing. And some users have said that ours is the best-looking product.
Follow-up: What is the key decision point that converts users into paying customers?
A: Being useful is the most important decision point. As long as it genuinely helps users, whether by improving efficiency or producing a satisfying result, they may be willing to pay.
Q5: What MindShow capability is hardest to replicate?
A: The AI application field changes every day, and competition is intense. Our hardest-to-replicate capability is the team itself. It is normal to be surpassed in the short term. As long as our team maintains the ability to update and iterate rapidly, keep pace with the times, and keep pace with users, the product may fail in the short term, but the team will win in the long run.
Follow-up: Among 35 competitors, you are the only one to maintain weekly releases. What organizational capability underpins that pace of iteration?
A: Internally, we actually have an X-shaped organizational model, and all of our colleagues are X-Men. For example, a technical role is TX: that person must know both front-end and back-end development and must even be able to work on mini programs and APP products. This ensures that the team has exponential capabilities.
Execution and Commercialization in 2026
Q6: What are your main monetization methods today, and roughly what is the revenue mix?
A: We currently pursue 2C and 2B strategies in parallel, adjusting them at any time as the market changes. Today, 2C and 2B basically maintain a 6:4 split.
Follow-up: Which is growing faster, consumer subscriptions or business-side API services?
A: The consumer side grew faster in the past; this year, the business side seems to be showing early signs of accelerating growth.
Q7: Which stages of users’ work has AI-generated PPT replaced? Which stages have instead become heavier or more critical?
A: AI is advancing too quickly. From today’s perspective, it can replace almost any stage. Of course, as we have said, people remain the most important element in the AI era. Human initiative and creativity are irreplaceable. Always remember: AI is only a calculator.
Follow-up: According to user feedback, which part is most often adjusted manually after AI generation?
A: The mode of expression is still adjusted most often. Sometimes users would rather express a paragraph in one sentence; sometimes they want to express an idea with one complex image. It varies from person to person. This is where AI and each individual user are still developing a shared understanding.
Q8: Have you tried paid acquisition? How is the ROI?
A: That is one of the most important responsibilities of our marketing colleagues. I am very satisfied with our current ROI performance.
Q9: What breakthrough or problem to solve matters most in 2026?
A: ’26 is critically important to us. We will make breakthroughs in AiPPT, AiDOC, AiCHART, and AiLOGO; use intelligent cloud-based office applications to overturn the concept of traditional office software; enable teams to use AI to achieve “real-time connection, seamless work”; break down the silos among documents, charts, and presentation software; and realize the vision of improving office efficiency.
When AI Takes Over Data Flows, Humans Focus on Creating Value
Q10: When AI can generate a PPT with one click, do people still need to learn how to make PPTs?
A: No.
Follow-up: If the answer is “no,” will PPT skills disappear?
A: PPT skills will not disappear. They will evolve, become widely accessible, and no longer be so difficult to learn. It is like typing 25 years ago: it was once a profession, and later became a capability everyone possessed.
Q11: Does MindShow solve for “beauty” or “speed”? If you could choose only one, which would you choose?
A: Speed today. Speed in the future as well. After all, we still define ourselves as an efficiency tool.
Q12: AI-generated PPT has greatly improved efficiency, but has it also reduced the depth of presentation content?
A: Some presentations do indeed fit what you described. This is also why we launched intelligent-document capabilities. We believe the most important thing in a good PPT is still your thinking, and AI is currently the best tool for obtaining ideas.
Q13: If AI can completely understand context and generate content, what remains irreplaceable about human “expression”?
A: People are irreplaceable. Always remember that AI is only a tool invented by humans. AI will not truly shed tears. What remains irreplaceable about human “expression” is love and emotion.
Q14: If users rely on AI-generated PPT over the long term, will their presentation skills improve or deteriorate?
A: They will definitely improve. Ai TO Ai, Anyone TO Anyone: AI will be enhanced, and people will be enhanced too.
Follow-up: Have you considered embedding “teaching” or “training” features in the tool?
A: That is a very good idea, and it will be launched soon.
Q15: When AI takes over the work of “making PPTs,” what should people do with the time they save?
A: Enjoy life. Every new technology is born to prepare humanity to enjoy this world more fully.
Comparing Perspectives
Q16: Zhou Ze’an of Biyou Technology, who will appear in the same session, is a former product director at Kingsoft Office. ChatPPT also makes AI PPT products. What do you think is different between entrepreneurship by someone from a large company and entrepreneurship by a career entrepreneur?
A: Mr. Zhou is someone we greatly admire and learn from, especially his product and the marketing approach he once moved away from. Personally, I think he is a perfectionist and a successful entrepreneur. A large-company background is indeed very helpful to a team and its products, so our team also includes people from Tencent, Alibaba, and JD.com. Internally, I always joke: “Do you know what our company will look like in the future?” and “for now, we are working steadily and pragmatically according to the model of a startup.” In essence, entrepreneurship is not so different either; it is brutally hard for everyone.
Follow-up: If Mr. Zhou’s ChatPPT competes head-on with your MindShow, what is your response strategy?
A: Competition is actually unavoidable; we compete every day. We do not have any special response strategy. We just need to do our own work well and refrain from doing bad things.
Q17: ChatExcel emphasizes “enhancing Excel, not replacing it.” Do you agree with that logic?
A: Mr. Pang still owes me a meal. The last time we were in Beijing, he said he would treat me. I agree with his logic. It is just that, for us, the 2-character term “enhancement” is more about something new: a new way of making PPTs.
Q18: If you could offer only one collaboration proposal to the other guests during the Panel, with whom would you most want to collaborate?
A: We look forward to engaging with every guest. If it were a single-choice question, we would lean toward collaborating with ChatPPT. If everyone is working this hard, perhaps we could simply merge. Ha ha.
5. Finding Incremental Growth
Q19: Where does Aikeyi see the most promising incremental opportunity over the next 12 months?
A: It is still difficult to judge. We are constantly experimenting.
Follow-up: Are overseas markets—Japan and Southeast Asia—part of your plans?
A: They are in our plans. Stay tuned.
Q20: What kinds of partners do you most hope to connect with at the Unique Awards?
A: We have also been fortunate: Pudong Venture Capital made an investment in one round. So what we most hope for next is an opportunity for follow-on financing. Our destination is there, and we need more ammunition to help us reach the other shore.
Follow-up: Apart from investment and financing, are there any industry clients or channel partners you especially want to speak with?
A: One is government and enterprise clients, which are currently a focus for us. The other is the education sector. There is another slogan on our wall: “Make education more equal.” We look forward to working with partners in education to make education more equal with the help of AI technology.
6. Closing Prediction
Q21: In one sentence, what is your prediction for what kind of company Aikeyi will become by the end of 2026?
A: A leading startup in the AiOFFICE field for AI-native applications.
This article is based on materials from guest interviews conducted for the Unique Awards.