— Kate Aseltyne, Senior VP - Baird
Baird is a global financial services firm offering Private Wealth Management, Asset Management, Global Investment Banking, Capital Markets, and Private Equity solutions to its clients. The Global Investment Banking (GIB) division consists of over 540+ professionals worldwide who produce high volumes of pitchbooks and transactiondocuments to support advisory and financing transactions each year. To create this content, GIB relies on a combination of junior bankers and more than 30 external Desktop Publishing (DTP) contractors dedicated exclusively to client presentation production.
Previously, Baird relied on a proprietary productivity tool developed more than a decade ago.
“Our macro was a proprietary tool built 10 years ago, and if it broke, we didn’t have a way to fix it.” - Kate Aseltyne, Senior VP, Baird
As the tool became outdated and unsupported, the firm began to encounter several operational challenges:
• Plateaued Efficiency: Legacy macros no longer provided the functionality needed to keep pace with modern banking requirements.
• Increased Latency: Project turnaround times increased significantly, leading bankers to consider manual workarounds.
• Scalability Constraints: The existing infrastructure was not sustainable for agrowing global team.
As demands around PowerPoint increased and AI capabilities advanced, Baird began exploring alternative solutions that could better support innovation, speed, and scale.
Baird sought a partner that could go beyond basic formatting shortcuts and deliver a platform leveraging AI to improve both the quality of content and the efficiency ofpresentation creation.
“After a few demonstrations with Rami (CEO of auxi) and Celine (VP of Ops at auxi), we realized this is a PowerPoint productivity tool on steroids, compared to our proprietary tool - like it’s a whole new product” said Kate Aseltyne, Senior VP, Baird.
Replacing a core proprietary tool required a structured and thoughtful changemanagement effort.
Unlike traditional vendors, the auxi team provided a “white glove” implementation experience, working closely with Baird throughout the transition.
“This is where I can’t say enough about the team at auxi. The amount of hand holding and white glove service the team gave Baird was extra ordinary. The support team joined usfor on-site training and even conducted two training sessions per day.” Aseltyne, stated.
Key elements of the implementation included:
• Hands-on Training: On-site sessions and bi-weekly virtual trainings designed to help teams adopt new workflows and break legacy habits.
• Extensive Resources: Comprehensive user manuals, demo decks, and onboarding materials to support adoption at scale.
• Product Input: Baird secured a “seat at the table,” enabling the firm to influence auxi’s product roadmap and future feature development.
“Change Management is cumbersome and complex. Having a partner like auxi who has experience working with bankers on how to effectively introduce the tool, often answering questions before I could even ask, gave us so much confidence in the roll-out,” said Aseltyne.
The transition to auxi modernized Baird’s previously underperforming workflows and replaced legacy limitations with a forward-looking, AI-enabled infrastructure withinPowerPoint. This shift led to a significant reduction in presentation turnaround times,enabling teams to complete complex, high-quality client deliverables in a fraction of thetime.
In addition, Baird digitized five years of precedent materials, making historical pitchbook ssearchable through natural language prompts. This capability has improved knowledge accessibility and reduced time spent recreating existing content.
These improvements have not only increased operational speed but also strengthened collaboration and trust between investment bankers and the DTP teams supporting presentation creation.
By prioritizing a true partnership rather than a traditional vendor relationship, Baird successfully transitioned to a modern, AI-enabled presentation ecosystem.
As noted by Aseltyne: “The product speaks for itself, but the team behind it is the mostvaluable part.”