Developer releases free AI-built alternatives to Microsoft Office

Software engineer Brandon Thomas has released free, open-source alternatives to Microsoft Office’s Word, Excel and PowerPoint, following earlier projects that copied Adobe Creative Cloud apps.

The new programs are named WordCraft, GridCraft and DeckCraft, respectively. They look similar to Microsoft’s apps, but the source report says they appear less developed than Thomas’s Adobe clones. Thomas has said he used Anthropic’s AI assistant Claude to do most of the work on these recent projects, and has also pointed to his years of coding experience.

Some critics argue that Thomas should support existing open-source tools such as LibreOffice, GIMP and Thunderbird instead of using AI “vibe coding.” Thomas has criticized GIMP and described a past experience in which LibreOffice “killed a 40-page essay” he had written the week it was due during finals.

Online reactions are divided. Some commenters see the projects as a potential turning point for software, while others worry about AI’s effects on jobs. Others note that free alternatives such as LibreOffice and Google Docs have been available for years without severely hurting Microsoft Office sales, and question whether one developer can keep the new apps updated and fix bugs.