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Developer Behind Free AI-Built Adobe Clones Turns to Word, Excel and PowerPoint

Software engineer Brandon Thomas has released AI-assisted open-source clones of Word, Excel and PowerPoint, months after doing the same to Adobe's Creative Cloud apps, according to Tom's Hardware.

AI News Feed · 2026-10-12 20:39

Tom's Hardware reported that the new programs are less far along in development than the earlier Adobe clones, but that the intention behind them is clear. TechRadar reported on the releases on 12 October.

Thomas has said on social media that he has years of coding experience, even though he used Anthropic's Claude AI to carry out the bulk of the work on the projects. His earlier effort reproduced Adobe's Creative Cloud suite and released the copied versions free of charge.

He has drawn criticism for choosing AI-assisted "vibe coding" instead of contributing to established open-source projects such as LibreOffice, GIMP and Thunderbird. He rejected that argument. "GIMP sucks," he said. "It has always sucked. There is no reason to save broken software." He also recounted a bad experience with LibreOffice, saying the program "killed a 40-page essay I wrote the week it was due, during finals".

Reaction on Reddit was divided. Some commenters described the clones as a "game-changing" positive for the software industry. Others said "no job is safe" given the growing capabilities of AI bots and agents. Several pointed out that free programs such as LibreOffice and Google Docs have existed for years without doing much damage to Microsoft Office sales, and questioned whether a single developer could keep pace with bug fixes and upgrades.

The clones raise questions for large software companies that want to protect their products, particularly where AI tools can reproduce the look and core functions of paid applications in a short time. Microsoft has not commented on the releases.