LibreOffice's answer to the AI arms race in office software is to skip it.
The nonprofit behind the open-source document editor says it has no plans to bake AI into the software's default configuration. The stated reason is user privacy, not a lack of resources or interest in the technology. That puts LibreOffice at odds with Microsoft and Google, both of which have pushed AI writing and summarization tools into Word, Excel, Docs, and Sheets by default over the past few years.
This matters because "no AI" is becoming something software makers have to actively defend, not just a default state. Every major office suite now ships some form of AI assistant that reads your documents to generate suggestions, which means a lot of user data is quietly routed through cloud AI services. LibreOffice is betting that a meaningful slice of its user base - privacy-conscious users, IT departments, governments - would rather opt in to AI than opt out of it.
Whether that's a durable differentiator or just a temporary gap depends on how AI fatigue shakes out. For now, the pitch is refreshingly simple: your document stays your document.