Meta AI Director Rohit Patel Launches Ndoc to Replace Office Suites
After eight years at Meta, Rohit Patel has started Ndoc, an AI-native workspace designed to unify and reinvent how people work with documents.
Rohit Patel, a former director at Meta Superintelligence Labs, has left the company after eight years to launch his own startup, Ndoc. The new venture aims to offer an AI-native alternative to established office suites like Microsoft Office and Google Workspace, according to TechCrunch.
What is Ndoc? Ndoc is designed as a unified workspace to replace the current fragmented approach of using multiple tools like Excel, Word, PowerPoint, and ChatGPT. It brings together three main components: a “Stage” for presentations, dashboards, and mini-apps; a “Narrative” tab for analyses and the reasoning behind data; and a “Model” tab for underlying datasets and Python scripts.
Why is it different? Patel’s background in reinforcement learning and evaluating AI trustworthiness influenced Ndoc’s design. Users can upload data, ask Ndoc to perform analyses, and generate narratives. Crucially, it allows users to examine the Python scripts used to create documents, ensuring transparency and the ability to verify AI-generated work. Patel says Ndoc is built on open-source models, making it more cost-effective to run.
What is the ambition? Patel’s larger goal is to reinvent the file itself. Ndoc documents can be exported as a single “.ndoc.html” file viewable in any browser, a format he intends to open-source. This move aims to allow other developers to build compatible apps without locking users into a single platform, a core reason for his departure from Meta.
The AKUSO take: This is for anyone tired of juggling a dozen apps for work. Patel's focus on transparency and an open-source format could be a significant step toward more user-friendly and verifiable AI tools in the workplace.