Meta AI director Rohit Patel leaves to take on Microsoft Office and Google Workspace
Rohit Patel is departing Meta after eight years working on AI evaluations and reinforcement learning, TechCrunch has exclusively learned. His startup, Ndoc, aims to take on Microsoft Office Suite.
Rohit Patel, Meta's former AI director, is leaving the company to create an AI-native alternative to Microsoft Office and Google Workspace. Patel, who previously worked at Meta Superintelligence Labs, has launched Ndoc, a startup that aims to replace the fragmented way people work across tools like Excel, Word, PowerPoint, and Tableau.
Ndoc brings together three components in one layout: the Stage tab for presentations of key findings, the Narrative tab for analyses and cited figures, and the Model tab for datasets and scripts. Patel's background in reinforcement learning and ensuring AI output trustworthiness is evident in Ndoc's design, which allows users to verify formulas and see underlying scripts.
The platform is built using open-source models, making it cheaper to run than alternatives. Patel's ultimate goal is to reinvent the file itself, with plans to open source the .ndoc.html format. Ndoc is currently in an enterprise pilot and will offer an alpha version to a limited number of customers before a full launch next year.
Patel acknowledges the threat of established AI labs like OpenAI and Google, but believes his approach is different, with a focus on end-to-end solutions and open-source principles.
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