LibreOffice is making a clear pitch to privacy-conscious users: if you do not want artificial intelligence in your document editor, that choice is now part of the product. The open source office suite says it will not add AI to its software for the foreseeable future, and that its default installation will remain free of generative AI features.
Why the decision matters
The Document Foundation, the nonprofit behind LibreOffice, says the goal is to protect user control over data. In its view, office software should not require documents to be uploaded to a server just to work well. The organization says that matters most for people and organizations handling confidential, legally privileged, or personal information.
The foundation’s position is not a blanket rejection of AI. Instead, it says the current state of the technology does not meet its requirements for default inclusion in LibreOffice.
What LibreOffice says it requires
According to the foundation, any AI integration would need to satisfy several conditions, including:
- users’ data staying on their device;
- no reliance on a single AI provider;
- no need for a network connection for core software functions.
LibreOffice said it has not found an integration that meets all of those requirements today.
What users can still do
LibreOffice says people who want AI tools can still add them through extensions. Those add-ons can connect the document editor to local AI models, allowing users to opt in without changing the default experience for everyone else.
A broader software trend in reverse
Many software makers are adding chatbots and other AI features to productivity tools, sometimes by routing data through remote systems that users do not fully control. LibreOffice is taking the opposite path: keeping AI out of the main product and treating that absence as a feature rather than a limitation.
The organization says this is an assessment of current technology, not a permanent verdict on the sector. It also says it will keep watching how the field develops.
For now, though, the message is simple: if you want an office suite that stays local by default, LibreOffice is positioning itself as one of the few mainstream options that says no AI is the point.