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LibreOffice Declares ‘No AI’ — Reading the Inverted Structure Where Not Having AI Becomes a Competitive Advantage

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The Microsoft 365 plan with Copilot is priced at 4,497 yen per month, amounting to approximately 54,000 yen annually. For a company with 10 employees, that totals 540,000 yen per year.

Upon hearing this amount, one might think, “Well, it’s a necessary expense,” or question, “Do we really need that much AI?” For those with the latter sentiment, LibreOffice’s latest move is not to be overlooked.

The open-source document editing software LibreOffice has clearly declared that it will “not include AI.” This is not merely a refusal to follow trends; they have decided to use the absence of AI as a weapon. Analyzing the structure behind this decision reveals surprising insights for small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs).

The Reality of ‘AI Inclusion’ Being a Pretext for Price Increases

Currently, all software is beginning to tout “AI inclusion.” And almost without exception, prices are rising.

Microsoft has set the monthly fee for the Microsoft 365 Business plan with Copilot at 4,497 yen. The standard plan without AI is priced at 1,874 yen per month. The difference is 2,623 yen per month, creating a price gap of about 2.4 times solely for the AI feature. Google Workspace is similar, with the Business Standard featuring Gemini priced around 1,700 yen per month, while the AI-enhanced Business Plus is even higher.

The same phenomenon is occurring in the smartphone world. The increased demand for chips and memory for AI processing is driving up device prices. A topic of discussion on Hacker News highlighted how the supply crunch of AI memory chips is impacting components for low-cost smartphones. In other words, even those who do not use AI are being forced to buy expensive products due to AI.

LibreOffice is free. In lieu of AI features, it continues to offer basic functionalities such as document creation, spreadsheets, and presentations at no cost. If a company with 10 employees uses LibreOffice, the difference from the Microsoft 365 plan with Copilot amounts to 540,000 yen annually. Over five years, that totals 2.7 million yen, a sum close to the annual salary of one employee for SMEs.

Do Consumers Really Want AI?

There is interesting data. According to a survey by MIT Technology Review, 52% of U.S. adults feel “anxiety” about advancements in AI, while only 36% feel “excitement.” A 2023 survey by Pew Research Center also found that 52% of respondents expressed “concern” about the spread of AI in daily life, significantly outpacing the 10% who expressed “expectation.”

Despite this, the monthly active users of ChatGPT have surpassed 200 million. How do we interpret this contradiction?

The answer is simple. “AI that you choose to use yourself” and “AI that is automatically included” are different things. Users of ChatGPT actively input prompts by their own volition. In contrast, the AI embedded in Word or Excel operates without users knowing where their data is being sent. This “sense of it operating on its own” breeds anxiety.

For SME owners, having cloud-based AI residing in software that edits documents containing customer data or financial information poses a significant risk. If even a single data breach occurs, large corporations might manage with a press conference, but SMEs could lose their clients and face dire consequences.

In this context, LibreOffice’s “no AI” stance is akin to a security declaration. Data remains local and is not sent to external servers. This simple fact can become a selling point for SMEs that have privacy-sensitive customers.

The Inverted Structure Where ‘Not Including’ Becomes Differentiation

Let’s organize the structural changes occurring here.

Cost Structure of AI Inclusion:

• Rising subscription fees for software (in the tens of thousands annually)
• Internal resources required for learning and operating AI features
• Costs for establishing data governance (creating regulations, employee training, audit compliance)
• Costs for handling issues (AI misoutputs, information leakage risks)

Cost Structure of Non-AI Inclusion:

• Zero software costs (in the case of LibreOffice)
• Ability to maintain existing business workflows
• Data remains internal, eliminating additional governance costs
• In certain industries, saying “We do not use AI” can enhance trust

When viewing this contrast, one realizes that the premise that all companies should include AI is itself questionable.

Particularly in professions such as legal services, medical administration, caregiving, education, and local manufacturing, where “trust with customers” is fundamental to revenue, opting not to include AI can be a rational choice. If an accounting firm can assert, “Our clients’ data is never touched by AI,” that becomes a differentiator.

Of course, this is not an argument against using AI. It’s about distinguishing where to use AI and where not to.

AI can be employed for internal knowledge searches or FAQ responses. It can be used for summarizing meeting minutes. However, AI should not be included in software that edits documents containing customer data. This “selective non-inclusion” can become the most cost-effective strategy for SMEs.

So, What Should Be Done?

Just three things.

1. Divide your business into ‘areas where AI is needed’ and ‘areas where AI is unnecessary.’
There is no need to include AI in all operations. For companies where document creation and spreadsheets are sufficient, LibreOffice is more than adequate. Start by inventorying monthly subscriptions. If you’re paying for Microsoft 365 for everyone, simply confirming whether everyone truly needs Copilot could save you tens of thousands annually.

2. Transform ‘no AI’ into a trust message for customers.
Adding a single line to your privacy policy stating, “We do not use AI processing in our document management,” can enhance trust from specific customer segments. The cost is zero. There’s no reason not to do it.

3. If using AI, ensure it’s in a ‘self-selected’ manner.
AI that operates on its own is less suitable for SMEs than AI that is called upon only when needed. Use ChatGPT or Claude in specific business scenarios while employing AI-free document editing software. This combination strikes the best balance between cost and risk.

What LibreOffice’s Declaration Reflects

LibreOffice’s decision may seem like an ideological stance from the open-source community. However, the essence is different.

The market is beginning to realize that “including AI everywhere is the right answer” is not universally true, and that “there are places where not including it is more beneficial.”

As long as Microsoft is on the side of selling AI subscriptions at 54,000 yen per person annually, it is natural for them to continue asserting, “AI is necessary for everyone.” However, it is the SME owners who foot that bill.

A system costing 3 million yen becoming 50,000 yen — that kind of AI utilization should be fully promoted. However, something that used to cost zero yen annually now costing 540,000 yen — that is not “AI utilization” but rather “AI billing.”

What SME owners should consider is not whether to use AI or not, but “where to use it and where not to.” LibreOffice’s declaration poses that very question.