Rohit Patel, a former director at Meta Superintelligence Labs, has left the company after eight years to launch his own artificial intelligence startup. The venture aims to replace traditional workplace software such as Microsoft Office and Google Workspace.
In an exclusive report, TechCrunch reported that Patel is working on Ndoc, a unified AI-powered platform that combines three components: Stage, Narrative and Model. Patel aims to change how companies create documents, analyze data and present findings by bringing these tasks into a single workspace. Narrative contains analyses, citations, figures and explanations behind the results, while Model stores the underlying datasets and Python scripts used to produce them.
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Patel believes users should be able to verify AI-generated work, particularly when businesses rely on its output to make important decisions.
“Even if you don’t know any Python, you can ask [the AI chat] to explain, ‘Hey, what does this script do? Which line has my formula?’ And you can verify that formula. There’s nothing hidden behind the curtain here,” Patel said.
Unlike tools that add AI features to existing spreadsheets and documents, Ndoc was developed as a unified workspace. Patel said early users were particularly interested in having their work available in one place rather than switching between different applications.
The startup is built and fine-tuned using a combination of open-source models. Patel believes this approach makes Ndoc considerably cheaper to operate than alternatives built on frontier AI models.
Ndoc documents can be exported as a single “.ndoc.html” file that opens in a browser. Patel also plans to open-source the platform so other developers can build compatible applications without being tied to a single software provider.
“Humans can only move at human pace, whereas…I can move at the pace of what AI can do,” Patel added.
Ndoc faces significant competition from major technology companies, including OpenAI, Anthropic and Google, which are developing AI tools for workplace productivity. Patel believes Ndoc’s key advantage is its unified approach, in contrast with tools that integrate AI into existing applications.
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“Companies are basically attaching AI to spreadsheets, and it fills your cells for you,” he said. “It just sort of kills my soul. This is like if you just figured out electricity, and then you decided the best use case is to put lights on my bulls that till my soil. No. Get a tractor.”
Ndoc is currently conducting an enterprise pilot and offering an alpha release to people on its waiting list. Patel hopes to release a beta version in the coming weeks, with a potential full launch next year.
Patel is among several high-profile executives and researchers to have recently left Meta. Others include Chief Global Affairs Officer Joel Kaplan and Emily Dalton Smith, head of product for AI for Work.