Engineer Builds Free AI-Powered Alternatives to Adobe and Microsoft Suites

An Atlanta-based software engineer has created free replacements for Adobe's Creative Suite and Microsoft Office, using AI to generate the code. The project, called ArtCraft, was shared on Reddit by user "u/ai_art_is_art", later identified as Brandon Thomas. The suite includes PhotoCraft and PdfCraft, mirroring Adobe's paid software, which costs individuals $779.99 per year upfront or $69.99 monthly on an annual contract.

Thomas says he used Anthropic's Claude Opus 5.5 and the Rust programming language to build the tools, describing them as "clean-room" replacements based on publicly available file-format specifications, not Adobe's proprietary code. He denies being "just some vibe coder," citing 15 years in the industry. This week, ArtCraft also released WordCraft, DeckCraft, and GridCraft, targeting Microsoft Word, PowerPoint, and Excel. The software is available worldwide.

Legal experts remain cautious. Professor Andres Guadamuz of the University of Sussex noted on his blog Technollama that it is unclear how much code Claude wrote versus Thomas, and whether the "clean-room process" holds up. Adobe and Microsoft have not commented. While such free alternatives may not make legacy software obsolete, they could reduce profitability if widely adopted.