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I spend most of my time at work thinking about what is written in a document, not its format. Recently, however, I became obsessed with the PDF, which has become part of the scaffolding of digital life. Pooh-poohed upon its release in the mid-1990s, it is now the second most common file type online. It even has a fan club, the PDF Association.
Crucially to any good story,
it also has enemies. I spoke to Matan Gavish, the head of Factify, a startup that’s trying to supplant the PDF. He argues that old document formats are hopelessly outmoded, in part because they work poorly with AI agents, but also because they are common vehicles for cyber warfare. Time will tell whether or not he is right, but one thing is clear to me: no piece of digital technology is safe from AI disruption, including office software. Incumbents beware. | 
