Original · Unique Research · 2026-03-22 · Shanghai
Editor's note: This is the complete English rendition of Unique Research's March 22, 2026 interview-based article. First-person commentary belongs to the original author, and the answers present Zhou Ze'an's views. Biyou Technology and Zhou Ze'an are romanized renderings, not assertions of verified official English names. The March 2023 release sequence, 12-day lead, 99% paid-offering model, customer behavior, and more than 25 Tools-level models are source claims, not independently verified measurements. The disappearance of PPT and the proposed AI-era document format are predictions, not established outcomes. The source describes 13 years working on documents at Biyou; a separate November 13, 2025 interview dates the company's founding to 2020 while describing roughly 13 years in the field. These source accounts are not silently reconciled. The earlier article's 28-model figure is not substituted for this article's more-than-25 figure.
Unique Awards · Guest Interview
After 13 Years Working on Office Documents,
He Says There Will Be No More PPT in the AI Era
"AI will genuinely redefine how we create content for office work."
Interviewee: Zhou Ze'an | Founder & CEO of Biyou Technology
Industry profile: Serial entrepreneur and veteran of AI applications | 13 years specializing in office documents
Flagship product: ChatPPT (released 12 days before Microsoft's Copilot)
In March 2023, Biyou Technology released ChatPPT.
Only 12 days later did Microsoft announce Office Copilot.
This was not luck. Zhou Ze'an has spent 13 years working on office documents at Biyou Technology. From the earliest document tools to today's AI office applications, he has experienced the industry's entire transition from the tool era to the intelligence era.
I recently had an in-depth conversation with him. His central judgment was straightforward:
The future form of AI office documents
will no longer be defined exclusively by traditional Office software.
In other words, formats such as PPT, Excel, and Word that we have known for decades may be redefined in the AI era—and may even gradually disappear.
01 Not a Tool Upgrade, but a Reconstruction of How We Work
Many people understand AI office applications as "efficiency tools": AI makes PPT generation faster, document writing smoother, and spreadsheets smarter.
But Zhou Ze'an thinks that understanding is too shallow.
"
What we call office documents are simply a medium of interaction within our workflows. AI office applications change how we interact. That changes not only the efficiency of creating the medium, but also the way we work, because delivery itself changes.
He offered a very concrete example:
In a traditional workplace, an unwritten rule says, "You have to be good at making PPTs to report your work well." You may be highly capable, but if you cannot package your achievements in an attractive slide deck, your manager may fail to see your value.
In the AI era, however, that logic could break down.
When creating a workplace report becomes the immediate presentation of an AI-generated result,
"doing good work" supplies better input beforehand,
and AI will automatically present your achievements to your managers and colleagues in the best way.
Put simply: in the future workplace, the skill of making a good PPT may no longer matter. What matters will be what you have done and thought through. AI will help you find the best way to express it.
This is not a tool upgrade. It is a reconstruction of how we work.
02 Users Never Pay for "Efficiency"; They Pay for "Results"
The AI office market is bustling, but one harsh question remains: who pays?
Zhou Ze'an's answer was direct:
"
All payment is ultimately payment for results, so 99% of our paid offerings work this way: all results are pre-rendered, and users pay for the ones they choose.
What does that mean?
Many AI office products sell themselves as "faster," "smarter," or "one-click generation." But Zhou Ze'an has found that users who are genuinely willing to pay have never come for "efficiency."
They are willing to pay because AI gives them a result they can use immediately—not a half-finished product or a draft that needs reworking, but a finished piece they can send directly to a client or manager, or use in a formal setting.
He made the point very clearly:
"
What we pursue has never been an upgrade in tool efficiency. It is more about delivering office-content results. Efficiency is the process; presentation and expression are the ultimate need.
This is also why Biyou's most loyal paying users are not ordinary white-collar workers who "want to try AI," but people in finance, education, marketing, and other industries who need office-work results frequently.
They have to produce large quantities of documents, reports, and proposals every day, making their need for "results" non-negotiable. They do not want a "faster tool." They want to "get this done."
03 What Has AI Solved—and What New Problems Has It Created?
Zhou Ze'an did not avoid the new problems that AI office applications bring.
First, AI has indeed solved some real pain points:
• Getting started with creative material promptly: one sentence can get AI to help you organize your first ideas.
• Presenting content results: moving from "creator of results" to "decision-maker choosing among them."
But new problems come with it:
• Trust in content: there is still enormous room to improve the reliability of documents created by AI.
• Independent thinking: if documents originate in our own thinking, does AI's supposed "ability to fill in the gaps" make our expression increasingly lose its distinctive personal edges?
Zhou Ze'an posed a sharp question:
In the future, will every document or act of expression
become increasingly "comprehensive and similar"?
When everyone's PPT is AI-generated and everyone's expression has been "optimized" by AI, where is differentiation? Where is individuality? Where is genuine human thinking?
This question remains unanswered.
04 What Form Will Future Documents Take?
In the interview, Zhou Ze'an said that one thing he most wanted to do in 2026 was define a document format specific to the AI era.
That is an interesting judgment.
In the PC era, we gained Word, Excel, and PPT. In the mobile-internet era, we gained collaborative documents, online spreadsheets, and lightweight presentations. Each technological cycle creates document forms of its own.
What form will documents take in the AI era?
Zhou Ze'an's answer was:
Must office documents, as we imagine them,
always exist as standalone PowerPoint or Excel formats? Could they instead be an instantaneous act of creating and presenting?
His view is that future documents will no longer be conceived as "files," but as "immediate presentations": when you need one, AI will generate the most suitable form of expression in real time, based on your input, context, and audience.
It may no longer be a PPT or a Word document, but a fluid, intelligent presentation that adapts to the context.
05 With Major Companies Entering, Is There Still Room for Startups?
Microsoft, Google, and Notion are all building AI office applications. As major companies' foundation models grow stronger, where is the space for startups?
Zhou Ze'an's view was unexpected:
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For Biyou Technology, the opportunities outweigh the challenges. What we remain committed to is continually improving our ability to deliver outputs close to users' actual scenarios. We can treat foundation models as the largest underlying base, while continuing to focus on discovering insights and segments in use cases and end-user needs. That is what we, as a startup, should be doing.
He laid out one figure: behind Biyou Technology's Doc-AI-Agent, the team has more than 25 vertical models at the Tools level alone.
These are not things a general-purpose large model can replace. They are know-how accumulated over 13 years in office-document scenarios, deep insight into user behavior, and precise understanding of specific use cases.
He believes that major companies and startups will increasingly be partners:
• Startups will use foundation models to explore a broader range of general-purpose deliverables.
• Foundation-model companies will integrate startups' high-value output services for specific scenarios into their own general-purpose scenarios.
What truly cannot be copied
is insight into user needs and sensitivity to usage scenarios.
Closing Thoughts
After speaking with Zhou Ze'an, I was left with one strong impression:
The AI office market is lively, but the vast majority of players are still competing at the "tool layer": whose PPT generation is faster, whose document writing is smoother, whose interface is cooler.
But Zhou Ze'an wants to do something else:
Break free of the constraints of traditional Office software
and formally define what the AI era should have:
new AI office-creation workflows, formats, and products.
13 years ago, he began building document tools. 13 years later, he wants to redefine the document itself.
If his judgment is right, the concept of "PPT" may genuinely disappear from future office work.
It would be replaced by an entirely new form that is more flexible, intelligent, immediate, and closer to how humans actually express themselves.
A product is simply a form of validation and expression;
the real goal is to discover and deliver
an entirely new paradigm for office work.
Selected Q&A
Q: Do you identify more as an Office veteran, a serial entrepreneur, or a product practitioner in this wave of AI office applications?
A "real" product practitioner in the AI office wave—a hands-on explorer on the front line.
Q: If people at the event could remember only one sentence from you, what would you want it to be?
AI will genuinely redefine how we create content for office work.
Q: Do you ultimately deliver tools, content results, or part of an organization's capacity to produce office work?
What we pursue has never been an upgrade in tool efficiency. It is more about delivering office-content results. Efficiency is the process; presentation and expression are the ultimate need.
Q: Which customers are most willing to pay now, and why are they the first to do so?
Results-oriented users with frequent office-output needs, in industries such as finance, education, and marketing. First, it is about frequency and depth: only frequent use leads to deep use. Second, they understand that AI office applications have never been about the gimmick of generating something with one sentence. AI creation of office documents is more about helping them communicate their own views and knowledge to an audience in the best form and with their own individuality.
Q: If a competitor copied your models, features, and interface, what would still be impossible to copy?
Insight into user needs and sensitivity to usage scenarios, I would say.
Q: Do you currently place more importance on revenue per customer, renewal rates, or frequency of use?
Frequency and commercial behavior. Frequency of use validates product strength and insight; the commercial act of paying is a second validation of value. Needs that cannot pass commercial validation are false needs.
Q: What do you think of the statement, "When AI takes over data flows, humans focus on creating value"?
That is the reality taking shape, and it is also a necessary process in a "results delivery" orientation. In fact, most AI office products are still simply taking over a few processes.
Q: If foundation models keep improving and model providers absorb more and more capabilities, do you think the space for startups such as Biyou will grow or shrink?
For Biyou Technology, the opportunities outweigh the challenges. What we remain committed to is continually improving our ability to deliver outputs close to users' actual scenarios. We can treat foundation models as the largest underlying base, while continuing to focus on discovering insights and segments in use cases and end-user needs.
This article was compiled from an in-depth interview with Zhou Ze'an, founder & CEO of Biyou Technology.