How we use AI
Made with a little help from AI, and looked after by a real person
Here is what the AI helped with, what it never touched, how every number gets double-checked, and the person who stands behind what you read.
What the AI did
The site was built with an AI model (Claude, made by Anthropic) working inside a coding tool. It wrote and edited the code, drafted the page text, read public sources such as federal wage tables and store shelf prices, and ran the tests. It did this under instructions from a person who set the rules, looked at the results and decided what to keep.
What the AI did not do
- It does not make up numbers. Every figure on a page is worked out by code from a dated source, or is labelled as our own estimate.
- It did not write fake people, reviews, quotes or credentials. There are none on this site.
- It does not see what you type. Your numbers are worked out in your browser and are not sent to us or to any AI service.
- There is no chatbot and no AI-written reply to your email. A person reads it.
How the numbers are checked
An AI can be wrong, so the checks do not rely on it. Each input carries a label (checked at the source, published, or our estimate), a source and a date. Automated tests compare the formulas with exact results and with government reference values, and a wording test blocks advice or sales language. Where no source exists, for example for most labor hours, the page says the figure is our estimate and lets you change it.
If a figure is wrong, tell us. Confirmed errors are fixed and logged with the date.
What a review involves
A review is a person checking the work by hand. The checks cover the working features (every input, the shared link, saving, printing, and use with a keyboard and on a phone), the figures (a table must agree with its calculator), the sources (each one must exist, say what we say it says, and carry the right date), and the wording (it must stay information only).
Some reviews also use a second AI model, a different one from the model that built the page, to read the work and look for errors. When that happens it is an extra check, not a replacement for the checking by hand, and what it finds is checked before anything changes.
A page that has been reviewed shows the reviewer and the date near the top. A page without such a line has not been reviewed yet. The line does not say which kind of review was done, and a review does not make a figure certain: the sources and the checks do.
The people behind it
TheCostDesk, a trading name and not a registered company, runs this site and is responsible for everything published on it.
Pages are reviewed as described above, and a reviewed page says so with its date. The figures are re-checked when the data is updated.
Questions about how the site is made: [email protected].
What this does not mean
Using AI does not make a figure more or less correct; the sources and the checks do. The planning ranges are information, not quotes or advice. See how the numbers are built.