The whole point of Ask a Shop Owner is an AI that does not make things up. Here is how.
Grounded grounding
The AI only answers from a private library of conversations with working shop owners, the real decisions, numbers, mistakes, and fixes. It is not connected to the generic web. When the library does not cover your question, it says so.
Source attribution
Answers cite the business owner sources they pull from, so you can see whose experience you are leaning on.
What it will not do
- It will not give legal, tax, medical, or financial advice.
- It will not invent statistics, studies, or quotes.
- It will not pretend confidence when the library is thin on a topic.
- It will not write content that violates our acceptable use policy.
How we reduce hallucinations
- Retrieval-augmented generation against the vetted library, with hard limits on free-form generation.
- Prompt patterns that require the model to ground claims in retrieved sources.
- Continuous evaluation on a benchmark of business owner questions.
How we use your conversations
Like every major AI product, we use the conversations and content that flow through Ask a Shop Owner to operate the Service, evaluate quality, grow the library, and train and fine-tune our own models. Our rights over that data are broad on purpose and include the ability to use, license, transfer, or sell it and any derivatives, and to transfer everything in connection with a sale of the business. What we will not do is run ads against your conversations or use them to build ad targeting profiles about you. For the full scope of rights and retention, see our Terms and Privacy Policy.
Human in the loop
AI output is a starting point, not a verdict. You are the business owner. Always use your judgment, especially for decisions involving people, money, or law.