Check your account type first
Personal accounts on AI tools may use your conversations to improve the provider's models, depending on your privacy settings. Business and team plans generally exclude your data from training by default. Policies change, so read the current data settings for whatever tool your company uses before anyone uploads a job file.
What should never go in
- Contracts or bid numbers covered by an NDA
- Customer personal information, addresses, and payment details
- Payroll, wages, and anything from a personnel file
- Passwords and login credentials
- Security details or drawings for controlled facilities
Strip it and still get the answer
Most of the time you do not need the sensitive part. Replace real names with roles, real dollar figures with placeholders, and project names with a generic label. The AI can still reorganize the notes, find the answer, or draft the email.
The rule that matters most
AI drafts. A person approves. Nothing leaves your office that someone has not read, especially dimensions, dates, and dollar figures. Checking is fast. Fixing a wrong number after the owner has it is not.
Put it in writing
A one page policy beats a verbal warning. List the approved tools, the account type, the never paste list, and who checks output. Rules simple enough to remember are the only ones a busy crew follows.
Common questions
Does ChatGPT or Claude train on my company's documents?
On business and team plans, generally not by default. On personal accounts it depends on your settings. Always check the provider's current data policy.
Can I use AI on drawings and specs?
Usually yes for ordinary commercial work, as long as nothing is under an NDA or security restriction and you are on an account whose data settings you have checked.
What is the simplest safe habit?
Replace names and numbers with placeholders before pasting, and have a person check every output.
Stockton Dunkley is a project manager in the mechanical and plumbing trade and the founder of Dunkley AI Consulting in Logan, Utah. He builds custom AI workflows for contractors and leads AI implementation for a large contractor's new construction department.