How HullGrade uses AI

Plain-English summary | Updated October 2026

AI does much of the reading and research in HullGrade. Here's what it does, what it sees, and what you control. This page is a summary — the Terms of Service and Privacy Policy are the full versions, and they govern.

Where AI does the work

Reads your invoices — pulls the date, vendor, work done, and cost into a service record.
Studies your manuals — so schedules and answers come from the book for your equipment.
Researches your boat — proposes the equipment likely aboard your make and model.
Suggests maintenance — a schedule for each piece of equipment, with the manual page cited when it came from one.
Estimates value — an automated number, not an appraisal.
Captain Pel — your onboard assistant. Answers questions and drafts tasks, records, and checklists.
Buyer questions — on a public listing, a separate assistant answers buyers from the history the seller chose to show.

Which AI, and what it sees

Most features run on a third-party AI: Anthropic's Claude. When you use one, what it needs goes to Anthropic as-is — the document, the manual, your boat's details, or your chat message.

Under Anthropic's commercial terms, your content is not used to train their models.
Anthropic may keep it briefly for security and abuse monitoring.
Some research searches the public web. Web sources can be wrong or out of date.

What you control

Private AI for invoices. Switch it on in Account and your service records and invoices are read on HullGrade's own hardware — never sent to a third-party AI. It's slower and has a harder time with messy scans. Manual study, research, value estimates, and Captain Pel still use the third-party AI.
Pel and your files. Off by default: Pel files an attachment by its name and never sends its contents from chat. Turn it on in Account if you want Pel to read what you attach. What you type always goes to the third-party AI — that's Pel itself.
Chats clear themselves. A Pel conversation is deleted after 7 days idle unless you save it.
You can see who read what. Every service record shows whether AI read it or you entered it by hand.

You stay in charge

Suggestions wait for you. Recommended maintenance sits in review until you accept it.
Pel drafts, you confirm. Nothing Pel proposes is saved until you say so.
It's all editable. Records, equipment, and tasks are yours to correct at any time.

AI gets things wrong

It can misread a date, miss a line item, or suggest an interval that doesn't fit your boat. Check its work against your manual and your boat before you rely on it. For anything safety-critical — fuel, electrical, steering, below the waterline — use a qualified marine professional. HullGrade is a tool, not a mechanic, surveyor, or appraiser.

On a public listing

The listing assistant answers from the maintenance history the seller chose to show, and a buyer's questions go to the third-party AI. We don't verify the seller's information, and removing personal details from shared records is best-effort. Get a survey before you buy.

What we don't do

We don't sell your information.
We don't use it for advertising.
Our team doesn't read your content, except to help when you ask, fix a problem, investigate abuse or a security issue, or when the law requires it.