By Scott Simonsen, Owner, Old World Craftsmen, Greenwich
AI is not writing our articles!
At Old World Craftsmen, the author of all of our design and construction articles is a veteran business owner with 3 decades in the construction field, with contributions from a veteran partner architect and designer.
Does it matter?
While AI is the big buzz right now, and there is much talk of it approaching human level intelligence more quickly than once thought, it’s not there yet. There are four shortfalls as of the date of this 4/2026 article.
1. Accuracy and Experience: While AI’s ability to collate information and research from an unimaginable array of data on the internet, it is still prone to large mistakes and “hallucinations.” During our research on AI’s performance in providing pricing and industry information our observation is that the various agents are still prone to serious blunders. It still lacks the ability to “sanity check” its results. Straight talk from an expert human still beats out AI for accuracy and truthful information.
2. Locally Specific Information: We have to remember that AI is trawling an immense and unfiltered set of publicly available online information. Our articles are written for people looking for real information on local building codes, costs and resources for building projects in the Westchester County, NY and Fairfield County, CT areas. While we can prompt AI to give locally relevant information, it is still pulling data from across the nation and world.
3. Data Sets: In my conversations with people with expertise with AI, they have explained that a near term focus of AI agents is developing curated data sets for reliable AI outputs. Some of the industry specific AI agents are trained on specific and curated/verified data sources to provide legal, tax, financial, coding and other industry specific outputs with accuracy. As an example, many times when I’ve prompted AI for construction-related information, it has used Reddit as a source. Reddit is filled with millions of opinions of people who may or may not have any expertise in the industry.
You have to bring a very critical eye and significant knowledge base to the table to assess opinions and “information” with popular online communities like that.
4. The “I don’t know” caveat: Any expert in a field with some life experience knows the limits of his expertise, and if they are honest will openly tell you when you are asking them a question that they don’t have the knowledge base to answer with precision and facts. In the work I’ve done with AI to date, I’ve never had it say, “I don’t know about that.” It seems like AI (at this writing) is programmed, when asked a question it doesn’t have the fact base to answer, will offer ideas and conjecture. Sometimes it will be completely made up.
As an example, I asked Claude recently which Facebook groups would be good to advertise a new job position. It made up the names of Facebook groups and when “cross-examined,” Claude admitted that he made up the names of the groups – Claude said he doesn’t have access to the names of the groups. So he made some up!! Our articles do not contain anything “made up.”
AI Research is not a substitute for Experience
Note from the Author: Our articles are written for people in our area who are looking for information that is already “filtered” by a pro. They are designed to appeal to an audience who wants the honest truth without a lot of sycophantic sugar-coating. As the author, it is my wish that they are a breath of fresh air when compared to the watered down content that is clogging the internet, written by AI or marketing teams from companies like Houzz and HomeAdvisor, for example.
Want to learn from a real expert? Visit our Learning Center and Cost/Pricing for articles written with decades of real-world construction experience.
Scott Simonsen is a graduate of Cooper Union’s select Electrical Engineering program. He spent three years in communications and electronic design before identifying his true passion—construction and home remodeling – launching his Design-Build firm, Old World Craftsmen LLC, in 1998. With his engineering mindset, Scott brings to projects a keen design sense and engineering problem solving approach – a rare combination in construction today. Scott takes pride in applying modern construction techniques with the old-fashioned care and craftsmanship that has been the foundation of Old World Craftsmen.
See also:
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How Long Will It Take To Design My Project?
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How Can I Donate or Recycle Salvageable Cabinetry and Fixtures from My Renovation?
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How Much Does an Addition Cost?
How much does a basement renovation cost?
What Does An Interior Designer Do? Essential Questions to Ask When Interviewing a Designer
How Much Does a Bathroom Cost?
How Much Does a New Kitchen Cost?
How Can I Avoid Paying Too Much for My Renovation?