Effective date: June 1, 2026

Last updated: June 1, 2026

Applies to: cardinal-stack.com and all Cardinal Stack Services

Cardinal Stack sells AI governance. This page holds us to the same standard we build for our clients.

This AI & Data Usage Policy explains how Cardinal Stack uses artificial intelligence tools in the delivery of our Services, how your business data is handled when it passes through those tools, what we do not do with that data, and what rights and responsibilities apply when you use our Deliverables with AI platforms of your own.

This Policy should be read together with our Privacy Policy, Disclaimer, and Terms of Use, all available at cardinal-stack.com.

1. How We Use AI Tools in Our Delivery Process

Cardinal Stack uses AI language models and related tools as part of our internal drafting, structuring, and quality-review process. This applies to all products and tiers, including AI Brain Training Starter Kits and all AI Operations Bible Architecture Packages.

Specifically, AI tools may be used to:

• Draft initial versions of knowledge base entries, FAQ responses, objection-handling scripts, brand voice guides, and other Deliverable components based on your intake responses

• Structure, format, and organize content across multi-document packages to ensure internal consistency

• Quality-review completed drafts for tone, clarity, and alignment with your stated brand voice and compliance requirements

• Generate image prompt suggestions for Brand Look Kit deliverables

AI tools are not used to:

• Make final editorial decisions about your Deliverables without human review

• Contact you, respond to support inquiries, or represent Cardinal Stack in any client communication without disclosure

• Evaluate, score, or make determinations about your application for Architecture Tier services

2. Human Review and Accountability

Every Deliverable delivered by Cardinal Stack has been reviewed, edited, and approved by a human before it reaches you.

AI tools assist our process — they do not replace our judgment. All Deliverables go through a human review stage before delivery. We are accountable for the final content of everything we send you, regardless of which tools assisted in producing it.

If any part of your Deliverable contains an error, inconsistency, or omission, that is our responsibility to correct — not the AI tool's. Your revision rights under our Terms of Use apply in full.

3. Which AI Tools We Use

We work with a range of AI language models and platforms. At the time of this Policy's effective date, these may include:

• Anthropic Claude (claude.ai and API)

• OpenAI ChatGPT (chat.openai.com and API)

• Google Gemini

• Other AI writing, structuring, or review tools as appropriate to the task

We do not commit to a single AI provider and may use different tools for different tasks or different client projects. The specific tools used for your Deliverable are not disclosed by default, but you may request this information by contacting info@cardinal-stack.com.

Each AI provider operates under its own terms of service and data handling policies. We encourage you to review the policies of the providers listed above if this is relevant to your own compliance requirements.

4. How Your Business Data Is Handled in AI Tools

When you submit an intake form, questionnaire, or any information about your business, that information may be included in prompts sent to third-party AI tools as part of producing your Deliverables.

We take the following steps to protect your data in this process:

• We do not include personally identifiable information about your customers, employees, or end users in AI prompts unless you have explicitly provided it as part of your business content and it is necessary for the Deliverable

• We do not include payment information, login credentials, or sensitive personal data in AI tool inputs

• We use AI platforms that, to the best of our knowledge at the time of use, do not train on inputs submitted via their API or business-tier interfaces — however, we cannot guarantee the data practices of third-party providers and recommend you review their policies directly

• We treat all business information you share with us as confidential, as described in our Terms of Use (Section 7)

We do not sell, license, or share your business data with any third party for marketing, research, or commercial purposes.

5. What We Do Not Do

Cardinal Stack does not:

• Use your business data, brand information, or intake responses to train, fine-tune, or improve any AI model — our own or a third party's

• Feed your completed Deliverables back into AI systems for use with other clients

• Share identifiable details from your intake or your business with any other Cardinal Stack client

• Use AI-generated output as a substitute for the human expertise, review, and strategic judgment included in your engagement

• Claim that our Deliverables are entirely AI-generated or entirely human-written — they are a combination of both, reviewed and finalized by a human

6. Your Use of Deliverables with AI Platforms

Our Deliverables — including Brand Voice Guides, Brand Look documents, Knowledge Bases, Conversation Scripts, and Governance Frameworks — are designed to be uploaded to, pasted into, or otherwise used with AI platforms of your choosing. This is the intended use, and we encourage it.

When you use your Deliverables with AI platforms, the following terms apply:

• You are responsible for the AI platform you choose. Cardinal Stack is not responsible for how any third-party AI platform processes, stores, uses, or responds to the content of your Deliverables. Review the data and usage policies of any AI platform before uploading your documents.

• You are responsible for the outputs your AI produces. Our Deliverables govern what your AI is instructed to do. They do not guarantee how any AI platform will respond. You remain responsible for reviewing, monitoring, and correcting your AI's outputs before they reach your customers.

• You may not use Deliverables for harmful, deceptive, or unlawful purposes. This includes using your AI system to mislead customers, make false claims, impersonate real people or entities, facilitate fraud, or violate any applicable law or platform terms of service. Our Acceptable Use Policy applies in full.

• Governance documents are starting points, not guarantees of compliance. The Brand Governance & Compliance materials and Hard No guardrails in your Deliverables are strategic frameworks, not legal advice or certification. You remain responsible for ensuring your AI system and business practices comply with all laws, regulations, and platform rules applicable to your industry and jurisdiction. See our Disclaimer for full details.

7. Data Retention and Deletion

Business information collected through your intake forms and used to produce your Deliverables is retained for 12 months after delivery, to support revision requests and record-keeping. After that period, it is deleted from our active systems unless legal or contractual obligations require longer retention.

You may request earlier deletion of your business data by contacting info@cardinal-stack.com. We will honor deletion requests within 30 days, subject to any overriding legal obligations. Note that data already processed through third-party AI tools cannot be retroactively deleted from those providers' systems — this is a limitation of all AI-assisted services, and we disclose it here in the interest of transparency.

8. FTC and Regulatory Disclosure

Cardinal Stack complies with applicable FTC guidelines regarding AI-assisted content and commercial services. In accordance with those guidelines:

• We disclose that AI tools are used in the creation of our Deliverables (this Policy, and our Disclaimer §5, serve as that disclosure)

• We do not represent our Deliverables as purely human-authored when AI tools contributed to their production

• We do not make earnings or performance claims that are not clearly qualified as estimates (see our Earnings & Results Disclaimer)

As AI-specific regulations continue to develop across jurisdictions — including the EU AI Act, evolving FTC guidance, and sector-specific rules — we will update this Policy to reflect our compliance practices. The "Last updated" date at the top of this page reflects when material changes were last made.

9. AI Tools and Confidential Information — A Note for Enterprise Clients

If you are engaging Cardinal Stack for an Architecture Tier project and your business operates under sector-specific confidentiality requirements — such as HIPAA, financial services regulations, attorney-client privilege, or contractual NDAs with your own clients — please disclose this during your intake or application process.

We will work with you to determine what intake information is appropriate to include in AI-assisted workflows and what should be handled through AI-free drafting processes. We cannot guarantee AI-free delivery by default, but we can accommodate specific confidentiality requirements when disclosed in advance.

10. Changes to This Policy

AI tools, their data practices, and the regulations that govern them change frequently. We will update this Policy when our practices change materially or when new regulatory requirements apply. Changes will be posted at cardinal-stack.com/ai-policy with an updated "Last updated" date.

We will not notify existing clients of minor updates. For material changes that affect how we handle data from ongoing engagements, we will make reasonable efforts to notify affected clients by email.

11. Contact

Questions about this Policy — including requests for information about which AI tools were used in your Deliverable, data deletion requests, or confidentiality disclosures — can be directed to:

Email: info@cardinal-stack.com

Website: cardinal-stack.com

We will respond to all Policy-related inquiries within 5 business days.