VOLT Releases 'Hidden Cost Discovery AI' for Production Estimates: AI Pre-detects Additional Cost Risks by Uploading Quotes

For users of "VOLT," we have released the "Hidden Cost Discovery AI" at (https://volt-web.dev), which uses AI to pre-detect additional cost risks included in web production estimates.

Tool URL: https://volt-web.dev/tools/hidden-cost-detector

Why do "additional costs" occur in web production?

According to a survey by the Small and Medium Enterprise Agency, approximately 62% of small and medium-sized enterprises report having outsourced website production to external parties (Source: Small and Medium Enterprise Agency, "Survey on IT Utilization by SMEs"). However, web production quotes often contain technical jargon, and many clients cannot accurately decipher "what is included and what is not."

Making the initial quote look cheap, only to demand additional payments during production by saying, "This is an extra charge"—such troubles are endless in the web production industry. Specifically, there are patterns such as the following:

• Responsive design (smartphone display) is an extra charge
• Contact form installation is an extra charge
• SSL certificate (HTTPS) is an extra charge
• Minor text corrections after launch are an extra charge
• Photo selection and processing are an extra charge
• Basic SEO settings (meta information, etc.) are an extra charge
• Initial server/domain setup is an extra charge

The problem is not that these items are "not included," but that contracts are signed without the client realizing they are missing.

How to use the "Hidden Cost Discovery AI"

The operation is completed in 3 steps.

STEP 1 ── Upload the estimate

Upload a web production quote received from another company in image (JPG/PNG) or PDF format. Since it automatically recognizes text via OCR, it can even handle photos of paper quotes taken with a smartphone. It does not support handwritten quotes.

STEP 2 ── AI analyzes the estimate

The AI reads the items in the quote and compares them with the processes and functions generally required for web production. It extracts items not explicitly stated in the quote as "unlisted items" and displays the probability of additional costs occurring based on past production trouble cases in three levels: "High," "Medium," and "Low."

STEP 3 ── Output a checklist

The detection results are displayed as a "Pre-order Checklist." Each item comes with a specific confirmation phrase such as "Please ask the production company this," which can be used directly for inquiries to the production company.

Main items subject to detection

• Presence and scope of responsive design
• Initial setup and customization scope of CMS (WordPress, etc.)
• Maximum number of revisions and fee structure for exceeding them
• Procurement costs for materials (photos, illustrations, icons)
• Presence of post-launch maintenance and operation fees
• Ownership and management rights of domains and servers
• Scope of basic SEO settings
• Presence of access analysis tool implementation
• Handover of data (design files, etc.) after delivery

3 Use Cases

1. When comparing quotes from multiple companies

Company A is 500,000 yen, Company B is 800,000 yen. Even if Company A looks cheaper at first glance, it is not uncommon for Company B to include responsive design, SEO settings, and 3 months of maintenance. By running each company's quote through this tool, you can compare "included items" and "excluded items" in a unified format.

2. For internal approval before finalizing the budget

"Whether additional costs will occur" is the point that managers and decision-makers care about most. By attaching the tool's checklist to internal documents, it becomes easier to get approval by stating that "the validity of the quote has been verified by a third-party tool."

3. Final check before signing a contract with a production company

By performing a final check with this tool just before signing the contract and clarifying which items are "unlisted but confirmed" versus "unlisted and unconfirmed," you can prevent trouble regarding additional charges during production.

Future feature additions

The "Hidden Cost Discovery AI" applies the same standards to VOLT's own quotes. VOLT's instant quotes include all the above items as standard, and you can confirm through the tool that the quote design does not incur additional costs. In the future, we plan to add a function to compare quotes against industry-specific templates and a function to check contract clauses.

Service Overview

• Service Name: VOLT ── 24-hour Instant Quote Web Production
• URL: https://volt-web.dev
• Hidden Cost Discovery AI: https://volt-web.dev/tools/hidden-cost-detector
• Operator: Mycat Inc. (2-7-22 Mita, Meguro-ku, Tokyo)
• Corporate Site: https://mycat.business

In addition, we plan to expand industry-specific templates and provide a dashboard function that allows you to check the production process in real-time, further pursuing both transparency and speed in web production. We will also focus on creating an environment where clients can proceed with projects with peace of mind by improving the accuracy of AI-based estimates.