Even if you choose the right words, people don't necessarily pay close attention. And if they want a commitment, they may assume that the numbers you give them

Even if you choose the right words, people don't necessarily pay close attention. And if they want a commitment, they may assume that the numbers you give them are a commitment regardless of how you phrase it. But even if they did listen closely to what you said, "estimate" is not even a great word. If your car is in a wreck, a body shop gives you an estimate to fix it, and they may treat that estimate as a commitment. It's pretty common practice that people are held to an estimate, or to not going over by a certain small percentage. Maybe we need a word like "forecast" or "prediction".