AI Firms Pay Millions for Workplace and Physical Workflow Data
AI companies are paying businesses and individuals for internal records and recordings of physical tasks to train agents in professional and manual labor.
Artificial intelligence companies are shifting their data acquisition strategies away from general web scraping toward the acquisition of specific human workplace behaviors and physical workflows. To train AI agents in decision-making, collaboration, and problem-solving, firms are offering businesses six- and seven-figure sums for anonymized internal records, including emails, Slack messages, and presentations.
This trend extends to the physical realm, where AI companies are paying individuals to record everyday manual tasks such as cooking and warehouse packing. These recordings are used to teach robots how to execute manual labor with greater efficiency and speed.
While some firms seek to buy this data, other organizations are taking a proprietary approach. Certain law firms are developing their own AI systems based on historical legal knowledge to maintain a competitive advantage. Business Insider has launched a series titled The AI Data Grab to investigate these evolving methods of workplace data acquisition.
