Who are the AI data companies, by lane?
The short answer
AI data companies sort into three lanes. Direct programs like micro1, Handshake AI, Mercor and Scale AI take company records such as SOPs, CRM data, chat and tickets. Marketplaces like Troveo and Protege license data. Expert-labor platforms like Surge AI hire contractors for expert work and take no company files.
"AI data company" covers firms with very different business models. The lane tells you whether a firm takes your records under a program, licenses them for you or takes no company records at all. That is the first thing we sort out.
In plain words
The lane matters more than the logo.
Think of it like this
Think of a library. One firm borrows the boxes from your attic. One lends them out for you. One hires writers for new books.
Which AI data companies take company records?
These firms take records from businesses. All terms below are self-reported unless noted.
| Company | What it takes | Stated terms |
|---|---|---|
| micro1 | SOPs, knowledge bases, CRM data, project histories, ticket workflows | 30+ staff and mature operations on its pages. Tiers $100K+, $500K+, $1M+ |
| Handshake AI | Operational data "from businesses across every major industry" | $100K to $4M+. Handshake AI's company referral page asks for 20+ full-time staff and 3+ years |
| Mercor data arm | Slack, Teams, Gmail and more through connectors | One-off payment by volume, depth and tools |
| Replay | Communications, tickets, code, CRM, financial records and support history | Bands start at 20 to 50 employees, $10K to $100K. Upfront plus revenue share |
| Polyshares | Slack, Teams, email, Drive, SharePoint, CRM, tickets and call recordings | No minimum stated. $100K to $2M+, net 30 to 60 after approval |
| Idler | Codebases and de-identified operating data | Firms with 10 to 100 staff. No price published |
| Scale AI | Data warehouses, chat, email, documents, Jira, Notion, Salesforce and SAP records | 40+ employees preferred. $10K to $1M+ per partnership, labelled illustrative |
micro1 also runs a referral program for introductions. Size floors for each are in do you qualify for an AI data program, and our Replay review reads Replay in full.
Which AI data companies are marketplaces?
A marketplace licenses your data to buyers and pays you a share. Troveo added business data in 2026. It covers chat, email, documents, CRM and finance systems. It pays a revenue share on every sale and hasn't published the split.
Protege describes revenue-share payments when an owner's content enters qualified deals. Its materials focus on healthcare, media and video.
Defined.ai, Datarade, Snowflake Marketplace and AWS Data Exchange list data products for enterprise buyers. They sell to those buyers and take no archives from you.
Which AI data companies sell expert work?
Scale AI (Outlier and Remotasks), Surge AI, Turing, Snorkel AI, Appen and Toloka sell expert labor to AI labs. Their contractors write, grade and correct AI output.
Three of them now also pay companies for records. Scale AI runs a data partnership, Turing runs Project Lazarus and Appen licenses enterprise data. We found no such program at Surge AI, Snorkel AI or Toloka.
The buyer directory covers the lanes that take company records.
Where should a company owner start?
Look at the first two lanes. Count your systems and years of records first. Then run the rights check. The free fit check comes next.
Marketplaces for enterprise data products, such as Snowflake and AWS Data Exchange, are a fourth group. They sell data and don't buy it from you.
Talk to a privacy or commercial lawyer in your state before you sign.
micro1 may pay us a referral fee if a company we introduce goes ahead with it. How we are paid
Apply to micro1's data partnership (paid link)micro1's own data-partnerships pagePaid link. How we are paid
Vaultfish helps you run the process. We are not lawyers and this is not legal advice. If you need counsel who knows this area, we can point you to one. Ask for a referral
