AI data sourcing
How AI developers source data.
Quick answer
AI data sourcing is how developers obtain the data they train and test models on. The main channels are public web data, open datasets, commissioned annotation and data creation, synthetic generation, and licensing proprietary data from organisations that hold it. Licensed proprietary data is used when a model needs specialist, real-world content that other channels cannot supply.
- 01Your work records
- 02Personal details removed
- 03You approve the release
- 04Licensed to AI developers
Sourcing channels#
| Channel | Strength | Limitation |
|---|---|---|
| Public web | Scale | Copyright, quality, contamination |
| Open datasets | Free, documented | Widely used, less differentiating |
| Commissioned annotation | Tailored | Costly, artificial |
| Synthetic data | Scalable, private | Lacks real variation |
| Licensed proprietary data | Specialist, real | Requires rights and preparation |
What buyers check#
- Provenance and rights
- Privacy handling
- Relevance to the target task
- Format and documentation
Related#
Related resources
- QuestionDo AI labs buy financial data?
- SolutionProprietary data: information only your company has
- IndustryBPO & contact centers data
- IndustryRecruiting & staffing data
- QuestionPublic data vs proprietary data: what's the difference for AI?
- InsightCan you license spreadsheets and financial models to AI companies?
- InsightCan you license training materials and course content to AI companies?
- SolutionEnterprise data: the records of how organizations actually work
- DataWorkflow data
- DataCode review records
- InsightHow much is my company data worth to AI companies?
- GlossaryDataset
Datasets you can request
Specs from the SourceX catalog. Each is sourced to your scope from qualified businesses; supply is not guaranteed.
- Finance, legal and administrationAccounting and reconciliation workflowsAn accounting dataset is the working history of a company's books: transactions with their general ledger coding and later corrections, bank and card…Structured recordsOffice documents and PDFs
- Customer and revenueCustomer support ticket datasetsA customer support ticket dataset is a de-identified export of real support cases: the customer's messages, agent replies, internal notes, escalations,…TextStructured records
- Documents and knowledgeEnterprise document archivesAn enterprise document dataset is an export of the files a company actually works from, such as reports, memos, proposals, policies, PDFs, spreadsheets and…Office documents and PDFsText
- Workflows and human feedbackEnterprise workflow and task execution historiesAn enterprise workflow dataset is a set of task execution histories: connected records that follow one business task from the incoming request through the…Structured recordsText
- Software and ITSoftware engineering histories (issues, PRs, reviews)A software engineering history dataset is a linked record of how a team changed its code: each issue joined to the commits, pull request, review comments…CodeTextStructured records
- Operations and the physical worldSupply chain and logistics operations recordsA supply chain dataset is a connected history of how goods were ordered, moved and delivered: purchase orders, supplier messages, advance ship notices,…Structured recordsOffice documents and PDFsText
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Evaluating this data for procurement?
Diligence packets are prepared per dataset. Rights, privacy processing and quality differ between datasets.
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