Is your company's data worth anything to AI companies?

It depends on the records and the buyer, and nobody can promise a value in advance. Buyers say they look for several years of records that show how work was actually done. Two of them say sheer volume is not what decides value. No program publishes a formula, though some offer calculators that give estimates.

This guide gives five tests, drawn from what buyers say on their own pages, that you can run on your records before you apply anywhere.

What do AI data buyers say makes records valuable?

Labelbox Prism and micro1 say depth and authenticity matter more than volume, though Mercor and Mode still list volume as a factor. Labelbox Prism states it most directly: "Value is driven less by volume and more by how authentically it captures complex, real-world work." micro1 says "The most valuable datasets capture real operational expertise, decision-making processes, and repeatable workflows," and that it sets "no fixed minimum number of files, documents, or terabytes."

Buyers also describe different things when they say "value." The table shows what each program says it weighs.

Sources: each program's own page, read November 3, 2026.

Test 1: Do you have several years of records?

Buyers favor companies with several years of history. Mode says companies with "several years of records they own" and teams primarily based in the U.S. are its strongest fit, and micro1 says companies with several years of records across multiple business systems are generally a stronger fit. Scale AI's page asks for "Years of records in the tools your teams already run on."

Most programs state no exact minimum number of years, and those that describe their best fit lean toward longer histories. Nyne is the exception: it asks for three years in business. Our guide to how to license company data lists the size and history criteria each program publishes.

Test 2: Are the records spread across several systems?

Mercor and AfterQuery say connecting more systems raises the price. Mercor tells owners, "The more tools you share, the higher your payout will be," and says compensation "is based on data volume, the tools you connect, and the depth of your data."

List every system your company has used and for how many years: email, chat, CRM, tickets, accounting, project tools, code. Include the ones people forget. Mercor's listings are organized by industry and company type, and its page lists the tools it can connect to, so a longer list gives a buyer more to match.

Test 3: Do the records show decisions and outcomes?

Records that show how a decision was made and what followed are what several buyers describe wanting. AfterQuery describes the valuable part as "Who asked for what, what was decided and how it turned out." Labelbox Prism's demand board names cross-system workflows with timestamps and roles, and customer support logs covering six months or more across several channels.

The test is simple. Pick one project that went wrong or took a turn. Can you reconstruct it from your records: the request, the discussion, the decision, the result? If the answer is yes across many projects, your records have what these buyers say they want. Our view: a store of finished documents with no conversation around it shows less of that, though some buyers do list documents and files among what they take.

Routine records can count. Brendan Mahony, founder and CEO of Sunset, which sells data from wound-down startups, told MIT Technology Review that "This operational exhaust data is like the wood shavings that everyone thought had no value, but it actually has a ton." The article is about closed startups, not operating companies. It also quotes a former founder who first assumed his company's data was worth little because the company was young and its users were anonymous.

Test 4: Is the work hard to replicate?

Scale AI and AfterQuery both point to records that are hard to get elsewhere. Scale AI lists "Specialized expertise that makes your data hard to replicate" among the things it looks for, and AfterQuery says its pricing depends on "depth, breadth and uniqueness."

Our monthly demand map shows which industries and record types buyers name most often right now.

Test 5: Are you free to license them?

Holding a record is not the same as being free to license it. Nyne puts it this way: "Your ability to export a record does not by itself establish permission to license it." Nyne says it reviews "ownership, third-party restrictions and any exclusions." In general, client confidences, employee records and your software providers' terms can all limit what you may share, and buyers screen for some of this themselves. AfterQuery says payroll, privileged legal material and credentials are never used.

Our view: records you can't license can't count toward value, so settle this before you ask for an estimate. Our guide to what you're agreeing to covers the contract terms, and the step-by-step guide covers the rights questions to ask your lawyer.

Why do two buyers value the same records so differently?

Estimates for the same records can differ because buyers value them against different plans for using them. Nick Heiner of Surge AI told MIT Technology Review that quotes vary because valuations rest on research theses about how many useful tasks a dataset yields. His view of what makes a dataset worth more is variety: archives that cover many kinds of situations, including disagreements and hard judgment calls.

Estimates are also not offers. Mode says its calculator is "illustrative, not a guaranteed offer," and it makes a fixed offer only after reviewing the systems and dates in scope, the years of history, the volume and quality of records, and ownership and access terms. Our view: treat any calculator as a reason to apply, not as a price.

Our view

Our view: the question "is my data worth anything?" is better asked as "which buyers does my company fit, and on what terms?" Companies with several years of operating history are the ones buyers' criteria describe, and we can't say what any one company's records are worth. The spread between buyers is in what each buyer weighs and what it offers around the money: how long the license runs, whether it is exclusive, and what happens to the data afterwards.

Where we come in

Company Data Advisors is an independent advisory firm that helps business owners license their records. We track every major program's published criteria and terms, and we have direct contacts at the major data buyers and at AI labs, so we can tell you which programs your records are likely to suit. We compare offers on the whole deal, not just the headline number, and we check where your data would go. Nothing about your company is shared with any buyer until you approve that buyer by name.

Owners pay us nothing. Participating buyers may pay us referral fees, and we tell you whether a buyer pays us before any introduction. You can also apply to any program directly; our buyer index links to each one.

What to do next

1. Write down every system your company has used and the years each covers.
2. Pick two or three past projects and check whether the request, discussion, decision and result can all be found.
3. Note anything you may not be free to license: client material under NDA, privileged documents, HR and payroll records.
4. Answer eight quick questions to see which programs your company matches.