However, Droege asserted that Scale is “one of the only providers capable of serving customers at volume” with the “largest network of experts training AI.” Going forward, the company will focus on building out its applications business units and will continue to be model-agnostic and human-driven, he said.
“The spike in competition from players like Surge, Turing, and Invisible gives enterprises more leverage, but also more responsibility,” said Info-Tech’s Randall. These vendors differ significantly when it comes to workforce models, automation levels, and quality controls, he noted. Enterprise leaders should evaluate providers not just on price or throughput, he advised, but on whether they offer robust annotation auditability, support for domain-specific edge cases, and alignment with ethical AI practices.
“The quality of labeled data is a leading indicator of model performance and a lagging indicator of strategic oversight,” said Randall. “The enterprises that succeed in AI won’t just be the ones with the best models, but the ones with the most intentional, resilient data ecosystems.”
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