What counts
What business records AI companies want, and why
If your records show people doing real work step by step, they are probably the right kind. Buyers say they look for well-defined work that employees repeat.
In this guide
Surge AI
01
What labs see in everyday company records
Models have already absorbed the open web, which is mostly polished end results. They lack the inside view of work in progress, like a dispatcher juggling loads after a breakdown or a bookkeeper chasing a lost receipt.
Today's AI agents do jobs instead of just answering questions, and they need lifelike practice to learn them. According to MIT Technology Review, Surge AI purchases company archives and turns them into training grounds for that purpose.
02
What buyers ask for most
- 1Conversations: email, Slack and Teams
- 2Procedures: SOPs, playbooks, manuals and wikis
- 3Records of the work: tickets, work orders, quotes, CRM and project history
Ads get more specific by trade: call recordings, CAD files, dispatch logs, deal files, design files and inspection records.
03
What they are not after
Buyers delete customer identities and private details instead of paying for them. Spirit Airlines' archive went up for sale minus its passenger records. What buyers want is the process, never the customer list.
FAQ
Questions, answered
Which records do AI buyers look for?
Anything showing the same work done over and over: inboxes and chat logs, written procedures, wiki pages, help desk tickets, work orders and project files.
What do AI companies do with business records?
They teach models how working companies operate, and give AI agents that carry out tasks lifelike training.
Do they want my customer list?
No. Customer identities are removed before use.
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Keep reading
Sources
Every number on this page links back to one of these.
- 1MIT Technology Review, AI labs buying data from dead startupstechnologyreview.com
- 2micro1, enterprise data partnerships pagemicro1.ai
- 3Mercor, data partnerships pagemercor.com
- 4BERI, micro1's enterprise data partnerships: terms and risksberi.net
- 5Bloomberg Law, Google aims to boost AI with purchase of Spirit Airlines datanews.bloomberglaw.com
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