The opportunity
AI labs are paying for records of real work.
Models learn a job by studying people doing it. The record of your team handling customers, repairs and quotes is that kind of material, and most owners have never priced it.
What a license is
Defined records, a defined use, for a defined term.
A license gives the buyer the right to use specific records, from specific systems, for a stated purpose and period. Everything outside that scope stays out of the deal.
The company keeps the business and keeps ownership of its records. It goes on using the same systems with the same customers, and it takes on no debt and gives up no equity.
Why it has value
The value may sit in how your team solved the problem.
An invoice or a finished drawing shows a result. The emails, notes and revisions behind it show how people got there: what they checked, where they disagreed, what they got wrong and how they fixed it.
AI labs use records like these in two ways. They train models on how a job is done, and they test whether a model can handle the same situations a person did. An ordinary operating business holds years of this, and no vendor can manufacture it.
What affects an assessment
Five things matter more than the size of the archive.
How long the history runs
Ten years of service tickets says more than one. Depth of history moves the assessment more than raw volume does.
How much of the reasoning is written down
Threads, notes, revisions and disagreements show how a decision was reached. A record of finished documents alone shows very little.
Whether request and outcome are linked
The most useful records let a reader follow one job from the first message to the result, across the systems it passed through.
Whether the company clearly owns it
Material held for a customer under a contract that gives the customer ownership cannot be licensed, however good it is.
Whether personal details come out cleanly
Names, emails and account numbers have to be removed without destroying the work itself.
Who buys
AI labs buy through data labs. We work with one of them.
Frontier labs and companies building AI for a single industry need operating records, but they are not set up to negotiate with a 50-person business in a specialized trade. They buy from a small number of data labs that source the records, confirm the seller has the right to license them, prepare them and supply them.
It buys as the principal. It signs the license with your company and pays for the record itself. There is no listing, no auction and no commission taken from what you receive.
Questions
Does a license dilute the company?
No. A license adds no equity and no debt. It does not touch ownership of the business and creates nothing to repay.
Can we license the same records again?
That depends on the license. Licenses are usually exclusive for their term unless agreed otherwise, so the term and exclusivity are worth reading closely. Records the company produces after the license are not covered by it.
Is there a typical price?
There is no public price list for operating records, and the data lab does not quote a number before it has reviewed the record. We go through the offer with you once it arrives.
When is the company paid?
The data lab pays on net 30 to 60 day terms once you have approved the scope, the data has been shared and anonymization is complete.
Which AI labs end up with our records?
The data lab supplies frontier labs and applied AI companies and does not disclose which lab receives which record. Their use is limited to what the license allows, and no buyer contacts your company, customers or staff.
Data Advisory
Want to know whether your records fit?
Tell us what the business does and which systems hold its history. We'll tell you plainly whether it's worth taking further.
Discuss your data