As AI-powered solutions such as generative AI and chatbots spread across industries, the interest in AI data services grows (Figure 1). One such service is a data crowdsourcing platform. Harnessing the power of a large group of people to gather data, these platforms can significantly enhance your data collection efforts, offering detailed insights quickly and efficiently. Since data quality is of utmost importance in any data-hungry project, it is important to find the right data collection service.
In this article, we help you find the right crowdsourcing platform to fulfill your data needs.
Figure 1. Global interest in AI data services
Top Data Crowdsourcing Platforms on the Market
This section compares the top crowdsourcing platforms on the market that offer data services on demand.
Table 1. Comparison based on market presence & experience criteria
| Data collection companies |
Share of customers among top 5 buyers |
Use ratings out of 5 (Average) |
Founding year |
|---|---|---|---|
| Clickworker | 80% | – G2: 4 – Trustpilot: 4.4 – Capterra: 4.3 |
2005 |
| Appen | 60% | – G2: 4.1 – Trustpilot: 1.3 – Capterra: 4.1 |
1996 |
| Surge AI | 60% | N/A | N/A |
| Telus International | 40% | – G2: 4.3 – Trustpilot: 1.8 |
2005 |
| Prolific | 40% | – G2: 4.3 – Trustpilot: 2.7 |
2014 |
| DataForce by Transperfect | 40% | – G2: 4.0 – Trustpilot: 3.0 |
1992 |
| Toloka AI | 20% | – Trustpilot: 2.8 – Capterra: 4.0 |
2014 |
| Amazon Mechanical Turk | 0% | – G2: 4.1 – Trustpilot: 2.0 |
2005 |
| Summa Linguae Technologies | N/A | N/A | 2011 |
| LXT | N/A | N/A | 2014 |
| TaskUs | 0 | – Trustpilot: 3.2 | 2008 |
Table 2 Comparison based on features criteria
| Data collection companies | Mobile application | API availability | ISO 27001 Certification | Code of Conduct |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Clickworker | ✅ | ✅ | ✅ | ✅ |
| Appen | ✅ | ✅ | ✅ | ✅ |
| Surge AI | ✖ | ✅ | ✅ | ✖ |
| Telus International | ✖ | ✅ | ✖ | ✖ |
| Prolific | ✖ | ✅ | ✖ | ✅ |
| DataForce by Transperfect | ✅ | ✖ | ✅ | ✖ |
| Toloka AI | ✅ | ✅ | ✅ | ✅ |
| Amazon Mechanical Turk | ✖ | ✅ | N/A | ✖ |
| Summa Linguae Technologies | ✅ | ✅ | ✅ | ✖ |
| LXT | ✖ | ✖ | ✅ | ✖ |
| TaskUs | ✖ | ✅ | ✅ | ✅ |
Figure 2. Crowd size comparison
Observations & notes:
- The comparison table is created only through publicly available and verifiable data.
- The platforms chosen in this comparison were based on the relevance of their services.
- All vendors chosen in this comparison have more than 50 employees.
- It was found that all the data crowdsourcing platforms compared in this article offered ‘data annotation’ and ‘raw data preprocessing’ services.
- All platforms cover a wide array of data types for their AI data services (Image, Video, Audio, Text, etc.).
- We evaluated the code of conduct criterion based on the availability of a page on their websites explaining their code of conduct practices.
- The ranking of platforms in figure 3 is based on largest to smallest crowd size.
- Only the companies that offered data regarding crowd size are mentioned in figure 3.
- Only the companies with a crowd size of more than 100K are mentioned in figure 3.
Data crowdsourcing platform analysis
This section provides an overview of each data crowdsourcing platform compared in this article.
1. Clickworker
Clickworker is a crowdsourcing platform that breaks down large projects into micro-tasks and distributes them to a global network to complete. It specializes in tasks such as AI data collection, data annotation, data categorization, and web research. Here is a list of Clickworker’s data solutions:
2. Appen
Appen collects and labels images, text, speech, audio, and video for AI development. It offers services that include data collection, data annotation, and data validation.
Here is a list of Appen’s data offerings:
3. Summa Linguae Technologies
Summa Linguae Technologies uses technology to help businesses expand globally. They offer services such as data annotation, localization, and language translation to improve global reach.
Here is a list of some of Summa Linguae Technologies’ data offerings:
4. Telus International
Telus International focuses on customer experience (CX) and digital IT solutions. While it has a wide range of offerings, it also offers data services through a large network of workers.
Here is a list of Telus International’s data solutions:
5. Amazon Mechanical Turk (MTurk)
Amazon Mechanical Turk, or MTurk, is a crowdsourcing platform and marketplace where businesses can outsource tasks and jobs to a network of workers who can perform these tasks virtually. Here is a list of their offerings:
- Data collection
- Data annotation
- Market research & surveys
- Academic research
- Other data services
6. LXT
LXT is a technology company that offers AI-driven data services through its crowdsourcing platform. It helps companies enhance their AI and machine learning projects by providing accurately labeled data. The list of data services offered by LXT:
7. Prolific
Prolific is another growing crowdsourcing platform that offers data services for a variety of use cases. It is used by various organizations for academic research and market research purposes. Learn about prolific alternatives here.
Here is a list of their offerings:
8. Surge AI
Surge AI provides training data for machine learning models. They offer services, including image annotation, natural language processing, and data categorization. Surge AI’s services include:
9. Toloka AI
Toloka AI is a crowdsourcing platform for collecting and improving AI training data. They provide various services such as data labeling, data cleaning, and data categorization to enhance machine learning models.
Here is a list of Toloka AI’s data solutions:
10. TaskUs
TaskUs is a company that provides outsourcing services for businesses, handling customer care and back-office support. It offers services such as digital customer experience, content security, and AI operations. A list of TaskUs’s data services:
11. DataForce by Transperfect
DataForce by TransPerfect offers high-quality data collection and annotation for AI and machine learning projects. They provide services like speech and natural language processing data, image and video annotation, and more. Their services include:
- Data collection
- Data annotation
- Data transcription
- Data moderation
Criteria for Selecting the Right Data Crowdsourcing Platform
Choosing the right crowdsourcing platform for your data-hungry projects is crucial for ensuring data quality and integrity. We divided the criteria into 2 categories; market presence & experience and features. Here are the key criteria to consider:
Market presence & experience
1. % of customers among top 5 buyers
The crowdsourcing platform’s market share is important to understand its capabilities. We can estimate its market presence by identifying its references among the top 5 technology companies that are the largest buyers of their data services. This estimate is likely to correlate with the percentage of the top 5 tech companies a vendor serves.
2. User ratings
Another way to get an overview of the performance of a company is to check its user rating score from B2B review platforms such as G2. Examine the user ratings of the crowdsourcing platforms to gain insights into their reliability and effectiveness in delivering high-quality, diverse data.
3. Year founded
The establishment year can provide a glimpse into the platform’s experience and reliability in a specific field. In our experience, older platforms generally have a more skilled workforce and are more adept at handling a diverse range of tasks.
Features
4. Mobile app availability
Platforms with mobile apps can help in collecting data from a broader audience, ensuring more diverse data collection.
5. API integration availability
API integration facilitates seamless data exchange, enhancing the efficiency and speed of data collection.
6. ISO 2700 certification
Ensure the platform adheres to international standards for information security, guaranteeing the safety and integrity of the data collected.
7. Code of conduct
Platforms with a clear code of conduct ensure that the crowdsourced data collection is ethical and reliable.
What are Crowdsourcing Platforms?
Crowdsourcing platforms are online platforms where businesses can outsource tasks to a large group of people, known as the crowd. These platforms provide human-generated data on demand, aiding in solving complex problems where traditional methods may fall short. They are instrumental in collecting crowdsourced data, covering various tasks from simple surveys to more intricate human intelligence tasks.
Their role in data collection
In a world that is increasingly leaning towards AI and machine learning models, a data crowdsourcing platform plays a crucial role. These platforms aid in collecting data for building high-quality datasets, which are essential for training robust AI and machine learning algorithms. The data collected is diverse, ensuring that the AI models trained are robust and well-tested.
Further reading
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