The Data Boom: How LSPs can capitalise on growing demand for data in AI
The field of artificial intelligence is booming, and with it, the demand for data has soared. Companies building AI solutions need vast amounts of data to train their machine learning models, which requires proper collection, annotation, and freedom from human bias. This has created a significant opportunity for Language Service Providers (LSPs) to offer data services to AI companies.
As Olga Blasco from Lion People Global explains, AI requires data of various types, including text, speech, video, and images.
To train machine learning models successfully, large amounts of data need to be properly annotated by humans and LSPs are well-positioned to offer data annotation services, among other things, to support AI capabilities in various industries.
For LSPs to capitalise on the growing demand for data in AI, they need to have a vast amount of resources and proper applications and platforms to increase the data annotation speed, quality, and accuracy at a profitable scale. Providing data for AI is a business, and LSPs need to make sure they offer quality data to differentiate themselves from the competition.
The potential opportunity for LSPs to offer data for AI is vast with some reports estimating that the data-for-AI market could reach $3.5 billion. LSPs can offer customised services with different scales and language specialisation approaches, as well as subscriptions for the use of data sets on demand.
For companies building AI solutions, the quality of the data they feed their machine learning models is crucial and this is why Olga believes that LSPs that offer high-quality data services will be in high demand. These services may include data collection, annotation, and transcription for speech recognition, computer vision, and other AI capabilities.
While the demand for data in AI is likely to continue to grow, Olga says that LSPs that can provide quality data services will be able to differentiate themselves and thrive in this growing market.
Offering data for AI is an opportunity for LSPs to diversify their services and capture a share of this fast-growing market, Olga says.
In addition to data annotation, LSPs can also provide translation services for AI companies. For example, AI models that can understand and communicate in multiple languages are in high demand. This creates an opportunity for LSPs to offer translation services that support AI applications.
Another way LSPs can capitalise on the data boom is by using crowdsourcing. Crowdsourcing allows LSPs to collect large amounts of data from a diverse range of sources quickly. LSPs can leverage crowdsourcing to annotate data for AI training sets, for example.
However, Olga cautions that LSPs that offer data services for AI need to be mindful of potential biases in their data sets. Any biases in the data will be passed on to the machine learning models, potentially causing harm to vulnerable populations. For example, an AI model trained on biased data may perpetuate harmful stereotypes or fail to recognise underrepresented groups.
To mitigate the risk of biases in their data, LSPs should ensure that their data annotation teams are diverse and representative. They should also use tools and techniques to detect and correct any biases in their data sets. This will ensure that their data services for AI are of the highest quality.
In conclusion, the demand for data in AI is growing, and LSPs can capitalise on this trend by offering high-quality data services to companies building AI solutions. The opportunities in this field are significant, and LSPs that can provide quality data services will be able to differentiate themselves and thrive in this growing market.
As AI continues to reshape our world, LSPs will have a crucial role in supporting the development of AI solutions that are both effective and ethical.
If you want to know more about this area, visit Lion People Global’s website where you can watch back our M&A Talks series of videos and fill out a questionnaire that entitles you to one hour’s free consultation on getting a LSP or language tech business ready for sale.
