Why AI companies will pay for your old emails
Today's AI models learned from the public internet: books, articles, forums and code. By most accounts that well is close to dry. To get better at real jobs like closing a sale, resolving a billing dispute or running a project, models need to see how those jobs are actually done.
That knowledge doesn't live online. It lives in your inbox, your shared drive and your CRM: years of requests, decisions, follow-ups and fixes. To an AI lab, a 30-person company's operating history is a detailed record of how a real business works.
What's actually being sold
A licensed copy, never ownership. You keep every original and keep using your systems as normal. The copy is de-identified before it leaves the process: people and companies become placeholders, and sensitive details like account numbers and health information are removed.
Why a small firm gets a real offer
Buyers pay a base amount for any qualifying dataset, then add value for headcount and years of history. That's why a 10-person firm can see a six-figure estimate. Specialist work in law, accounting, finance and healthcare tends to be valued highly.
What to watch for
Firms with confidentiality duties, such as law, accounting, healthcare and financial services, should review the scope with their own advisors. The buyer's legal team works through those limits with you before anything is exported, and you can exclude any system or date range.
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