AI companies now pay established businesses for past email, documents and support tickets, with names removed, to train their systems. We help you decide if it's right for you, whether you're allowed to, and what's involved.
We're paid by data buyers if a deal closes, never by you. How we get paid.
Five questions. You'll see your result before we ask for any contact details.
Often yes, with limits. What you may license depends on your client contracts, your profession's confidentiality rules and the privacy laws where you work. Some records can never be included. Others need consent. Here is where each kind of firm should start, and the question to take to your own lawyer.
Most firm email and files contain client information protected by confidentiality duties and privilege. Removing names may not be enough. Records about the firm's own operations are a different matter from client matter files.
Ask your ethics counsel: which of our records, if any, can we license without client consent?
US rules strictly limit using or disclosing tax return information without the client's written consent, and professional codes add confidentiality duties. Internal operations, templates and non-client records may be treated differently.
Ask your counsel: how do tax-information consent rules apply to our archives?
Patient records are protected health information. Selling or licensing them generally requires each patient's authorization, so they should be left out. Business records that contain no patient information may still be considered.
Ask your privacy officer: which systems hold no patient information at all?
Privacy rules limit sharing customers' nonpublic personal information, and regulators set their own recordkeeping and privacy requirements. Expect most customer records to be excluded.
Ask your compliance officer: what do our privacy notice and regulators allow?
Check customer contracts and NDAs, tell employees whose messages may be included, and review state privacy laws and your software providers' terms. Many companies find most of their records can be licensed.
Ask your lawyer: do any of our contracts or policies limit this?
That's normal. On our first call we'll walk through your systems and point out what usually gets excluded, so you know exactly what to ask your lawyer. We don't give legal advice, and a good buyer will expect your lawyer to review the agreement.
AI data licensing is when a business gives an AI company written permission to use a defined set of its past records to train AI systems, in exchange for a payment. Names and identifying details are removed first. You keep your originals and decide which systems and years are included.
From first call to payment usually takes about three months. You can stop at any point before you sign a final agreement, and you never pay us anything.
Fifteen minutes on your systems, size and concerns. If it's not a fit, we'll tell you plainly.
We match you with a single vetted buyer. You'll know who they are before you share anything.
A nonbinding letter while the buyer reviews a sample. The final offer can differ from the estimate.
You pick the systems and dates. Names and identifying details are removed before anything is used.
The buyer pays your company directly, under the agreement your lawyer reviewed.
We never receive your company's records. Those go only from you to the buyer, under your agreement. All we hold is what you type into our form, and we keep that to a minimum.
Your answers, and your name, company, email and phone if you choose to share them. Cookie-free visit counts only: no tracking pixels, ad cookies or data brokers.
Stored in an encrypted database with access limited to our team. Inquiries that don't go anywhere are deleted on a schedule.
We don't sell or rent contact details. We only introduce you to a buyer after you say yes.
It depends on your size, industry, years of records and what the buyer needs. We won't guess on a first call. The buyer gives an estimate, and the final number is in an offer you can accept or decline.
Buyers usually want established companies with at least three years of records. Law firms can qualify from about 10 full-time staff, accounting, financial and medical firms from about 15, and most other businesses from about 30 to 50. Companies need to be in the US, Canada, the UK or Australia.
Usually about three months from the first call: about a week for an estimate, two to three weeks for the buyer's review, 15 to 30 days to prepare records, then payment under the agreement.
We recommend telling them. Their messages are part of the records, and how you handle it matters for trust and, in some places, for the law. Ask your lawyer what notice or consent applies.
Companies that license business records to AI developers. We match you with one buyer at a time, and you'll know who they are before you share anything.
The buyer pays us a referral fee if a deal closes. You pay nothing, and our fee doesn't come out of your payment.
No one asks for your passwords. Exports are done in a way you approve, for only the systems and dates you choose.
Then you don't. You can stop at any point before signing a final agreement, with no cost and no hard feelings.
Mark Kessler, Founder
Mark started Operating Data Advisors to help established business owners make a clear-eyed decision about licensing their records to AI developers, without hype and without pressure. He'll tell you plainly if your company isn't a fit, and walk you through every step if it is.
We work for you on the first call and on every call after it. If your company isn't a fit, we'll say so. If it is, we'll make sure you understand each step before you agree to anything.
Plain answers before you talk to anyone.
Five questions, about two minutes. No contact details needed to see your result.
Check my companyWe're paid by data buyers if a deal closes, never by you. How we get paid.