For all of artificial intelligence’s promises, we still need humans in the loop to make it all possible. Humans collect, enrich, clean, and prepare data for AI systems to operate with optimal accuracy. Learn about your workforce options and best practices for choosing your AI workforce.

1. Best Practices for Your
AI Workforce
Your workforce options & best practices to get data work done

2. It takes humans to enrich,
clean, and prepare data for
AI systems to operate
optimally.

3. Prepping data for AI use is
time-consuming.
It can take hundreds of hours to
label images in a single hour of
video to transform unstructured
data into useful, structured data.

4. Your Workforce Options
There are a number of ways innovators
apply human resources to get data work done.

5. In-House Team
Hire, train, and
manage an internal
team.
Good option when you want high
visibility of your team’s work.
Consider whether it’s cost-effective:
Many tech companies don’t want or
know how to manage large data input
and analysis teams.

6. Business
Process
Outsourcing
(BPO)
Throw work over
the proverbial
wall.
Works best for massive scale of
processes that won’t change much
over time. Agility and visibility can be
limited. Use of technology and worker
tech savvy may be limited.

7. Managed
Cloud Labor
Scale a process for
routine, repetitive
work that’s critical to
your business.
Helpful option when you need high
accuracy, agility, and visibility to your
team’s work. The best solutions use
technology to track worker
engagement and productivity. Smart
choice for scaling products or
processes rapidly.

8. Crowdsourcing
Gather datasets for a
one-time project for
your business.
Good choice if you need a large
number of workers simultaneously.
Workers are anonymous, so accuracy
can suffer without reliable QA. Can
be helpful when you’re testing ideas
or have a short-term project that
requires fast turnaround.

9. Best Practices for
Choosing Your AI Workforce
When you’re making a decision about the people who will process
data that is critical to your business, be sure to consider these factors.

10. Accuracy Some tasks, such as annotation of video
images for autonomous vehicles, require high
accuracy. Consider how accuracy
requirements could evolve over time. Ask
workforce providers about their track records
for delivering quality work.
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11. Agility Most technical projects involve changes.
Weigh the importance of your workforce
provider’s flexibility and capacity to make
incremental process improvements quickly
and often, if necessary.
2

12. Managed
workforce
Managed teams that have training
opportunities can deliver higher quality and
productivity. Vetted workers with leadership
in place have opportunities to improve their
work over time.
3

13. Speed For ongoing projects, you’ll need to train
workers at the outset and when the work
changes, so figure that into your time
commitment. Managed workforces can begin
work quickly, especially when task guidelines
are well defined.
4

14. Scalability Hiring and managing data workers is not
easily scalable, especially if you are growing
fast or have seasonal peaks and valleys that
affect your task volume. Can your workforce
provider scale quickly, and can it handle
growing or waning demand for the tasks you
want to outsource?
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15. Technology
Partner with workforce providers that
understand, value, and infuse technology
throughout their processes. This includes
workforce management, communications,
capacity planning, and analytics dashboards.
Tech-savvy companies will better understand
your data needs and workflow.
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16. Cost
structure
Will you pay by task or by hour? Establish if
there are additional fees for tooling,
onboarding, training, or management for your
workforce. Find out if you will pay the same or
lower rates if your task volume increases.
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17. Ask questions to ensure you have a complete understanding of
your workforce partner’s approach. This will help you avoid
surprises as the work gets underway.

18. About
CloudFactory CloudFactory provides a tech-forward, professionally
managed workforce solution with all the benefits of a
trained internal team. And as an impact sourcing service
provider (ISSP), we create economic and leadership
opportunities for talented people in developing nations.
Trusted by 100+ companies, CloudFactory processes
millions of tasks a day for companies including Microsoft,
Drive.ai, Expensify, Ibotta, and GM-Cruise Automation.
www.cloudfactory.com
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(888) 809-0229
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