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How to Sell Data to AI Companies: A Practical Guide
Learn how to sell your company's internal business records to AI companies: what buyers want, how licensing works, the steps, and what to check before you share.
Companies sell data to AI companies by licensing copies of internal records, such as support tickets, CRM history, project files or lab data, that have been stripped of names and IDs. You decide what is included and who sees it. The usual path is to list what you have, anonymize it, get a ballpark from buyers who fit, review a sample, and sign a license.
This guide covers what AI buyers want, how a deal is structured, the steps, and the questions to settle before you share anything.
What AI companies are buying
AI labs train agents on real work. They need records that show how a job gets done: how a support issue moves from ticket to fix, how a deal moves through a pipeline, how an engineering change is reviewed, or how a lab run is logged.
Records that sell best tend to be connected. A single ticket is less useful than a history of tickets, the replies, the internal notes and the eventual resolution. The more years of records and the more linked systems, the more context a buyer gets.
The tools that usually hold this kind of data include Zendesk, Jira and GitHub, Salesforce and HubSpot, Bullhorn, AutoCAD and Revit, and Benchling. Standard operating procedures and project files count too.
The market is large enough that buyers pay for it. According to Troveo, disclosed deals run from about 10 million dollars for a company archive to more than 250 million over five years for a major publisher. The same guide notes that marketplace licensing prices sit well below those headline deals, so expect a range, not a single number.
Which routes are open to you
There are three common ways to reach buyers.
| Route | What it looks like | What to check |
|---|---|---|
| Direct to an AI lab | You find and talk to labs yourself | Time spent on outreach, legal review, and who negotiates the price |
| Data broker or marketplace | A third party sources, packages and sells data for you | Their fee, what rights you grant, and how they remove identifiers |
| Matching service | A service finds buyers that fit your records and introduces you | Who pays the fee, how many buyers you meet, and whether you approve each one |
No route is right for every company. Direct outreach gives you the most control and the most work. Brokers and marketplaces take on more of the work and take a share of the value. Read the terms of each before you commit.
For example, Smelted is a matching service. It finds which buyers fit a company, gives a ballpark range, and introduces the company to two or three matching buyers. The buyer pays Smelted's fee, and the company pays nothing. The company keeps ownership of its records, licenses a copy, chooses what is included, and approves which buyers it meets.
How to sell your data, step by step
1. Inventory what you have
List each system that holds records and how many years of history it covers. Note how the systems connect. A CRM linked to support tickets and project files is worth more to a buyer than three separate exports.
2. Check your obligations
Before you share anything, review your customer contracts, employee agreements, vendor terms and privacy policy. Records about people, clients or partners may carry restrictions. Ask your own lawyer to confirm what you are allowed to license. A service or buyer can tell you what they need, but neither can approve your legal position for you.
3. Anonymize before anything leaves your systems
Remove names, contact details, account numbers and any IDs that could identify a person or client. Do this before a buyer sees a sample. Keep a record of what you removed and how.
4. Decide what is included
You do not have to share everything. Choose the systems, date ranges and record types you are comfortable licensing. Start narrow. You can widen the scope in a later agreement if the first one works.
5. Get a ballpark from buyers
A ballpark depends on how many people work at the company, how many years of records exist, and how connected the data is. A real price usually comes after a buyer reviews a sample, not from a headline figure.
6. Review a sample and sign a license
A buyer reviews a sample under your conditions. If they want to continue, you sign a license to a copy. Ownership of the records stays with you. Check the term, the permitted uses, the buyer's obligations and what happens when the license ends.
7. Expect payment in one to three months
From the first call to payment, plan on one to three months. Buyers typically pay a few weeks to two months after signing. Build that into your cash planning.
What to check before you say yes
- Ownership and scope. A license to a copy is different from a sale of the records. Confirm which one you are signing.
- Who sees the data. Ask for the buyer's name and their use case before the sample is shared. You should be able to say no.
- Identifiers. Confirm exactly what was removed and how you checked it.
- Fees. Find out who pays what. Some services take the fee from the buyer. Others take a share of your payment.
- Size of company. Buyers who take smaller companies, especially those under 30 employees, generally pay less than buyers who take larger ones. That is the reality of how the market prices small datasets.
Who this is most relevant to
Founders and C-level leaders at US companies with roughly 50 to 500 employees, founded in 2022 or earlier, tend to have the right mix of records. The strongest fits are staffing and recruiting firms, engineering and architecture firms, B2B software companies, and science labs or biotech R&D teams. If you run a company like that and have years of operational records you are not using, the route is worth a short look.
If your company has fewer than 50 employees, the next step is the two-minute form at smelted.ai/get-started. It collects your headcount, tools and history, and the team will reply from there. If you have 50 or more employees, you can book a short intro call or use the form instead.
FAQ
Can companies legally sell your data?
It depends on what the data is, who it is about, and what your contracts and local rules allow. Records about people raise the most questions. Check your agreements and get legal advice before you license anything. A matching service or buyer can describe its process, but it cannot confirm your legal position.
How to sell data for AI?
Inventory your records, check your obligations, anonymize them, choose what to include, get a ballpark from interested buyers, review a sample, and sign a license to a copy. Payment usually comes one to three months after the first call.
How much money do companies make selling data?
It varies widely. Disclosed deals range from about 10 million dollars for a company archive to more than 250 million over five years for a major publisher, according to Troveo. Marketplace prices are well below those headline deals. Your value depends on how many records you have, how many years they cover and how connected they are.
What is AI data licensing?
AI data licensing means giving an AI company permission to use a copy of your data for a defined purpose, such as training an agent, for a set period and under agreed terms. You keep ownership of the original records. The license defines what the buyer can do with the copy.