Sell company data to AI in Canada
Disclaimer: The author is not a lawyer, accountant, or financial advisor. This article is for general information only and does not constitute legal, tax, or financial advice. Laws and market terms change, so consult a qualified professional before making any decision.
AI labs are paying for something most companies already have and never think about: the records of how real work gets done. If your Canadian company has 30 or more employees and years of English-language operational data, that archive may be worth licensing. This guide explains what sells, who qualifies, and how to do it without putting customers or employees at risk.
Why AI labs want business data
Public web text has been heavily mined. To build models that can actually do jobs (answer a support ticket, run a month-end close, follow a QA checklist) labs need examples of that work happening inside real organizations. That is exactly what your SOPs, ticket queues, wikis and project histories contain.
What types of data sell
- SOPs and internal documentation: step-by-step processes, playbooks, training manuals.
- Knowledge bases and wikis: Confluence, Notion, SharePoint and help-centre content.
- Support tickets and chat logs: questions paired with resolutions are high-value training examples, once personal details are scrubbed.
- CRM metadata and project histories: deal stages, task sequences and timelines, rather than customer identities.
- QA processes: scorecards, review rubrics, defect logs.
- Engineering records: code, pull-request reviews, design docs and incident reports.
See AI training data licensing explained for how these are packaged into a deal.
Who qualifies
- 30 or more employees, so there is enough volume and variety.
- Mostly English-language data.
- Based in the United States, Canada or another Western market.
- You own the data or have the rights to license it.
Industries that tend to fit well include contact centres, legal, insurance, accounting and finance, engineering, SaaS, education and media. Healthcare administration can fit, but patient health information must never be included.
What it can be worth
Our partner publicly states that companies have been paid $100K to $2M+ per approved data package. That is not a guarantee. Price depends on volume, years of history, uniqueness and how clean the rights are. Read how much is your company data worth for the value drivers.
The Canadian privacy question
Canadian companies face rules US-focused marketplaces rarely mention. Federally, PIPEDA governs personal information collected in commercial activity. In Quebec, Law 25 sets a specific, strict standard for anonymization. The practical answer in both cases is the same: personal information is removed or irreversibly anonymized before any dataset leaves your control, and you agree to terms before anything moves. Details: PIPEDA and anonymization and Quebec Law 25.
Step by step
- Run the eligibility checker (two minutes, nothing stored).
- Apply through our partner link.
- The partner reviews data types and volume and indicates fit.
- Your team and counsel review terms, scope and anonymization.
- Data is anonymized and delivered under the signed licence.
Selling vs licensing
Most deals are licences, not sales: you keep ownership and grant defined rights to use an anonymized copy. You keep running your business on the original.
Insolvent or winding down?
Data can also be a realizable asset in a receivership or CCAA process. Trustees and monitors should read our page for insolvency professionals.
Could your data qualify? Answer six questions in about two minutes. Nothing is stored.
Check if your company qualifies
Ready now? Apply to license your data (partner link).