The quality and volume of data are important when developing any artificial intelligence models, regardless of their type and purpose. Therefore, the efficient collection, processing, and evaluation of data arrays are among the priority tasks facing the creators of modern AI algorithms.

One of the key players in the data infrastructure industry today is Scale AI, and we have dedicated another article to it. In this detailed Scale AI review, we will tell you how this company was founded, what solutions it supplies to the market, as well as its capabilities and application scenarios.

What is Scale AI

San Francisco-based startup Scale AI provides labeling and data annotation services for AI models and applications built on them. The company was founded in 2016 by two former Quora employees, Lucy Guo and Alexandr Wang.

As of 2025, Scale AI is in high demand in the industry of preparing and evaluating data that is used to train generative AI models. The California-based startup has over 900 employees, and its client list includes Microsoft, Cohere, Adept, Meta, Cisco, SAP, and a number of other well-known enterprises.

The company’s first orders came from manufacturers of autonomous driving systems for self-driving vehicles. Its employees reviewed and manually labeled video recordings needed to train AI models. Today, Scale AI outsources such projects to its subsidiaries Remotasks and Outlier.

In 2019, the company received its first serious funding of $100 million from Peter Thiel's Founders Fund. In 2024, it received an even larger tranche of $1 billion, which increased the startup's capitalization to an impressive $13.8 billion.

Scale AI Website

Source: Scale AI

In 2023, the AI training data provider won a contract with the US Department of Defense, making it the first AI company to deploy its Donovan language model on a classified network. In February 2024, Scale AI signed a one-year contract with the defense department to test and evaluate military-grade LLMs.

In May 2024, the startup raised an additional $1 billion in funding from Meta and Amazon, bringing its valuation to $14 billion. In April 2025, the developers introduced Scale Evaluation, a platform for comprehensive testing of AI models using benchmark tests.

Key Products and Services

Scale AI offers a range of interconnected software solutions that streamline and improve the efficiency of the development, application, and evaluation of AI models.

Scale Data Engine

One of the best AI data annotation tools available on the market provides high-quality processing of data arrays of any type and size. It allows you to easily track, classify, and eliminate possible errors or other shortcomings in the operation of the language model.

The system ensures the necessary diversity and relevance of data due to its high-performance labeling, which helps LLM achieve maximum efficiency. Its functionality is easily scalable to adapt to any AI/ML projects—from experimental tasks to large business projects.

Scale Evaluation

The startup’s next product helps AI developers better understand, analyze, and evaluate the quality of the neural networks they create. With this tool, they can test models against key performance and safety criteria. Scale Evaluation contains comprehensive assessment sets for a range of industries.

Connect applications without developers in 5 minutes!

It also allows loading custom networks to focus on specific model problems. The service supports standardized benchmarking to compare multiple models. It also provides detailed reports on LLM performance across tasks, domains, and versions.

Scale Donovan

Donovan is a platform for customizing, evaluating, and deploying specialized AI agents. It allows developers to build and customize applications based on AI models using a no-code interface and integration with SGP (Scale’s GenAI Platform).

Scale Donovan provides access to modern LLMs and multiple data sources and also allows connecting AI agents to external systems. In addition, the platform can test and evaluate the performance and other parameters of models. There is also a library of high-speed, scalable AI applications for different tasks and industries.

Scale GenAI

Another key product in the Scale AI portfolio is used to develop and optimize language models for specialized use cases. It is a feature-rich platform with LLM testing and evaluation options, built-in RAG (retrieval augmented generation) pipelines, and a number of other tools.

Scale GenAI's capabilities enable developers to flexibly and efficiently build high-performance applications using generative AI technologies. The platform supports training, fine-tuning, deployment, and monitoring of custom models based on a wide range of proprietary and open-source LLMs.

How Scale AI Works

How Scale AI Works

Source: Scale AI

Scale AI offers clients a range of enterprise AI solutions related to data preparation and language model training. Key among them are:

  • Data Labeling. The company is considered one of the key players in this market, combining the latest generative AI technologies with the professionalism of manual labor. Its services include labeling of various types, formats, and volumes of data: text, images, audio, video, cartography, 3D, etc.
  • Data Curation. The next area involves the creation, optimization, and management of data sets. The services included in it for collecting, structuring, indexing, and cataloging information allow you to prepare the most complete and relevant data sets for developing and customizing AI models.
  • Reinforcement Learning from Human Feedback (RLHF). Scale AI employees manually evaluate the quality of LLM responses to queries they input. Their results are then compared to a benchmark and used to fine-tune or retrain the model.
  • Testing and Evaluation of the Model. The company provides services for automated testing of AI models and evaluation of benchmark test results. The use of the “red team” approach allows for a comprehensive analysis of the model’s performance according to a number of criteria, identifying possible errors, risks, and vulnerabilities.
  • Create Personalized Datasets. Scale AI employees manually sort and evaluate data to create high-quality datasets that are scalable and tailored to a specific AI model or project.

The AI infrastructure company offers several pricing models, some of which are intended for corporate clients and some for individual users. The cost of Scale AI services depends on the specific solution, as well as the format and volume of data processed. The Data Engine platform has its own pricing model with a pay-as-you-go payment option.

Real-Life Examples

The products and solutions provided by the Scale AI platform find application in a number of important industries.

Retail

AI models created with the company's participation are widely used in retail, where they automate communication with consumers, stimulate sales, and improve service quality. AI chatbots used in e-commerce and other trade formats quickly respond to customer requests and provide them with personalized recommendations. Neural networks also effectively track market trends, analyze user data, and forecast demand.

Automotive Industry

Scale AI services are in high demand among automakers, helping them develop control systems for unmanned vehicles. The artificial intelligence models they are based on quickly identify equipment and software failures, recognize road hazards and prevent accidents, plot optimal routes, and perform a number of other tasks. The company collects and processes data from cameras and sensors of unmanned vehicles, using it to train AI models.

Finance

Banking and other financial services are another key Scale AI use case. Companies in this industry use its services to train and fine-tune LLMs designed to automate customer service, manage risks, and identify suspicious transactions, fraud, and cyberattacks. The company's solutions efficiently process and analyze data to monitor industry trends and generate personalized insights.

Security and Defense

The Scale Donovan platform is used by the Pentagon to prepare specialized AI models aimed at performing national security tasks. In January 2025, Scale AI and Meta began a joint project to create a large-language model called Defense Llama, designed for a wide range of security and defense tasks. And in March, the company signed a contract with the US Department of Defense to develop the Thunderforge project. Its goal is to use AI to optimize the maneuvers of military equipment.

Medicine

Scale AI products provide comprehensive support for training and fine-tuning artificial intelligence models used in various areas of medicine. In particular, they automate the processes of analyzing patient data and making diagnoses, identifying potential health threats, and developing personalized treatment plans.

Bottom Line

Scale AI is a leader in today's data infrastructure market, providing developers of AI models and applications with relevant and organized information for training and software tuning. Its competitive advantages include high-quality data processing, decent performance and scalability, along with flexible pricing.

The company provides clients with a wide range of solutions—from labeling and curating data to preparing custom datasets, testing, and evaluating language models. Scale AI services are in high demand among major AI technology providers, as well as well-known enterprises and organizations from a number of industries—from retail and finance to medicine and defense.

***

Would you like your employees to receive real-time data on new Facebook leads, and automatically send a welcome email or SMS to users who have responded to your social media ad? All this and more can be implemented using the SaveMyLeads system. Connect the necessary services to your Facebook advertising account and automate data transfer and routine work. Let your employees focus on what really matters, rather than wasting time manually transferring data or sending out template emails.