Since its inception in 2023, Outlier has become a cornerstone of the AI industry—connecting hundreds of thousands of people across the globe with meaningful and flexible work. Hailing from cities and small towns across the world, Outlier contributors have earned a combined hundreds of millions of dollars to help build the foundation of today’s most advanced AI models.
This week in New York City, we brought together journalists and a few of our contributors to discuss their work on Outlier and how it’s impacted their lives.
We heard from Scott O’Neil, a plumbing sales professional from Louisiana, who is applying his web development background to push AI forward. Ryan Adams, a Virginia-based sustainability leader, discussed how he brings his operational experience to bear on critical data infrastructure problems. Fred Nau, a Florida high school teacher, uses his expertise to educate his students about LLMs and prepare them for an age of abundant intelligence. And lastly, Tony Du, a Toronto-based strategist-turned-voice actor, spoke about how his work on Outlier helped him navigate career shifts through creative AI work.
"Our contributors are the heart of Outlier,” said Xiaote Zhu, General Manager of Outlier. “They’re not just powering AI—they’re actively shaping it. As we continue to grow the platform, our focus is on ensuring they have the tools, transparency, and support to thrive on this platform.”
To support these contributors and improve their experience, we’re introducing changes to Outlier. The following updates are rolling out today, and are based on their feedback and insights:
- Improved payment transparency: Contributors now have access to more detailed payment information, making it easier for them to connect the work they perform to the payments they receive.
- Increased choice and flexibility: We’re rolling out a new Marketplace experience to more contributors. It provides greater options over what they choose to work on. It also provides the ability to designate a back-up project and unlock access to new projects through self-initiated skill screenings, which helps contributors access more work on the platform.
- Smarter support, at scale: We have quadrupled the size of our support team to keep pace with contributor growth and recently introduced an AI-powered chatbot to help resolve a wide range of issues quickly. For anything that needs deeper investigation, contributors are routed to a human agent.
- Task feedback, with room for dialogue: We have piloted a new feature allowing contributors to request additional context on task feedback they’ve received, helping to bring more clarity to our peer-to-peer reviewing process.
- Expanded loyalty program: Oracle, Outlier’s program recognizing the platform’s top contributors, has grown significantly over the last six months. We’re now formalizing the perks for Oracles, such as additional earning opportunities and prioritized support.
Outlier is redefining what it means to work in AI—empowering people from all backgrounds to meaningfully contribute to the future of technology. This is just the beginning of a new era, one focused on growth, opportunity, and technology that will improve the ways we all live and work.