Since its inception in 2023, Outlier has become a cornerstone of the AI industry&mdash;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&rsquo;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&rsquo;s impacted their lives.
We heard from Scott O&rsquo;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,&rdquo; said Xiaote Zhu, General Manager of Outlier. &ldquo;They&rsquo;re not just powering AI&mdash;they&rsquo;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.&rdquo;
To support these contributors and improve their experience, we&rsquo;re introducing changes to Outlier. The following updates are rolling out today, and are based on their feedback and insights:
<ul>
<li>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.</li>
<li>Increased choice and flexibility: We&rsquo;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.</li>
<li>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.&nbsp;&nbsp;</li>
<li>Task feedback, with room for dialogue: We have piloted a new feature allowing contributors to request additional context on task feedback they&rsquo;ve received, helping to bring more clarity to our peer-to-peer reviewing process.</li>
<li>Expanded loyalty program: Oracle, Outlier&rsquo;s program recognizing the platform&rsquo;s top contributors, has grown significantly over the last six months. We&rsquo;re now formalizing the perks for Oracles, such as additional earning opportunities and prioritized support.</li>
</ul>
Outlier is redefining what it means to work in AI&mdash;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.

Our contributors are the heart of Outlier