Digital experts often compare data to oil. It’s immensely valuable, though mostly hidden. You need resources to mine it and experts to refine it. And, most importantly, it must be handled with extreme care to prevent the worst-case scenario: a massive spill.

Google’s three-day I/O’18 conference in Mountainview, Calif., last week brought together developers from around the globe for hands-on learning, discussion with experts, and a look at Google’s latest developer products. The conference also featured Google I/O Extended sessions held in technology hubs across the country, including a panel discussion that featured CloudFactory Chief Revenue Officer Mike Riegel.

CloudFactory invites tech disruptors to enter the fifth annual AIconics Awards at 2018 London Tech Week. AIconics is the world’s only independently judged artificial intelligence (AI) award program. The ceremony, to be held at Kensington Palace on June 12, celebrates the best in AI and innovation that is taking shape around the globe.

Data is today’s gold for businesses, representing huge potential value. But there’s a catch: the data must be uncovered, clean, and structured.

Our latest client success story shares how Ibotta, a cash-back rewards app, partnered with CloudFactory to improve accuracy and processing time on its important data-verification work. Retail consumers use Ibotta to submit photos of receipts for cash-back rewards from brands. With nearly 22 million downloads, it is one of the most frequently used shopping apps in the United States.

For all of AI’s promises, we still need people to do a lot of work behind the scenes to make it all possible. People collect, enrich, clean, and prepare data for AI systems to operate accurately and optimally. In fact, data scientists spend countless hours cleaning and combining datasets, a process commonly referred to as “data wrangling.”

Earlier this month, The Tech Tribune recognized CloudFactory as one of the 10 Best Tech Startups in Durham. The list of tech startups based in Durham, N.C., was the result of research on each company’s revenue potential, leadership team, brand and product traction, and competitive landscape.

We have a big mission at CloudFactory: to create meaningful work for people who don’t have access to economic opportunities. There are many other organizations that share our passion for assisting people with few resources, and some of them are right in the Durham, N.C. area. We wanted to give back to the community that is home to CloudFactory’s U.S. office, so we’ve partnered with a handful of these local organizations to lend a hand.

One of our clients said it best: “CloudFactory has people who care.” It’s true: our teams are known for high quality work, and they love the role they play in working with the world’s most innovative technology companies. Since 2008, we have helped hundreds of companies grow their businesses by providing a highly scalable, managed workforce to be an extension of their teams.

“[Video] data annotation is super labor-intensive. Each hour of data collected takes almost 800 human hours to annotate. How are you going to scale that?”

-Sameep Tandon, CEO of Drive.ai, an autonomous car startup in Silicon Valley and CloudFactory client