Top Scale AI Alternatives for Enterprise Data Needs

Scale AI is well-known for its role in powering some of the world’s largest AI projects. From autonomous vehicles to computer vision systems, its mix of automation tools and human-in-the-loop workflows has made it a go-to provider for enterprise-scale annotation.

But here’s the reality: no single platform fits every project. Enterprises working on conversational AI, healthcare tech, multilingual NLP, or even edge-device models often find that Scale’s strengths don’t align with their requirements. Some need richer voice datasets, others need tighter compliance guarantees, and many want flexibility beyond a single vendor’s platform.

That’s where exploring Scale AI alternatives becomes essential. Let’s look at who’s offering credible options in today’s fast-growing AI data services market.

1. Twine AI

Enterprises building advanced AI don’t just need labelled data; they need the right data. Twine AI specialises in designing and delivering custom datasets across audio, video, text, and images from one million contributors over 190+ countries.

  • Voice, speech and video data expertise: accents, dialects, emotional tones, global diversity, noisy environments or any other requirement. Your data, your way.
  • End-to-end project management: recruitment, consent, collection, annotation, and delivery.
  • Privacy-first approach: GDPR, CCPA, and regional data laws fully covered.
  • Scalability: supports both small pilots and enterprise rollouts.

Twine’s strength lies in its ability to move beyond generic task platforms, ethically sourcing contributors and data that match real-world diversity, a critical factor in reducing model bias.

2. Appen

Appen is one of the oldest names in AI data services, with a reputation built on scale and operates a large global crowd for annotation and collection.

Strengths:

  • Broad coverage across text, speech, image, and video
  • Supports 170+ languages and dialects
  • Experience with Fortune 500 clients

Considerations:

  • Slower onboarding and project management can frustrate some clients
  • Higher pricing compared to newer, more agile providers

3. Clickworker (LXT)

Clickworker, alongside its AI-focused arm LXT, offers large-scale data services supported by a workforce of over 4.5 million contributors worldwide.

Strengths:

  • Wide multilingual coverage
  • Large contributor base for rapid scale
  • Flexible project options

Considerations:

  • Less focused on managed services, more on task distribution
  • Quality depends on project design and QC mechanisms

4. Toloka

Toloka provides global crowdsourcing for AI tasks with built-in quality control features such as gold-standard testing and performance monitoring.

Strengths:

  • Flexible pricing and workforce scaling
  • Good for tasks like image tagging, speech transcription, and sentiment analysis

Considerations:

  • Still a crowdsourcing platform at its core, so consistency may vary
  • Less suited for highly complex, managed projects

5. CloudFactory

CloudFactory provides fully managed data annotation teams, making it a popular choice for enterprises needing long-term, consistent partnerships.

Strengths:

  • Dedicated annotators trained on specific client workflows
  • Strong quality assurance
  • Enterprise-grade data security

Considerations:

  • More expensive than crowdsourced options
  • Best for ongoing projects rather than one-off datasets

6. Sama

Sama provides annotation services across image, video, and text with a focus on ethical labour practices and social impact.

Strengths:

Considerations:

  • Narrower focus than some larger providers
  • Less scale than Appen or Scale AI

Why Look for Scale AI Alternatives?

Enterprises consider alternatives to Scale AI for several reasons:

  • Different data needs: Scale is strongest in computer vision, but enterprises also need voice, text, and multimodal datasets.
  • Compliance pressure: Sensitive use cases like healthcare and finance require strict governance that some providers specialise in.
  • Cost vs. value: Automation is efficient, but enterprises sometimes need customisation and human oversight that platforms don’t prioritise.
  • Bias reduction: Richer demographic diversity can be easier to source via managed networks rather than general task platforms.

Conclusion

Scale AI has made its mark as a leader in annotation for autonomous systems and visual AI. But the enterprise AI landscape is far broader than a single provider can cover.

From managed, compliant specialists like Twine AI to dedicated teams at CloudFactory or ethics-first providers like Sama, enterprises today have more choice than ever in how they source, annotate, and manage their training data.

The right partner will depend on whether your priority is voice and speech diversity, continuous annotation pipelines, or compliance-driven projects. What’s certain is that enterprises are no longer locked into a single platform and exploring alternatives is often the fastest route to building better AI.

Raksha

When Raksha's not out hiking or experimenting in the kitchen, she's busy driving Twine’s marketing efforts. With experience from IBM and AI startup Writesonic, she’s passionate about connecting clients with the right freelancers and growing Twine’s global community.