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Data Annotation and Labelling Services: India Value Proposition and Industry Maturity
Data Annotation and Labelling Services: India Value Proposition and Industry Maturity

April 13, 2021

AI

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India’s competitive edge in the data annotation space stems from its decades of service delivery experience.

Data annotation services industry is gathering pace as AI becomes more pervasive and businesses realise that training data is the Achilles’ Heel of AI. My last article on Data Annotation Landscape and Trends: The India Story highlights the India data annotation services landscape, different workforce models and the kind of training and educational requirements for being a data annotator. The focus of this article is to understand the India value proposition and the current maturity of Indian players in the annotation space when compare to the global counterparts.

Data Annotation Services

Image Source: Ortuse

The India Value Proposition

Cost, Infrastructure, Talent and Innovation are the key areas where India’s competitive edge lies.

  • Low cost-advantage - Labelling services delivered with higher quality output at a low-cost advantage over other economies
  • Existing Infrastructure - Pivoting Tech Solutions to utilize existing infrastructure to support a large, multi-city annotation operations
  • Skilled Talent Pool - Pool of skilled professionals with basic to intermediary computer and English skills that is apt for data annotation
  • Continued innovation - Strong start-up ecosystem with innovative solutions to address growing demand in the AI space
India Value Proposition

Source: Data Annotation – Billion Dollar Potential Driving the AI Revolution

Now that we know the India advantage let us have a look at the maturity of data annotation industry in India and where are majority of service providers placed.

India Data Annotation Industry Maturity

We have divided the landscape into four phases of Explore, Expand, Sustain and Diversify. This is done basis the workforce model, the tooling options and the annotation services provided by the players. Data annotation industry in India is still gathering pace with ~75% players in the initial and growth phase. On the other hand, if we have a look at the global landscape, ~70% of global players are in intermediate to advanced phase of maturity.

The infographic below highlights the different phases of maturity of Indian data annotation services providers. Download the full report on Data Annotation: Billion Dollar Potential Driving the AI Revolution to get a deeper dive on the global landscape.

India data annotation maturity

Source: Data Annotation – Billion Dollar Potential Driving the AI Revolution

The maturity of annotation service providers can be gauged by understanding their advancements across the following parameters. My previous article on Two building blocks of data annotation services –Workforce + Platform

Workforce Model: Workforce is a critical building block needed to ensure successful data annotation services delivery. There are different workforce models that players in the space adopt. Crowdsource workers, freelancers, self-managed full time employees or a BPM partnered workforce are a few alternatives. Depending on the maturity of the player and the type of offering, the nature of workforce often varies. A dedicated workforce often is a preferred choice for mature players.  

Tooling Options: The annotation tool/platform is the second building block required in the annotation space. The maturity of the player is often governed by the tooling option chosen, the players that are early on their journey often go for open-source tools or even an existing crowdsourced platform when they just a workforce. On the other hand, more mature players build their own tools that are tailored to their workflow, have AI-assisted pre-annotation capabilities and analytics dashboards to manage tasks and workforce. If the tool is the USP of the provider, they even offer it as a SaaS offering to enterprises and other smaller players opening alternate revenue streams.

Annotation Services: Lastly, a combination of the right workforce and the annotation tool provides the service providers with the capability to offer varied annotation services. The kind of annotation services provided by the players often plays a crucial role in determining their maturity and visibility in the overall landscape. Mature players often have a capability across sectors, annotation types, and data types. A few advanced players in the Indian landscape have also gone a step ahead to provide edge case evaluation and even AI model training to customers based on the annotated data.

Watch out for my next article that highlights the challenges faced by Indian data annotation players that are holding them back. Download our full report on Data Annotation – Billion Dollar Potential Driving the AI Revolution for more interesting insights.


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