If you run a fund, an advisory firm or an accounting practice, the models, memos and workpapers your team has built over the years are work AI labs want their models to learn from. Buyers tell us finance leads the list of industries they'll pay a premium for. Read on to find out why, what in your firm you can license, what has to stay out, and how the process runs.
Why AI labs ask for finance first
Buyers pay a premium for full company datasets from industries built on high-value knowledge work, and finance is the first industry they name. The work is expensive, it takes years to learn, and almost none of it is on the public internet. A textbook explains what a discounted cash flow model is. Your firm holds real ones, each with the assumptions someone argued over and the outcome that followed.
Our guide to who buys company data for AI training covers the four kinds of buyer and how you reach them.
What GDPval shows about finance work
OpenAI's GDPval benchmark, published in September 2025, shows which jobs labs measure their models against. It tests AI models on real tasks from 44 occupations across the nine sectors that each contribute more than 5 percent of US GDP. Finance and insurance is one of the nine. Five of the 44 occupations sit inside it (financial managers, financial and investment analysts, personal financial advisors, securities and financial services sales agents, and customer service representatives), and accountants and auditors are on the list under professional services.
OpenAI built each task from the work product of a working professional. Those professionals average 14 years of experience, and a task takes an expert about seven hours to complete. The deliverables are the things your team makes every week (spreadsheets, documents, slide decks). OpenAI also reports that models perform better when they get more context about a task, and your firm's files hold that kind of context for real work.
Work that can be checked is the easiest to license
Buyers tell us that the more objectively a piece of work can be checked, the more readily they license it, and they point to financial models as the example. A model has inputs, formulas and an answer. A forecast can be compared with what happened. A reconciliation ties out or it doesn't.
That matches what buyers pay for in every industry. Records that show an outcome are worth more than records that don't, and finance work carries its outcomes with it. Our guide to how much your company's data is worth to AI labs covers the six factors behind the price.
What a financial firm can license
| What you hold | What it shows | What has to come out first |
|---|---|---|
| Financial models and valuations | How your team builds an analysis, with the assumptions and the answer | Client names, and vendor data pasted into the sheets |
| Investment memos and research notes | How a view gets argued, challenged and decided | Non-public information about public companies, and anything under a confidentiality agreement |
| Due diligence files | How your team tests a company before a deal | The counterparty's confidential documents |
| Client reports and portfolio reviews | How results get explained to the people who rely on them | Client identities, account details and personal financial information |
| Accounting workpapers and close files | How the numbers get checked, step by step | Client identities and anything a regulator requires you to keep confidential |
| Email and chat tied to deals and reviews | The reasoning between the files | Personal details, and anything unrelated to the work |
The value is highest where these connect. A model linked to the memo that used it, the thread where a partner questioned it, and the result a year later is a complete record of how your firm makes a decision. Our guide to what your company's docs are worth to AI labs covers how spreadsheets and documents in Google Drive or OneDrive get exported and licensed.
What has to stay out
A financial firm has more to exclude than most companies, and you decide the exclusions before anything is exported:
- Client identities, account details and personal financial information. Names and personal details are replaced with pseudonyms to a documented standard, and records your client agreements restrict stay out entirely.
- Market data and research you license from a vendor. It belongs to the vendor.
- Deal materials you received under a confidentiality agreement.
- Non-public information about public companies.
- Anything a regulator requires you to keep confidential.
- Credentials, account numbers and access details.
What's left is usually the most valuable part, which is the record of your own team's work. This isn't legal advice, and your compliance team should review the scope before anything is exported. If most of your work is done for clients, our guide to what agencies and consultancies can license to AI labs covers what you own and what your clients own.
What it's worth
Typical full-company licensing deals start at six figures, and buyers pay a premium above that for industries like finance. There's no rate card, and a real number takes a scoping call. One public reference point is Spirit Airlines, whose operating records drew bids of 10 million and 12.5 million dollars in bankruptcy court, and that package included the airline's finance and revenue-management records. Our breakdown of the Spirit Airlines data deal covers what was in it.
How the process runs
Licensing through us runs in four stages:
- Scope. You take the assessment, we hold a short scoping call, and you decide what's in and what's out.
- Agree. You review and sign standard terms covering your license and your earnings.
- Package. You export the files with our guidance, and we replace names and personal details with pseudonyms, document what's included in a manifest, and get it ready for buyers.
- Get paid. Buyers evaluate the data without knowing whose it is, and you're paid on every sale.
You keep ownership the whole way through, and your firm is never named publicly. Our guide to how long it takes to license your company's data covers the timeline and what buyers check, and our owner's guide to licensing company data for AI covers the full process.
Where to start
The quickest way to find out what your firm's work could license for is to take our free data value assessment (ten questions about your systems, history and industry, about five minutes). You get an estimate, and a scoping call after that gets you a real number.
Where Troveo fits
Troveo is a data licensing marketplace. We work with more than 40 active buyers and we've paid rights holders more than 20 million dollars. You sign one license, you decide what's in and what's out, we handle the packaging and every buyer conversation, and you're paid on every sale with no fees and no deductions. Start with the data value assessment, read our business data page for how the process works, or talk to us about what your firm holds.