Sama is a global leader in ethical data annotation and model evaluation solutions for computer vision, generative AI, and other major applications of artificial intelligence. Pulse 2.0 interviewed Sama CEO Wendy Gonzalez to learn more about the company.
Wendy Gonzalez’s Background
What is Wendy Gonzalez’s background? Gonzalez said:
“I’ve spent my career trying to answer one question: How do you use technologies to move businesses forward? I started my career in consulting and worked with technologies like IoT, federated data systems, and services-oriented architecture at organizations like EY, Capgemini, and Cycle30.”
“As my career progressed and I started a family, I began to ask myself a second question: How could I serve communities in my full-time work? Sama spoke to everything that has been a focus in my career from the beginning but with an added impact-focused element. I originally joined in 2015 as an SVP and Managing Director, becoming President and COO in 2018. After the passing of our founder, Leila Janah, in 2020, I first served as interim CEO before becoming the full-time CEO later that same year. I’m working every day to be a proof point that social business is in everybody’s purview and is totally viable.”
Formation Of Sama
How did the idea for the company come together? Gonzalez shared:
“Our founder, Leila Janah, believed that talent is equally distributed around the world, but opportunities to use that talent are not, and that work, not aid, is what people need to lift themselves out of poverty. She founded Sama in 2008 as a non-profit to empower underrepresented communities, especially in Kenya and Uganda, with digital skills and formal, dignified work.”
“One of my biggest responsibilities as Sama’s CEO is to ensure that we continue acting on these beliefs and considering them with every decision. This has led us to become a for-profit, public benefit organization that allows us to scale further. As a public benefit corporation, we have legally obligated to always consider our mission of empowering people in East Africa, especially women and youth, through digital skills and formal employment. The Leila Janah Foundation, a non-profit organization, is still our primary shareholder. When Sama succeeds, the LJF benefits.”
Favorite Memory
What has been Gonzalez’s favorite memory working for the company so far? Gonzalez reflected:
“My favorite memories involve visiting our team in Nairobi, where much of our workforce is based. I believe spending time in person with the team is essential for me to be effective as CEO, and connecting with our leadership in Kenya gives me a deeper understanding of what the business needs. Beyond that, I love meeting people across all levels of the organization and hearing how working at Sama has positively impacted their lives. It’s humbling to see the real, tangible effects of our work, from employees supporting their families to pursuing further education or starting their businesses.”
“One of my favorite trips was for the Sama Cup, where all our offices competed. I even played in the finals as an honorary Kenyan men’s soccer team member. It was a lot of fun—but also terrifying! They take soccer very seriously, and I was the weakest link on the team.”
Core Products
What are the company’s core products and features? Gonzalez explained:
“Sama specializes in helping companies develop more responsible AI models. We offer a number of services, including data labeling and model validation. We leverage a Human-in-the-Loop (HITL) approach, consisting of a vetted, diverse, in-house workforce with deep domain expertise and a proven track record of delivering expert data solutions at scale.”
“An AI model built on poor-quality data won’t perform to expectations and may not work. Our workforce of over 5,000 labels, tags, and annotates crucial information for model training. We collaborate closely with clients to proactively address potential issues. For example, while working with AgTech images, our team identified two distinct pest species instead of one, which were of concern to the client.”
“Additionally, we offer model evaluation and supervised fine-tuning, optimizing performance post-development. We also provide red teaming services to stress-test models and uncover vulnerabilities. Our approach is specifically calibrated for Generative AI (GenAI) models.”
Challenges Faced
What challenges have Gonzalez and the team faced in building the company? Gonzalez acknowledged:
“A big challenge in the AI industry as a whole is this idea of responsible and/or ethical AI and how to embrace these principles. While they often go together, responsible and ethical AI are two different things. Ethical AI focuses on an AI’s alignment with specific values or morals — for instance, evaluating whether a model produces discriminatory or inflammatory content. Responsible AI asks broader questions concerning the entire lifecycle, including the development process and the overall societal impact. Responsible AI practices call for fair work standards, including paying living wages and good working conditions, up and down the AI supply chain. Data provenance and governance is another major issue: has data been ethically sourced, and how is it being used and protected? These principles also look closely at the impact an AI model can have on society. Is a model helping or harming people? If the latter, how can we address it?”
“Up until recently, we have been in the Wild West of AI – meaning there has been little to no regulatory oversight. Governments have developed guidelines, but they have mostly been voluntary and focus on already-extant best practices. With the advent of the EU AI Act, that is all changing quickly. Companies need to start working on compliance now or face regulatory trouble later, and that almost by necessity means adopting responsible and ethical AI practices.”
Evolution Of Sama’s Technology
How has the company’s technology evolved since launching? Gonzalez noted:
“We launched Sama Platform 2.0 last year, our re-engineered computer vision platform to reduce the risk of machine learning (ML) algorithm failures. Platform 2.0 can deliver a 99% client acceptance rate for AI training data through SamaAssure, the industry’s highest quality guarantee, with an annotation delivery rate of up to 300+ million frames, 850+ million shapes, and 10 billion annotation points a month. It was the biggest single update to our platform since launch.”
“Since then, we have announced a number of updates and new solutions. Sama Red Team, which I mentioned earlier, launched late last year. We developed new integrations with some of the world’s largest LLMs as part of our Sama GenAI solution suite. We also announced a scalable solution specifically designed for high-quality, rapid annotation of medium and long sequences of frames, which are essential for automotive AI models to safely self-drive a vehicle.”
Significant Milestones
What have been some of the company’s most significant milestones? Gonzalez cited:
— In 2020, Sama was one of the first AI companies to become a certified B-Corp, which required thorough evaluations of our governance structure, social responsibility initiatives, and more. We also converted to a public benefit corporation as part of our certification to enshrine our mission at the heart of the business.
— In 2021, we raised a $70M Series B in an oversubscribed round, which was followed by a Series A of $14.8 million.
— In 2022, we set a single-year record for total entry-level jobs created at Sama, with 1,622 new jobs.
— In 2023, we joined the United Nations Global Compact (UNGC), the world’s largest voluntary corporate sustainability initiative. Also, in 2023, we made significant progress toward our sustainability goals by transitioning our North American offices to 100% renewable energy.
Customer Success Stories
When asking Gonzalez about customer success stories, she highlighted:
“One of our more recent successes came with a Fortune 100 company. (We work with several of the world’s largest companies, including 40% of the FAANG companies.) This particular company wanted to scale up custom ad imagery with Gen AI by using it to create custom-generated, contextual backgrounds – rather than just generate backgrounds and have the product look like it’s sitting against a backdrop, which doesn’t encourage conversions.”
“Our task was to evaluate image quality, relevance of the background, and the naturalness of each image. For example, we rejected images where dishwashers were displayed in living rooms or where products appeared to be floating above surfaces.”
“Our work significantly improved the model’s performance and the client’s confidence in its advertising.”
“You can read more of our case studies on the Sama website, covering a number of different verticals and projects.”
Funding
When asking Gonzalez about the company’s funding/revenue details, she revealed:
“As a private company, we don’t disclose revenue, but I can share that we have raised a total of $84.8 million.”
Total Addressable Market
What total addressable market (TAM) size is the company pursuing? Gonzalez assessed:
“Globally, GenAI alone is projected to reach $36 billion this year and grow at a CAGR of almost 50% to $356.1 billion by 2030. Meanwhile, the broader AI market is expected to hit $826 billion in 2030. Our work at Sama is an essential part of the AI supply chain, and we have the experience and solutions to provide high-quality work at scale.”
“We are also part of the business process outsourcing (BPO) and impact sourcing markets. BPO as a whole will reach nearly $500 billion by 2030. While impact sourcing is a smaller piece of this market, it is also growing as more companies realize their choice of supplier is also part of their CSR goals.”
Differentiation From The Competition
What differentiates the company from its competition? Gonzalez affirmed:
“We are the first in the industry dedicated to the development of responsible AI models throughout their entire lifecycle. We take a unique, holistic approach that prioritizes data governance, ensures its model development is representative and accurate, engages human oversight and quality management, and is committed to an ethical supply chain and the fair treatment of all workers.”
“I am also proud to share that our workforce is 53% female – a far cry from the global average of 26% for the AI industry. While our clients don’t select us because of our diversity, I believe it is critical that we continue to provide more diverse perspectives a seat at the table when it comes to developing more responsible and ethical AI models.”
“We pride ourselves on the following qualities:
Agility: Sama can rapidly adjust to changing workflow needs, allowing customers to bring models to market up to 3x faster.
Quality: Sama provides a proven blueprint and expert workforce that delivers high-quality outputs— regardless of scale or complexity.
Expertise: Sama has 15+ years of AI experience with thousands of workflows codified through its proprietary platform, proven methodology, and expert workforce.
Governance: Sama leverages transparent business practices that support the responsible development of AI frameworks — including data chain of custody and data privacy compliance.”
“Sama meets the standards for the Corporate Sustainability Due Diligence Directive (CSDDD) and can support customers in becoming compliant with the EU’s Artificial Intelligence Act. The company achieved 98.6% compliance on a CSR audit aligned with CSDDD standards for a major automotive supplier and was subsequently chosen to be the customer’s benchmark for all other data annotation vendors.”
“Impact: Sama’s business model is rooted in impact, and its business practices embrace circularity and sustainability— including paying a living wage and full benefits to all staff.”
Future Company Goals
What are some of the company’s future company goals? Gonzalez pointed out:
“As a business, we are obviously focused on continuing to scale and lead the way in ethical, responsible, holistic AI development solutions.
On the impact side, we are focused on ensuring everyone has a seat at the table as technology evolves. That means continuing to provide bridges to the formal economy through entry-level work at Sama, but it also involves providing employees with the opportunities to build their careers through upskilling and other initiatives. For example, we just launched a partnership with the University of Nairobi to offer their students and faculty part-time employment to augment their education with real-world experience with cutting-edge AI. For many of our employees, working at Sama is their first formal job, but we actively work to make sure it isn’t their last.
We envision a future where AI models are all developed responsibly and ethically, with many people with many perspectives having a say in how the model is built and how it should be used. We are working to help build a world where all nations can benefit from AI tools, even those which technological developments have historically left behind.”
Additional Thoughts
Any other topics you would like to discuss? Gonzalez concluded:
“Companies no longer have the time to get AI wrong. Nearly three-quarters of top-performing CEOs cite Generative AI as a competitive advantage (IBM) and 65% of companies are now using GenAI in at least one business function — a figure that is doubling year over year (McKinsey). Companies who fail to prioritize responsible AI face more than just stiff penalties from AI regulators – they risk falling behind in a highly competitive market. Mistakes in models can result in PR nightmares at best and true catastrophe at worst.”
“To effectively compete, enterprises need to develop AI models with a priority on responsible, trustworthy frameworks. Models must prioritize safety, fairness and transparency in equal measure to accuracy, quality, and reliability. Sama is the only responsible AI company with a proven blueprint focused on people, process, and technology, which is purpose-built for these changing enterprise needs.”
