# AI Firms Are Buying Companies’ Work Files to Train Models

> Data brokers are seeking emails, documents and messages from businesses. Privacy and worker-consent questions remain, including in a disputed Spirit Airlines sale.

Oossa · 2026-11-06 · https://oossa.com/en/ai-firms-are-buying-companies-work-files-to-train-models

AI data brokers including Mercor, Handshake and Micro1 are buying companies’ work records—such as documents, emails and internal messages—to train or test AI models. Wired reports that the market is drawing interest from major AI labs, though Anthropic says it does not buy workflow data from operating companies like Wired; OpenAI did not respond before publication.

A proposed sale of Spirit Airlines’ digital records, including 500 million internal messages and 20.6 million SharePoint files, is on hold after the flight attendants’ union objected over workers’ private information. Data companies say they remove personal details, but privacy advocates warn that sensitive information can remain in unstructured messages.

## The facts

- Spirit Airlines’ records reportedly included 80,000 email accounts and 500 million internal messages.
- The Spirit Airlines sale is on hold following objections from the flight attendants’ union.

## Why it matters

For workers, company emails and files could become AI training material without their clear consent; whether anonymization adequately protects private details remains disputed.

## Sources & references

1. [AI Companies Really, Really Want to Buy Your Work Files and Emails](https://www.wired.com/story/ai-companies-really-really-want-to-buy-your-work-files-and-emails/) – Wired, 2026-11-06

Last updated: 2026-11-06