--- title: Remote’s Job van der Voort says AI companies now pay... description: Remote CEO Job van der Voort says AI companies increasingly hire PhDs as contractors to label data and give feedback to their models. Demand for independent... canonical: https://daily.dev/posts/remote-s-job-van-der-voort-says-ai-companies-now-pay-phds-to-label-data-iitkcxcyr twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:site: @dailydotdev og:type: website og:site_name: daily.dev og:title: Remote’s Job van der Voort says AI companies now pay PhDs to label data | daily.dev og:description: Remote CEO Job van der Voort says AI companies increasingly hire PhDs as contractors to label data and give feedback to their models. Demand for independent... og:url: https://daily.dev/posts/remote-s-job-van-der-voort-says-ai-companies-now-pay-phds-to-label-data-iitkcxcyr og:image: https://api.daily.dev/og/posts/iItKCxcyr.png og:image:alt: Remote’s Job van der Voort says AI companies now pay PhDs to label data og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 630 og:locale: en --- > ## Documentation Index > Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://daily.dev/llms.txt > Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further. # Remote’s Job van der Voort says AI companies now pay PhDs to label data **[The Next Web](https://daily.dev/sources/tnw)** · 5 min read · 0 upvotes · 0 comments ## Summary Remote CEO Job van der Voort says AI companies increasingly hire PhDs as contractors to label data and give feedback to their models. Demand for independent contractors has risen 'massively' for this work, which started as simple labelling. Remote itself made an AI course mandatory for staff and later released it free as 'AI for Actual Work'. No Remote customer has reported replacing an employee with an AI agent. Remote is profitable, had its last funding round (a Series C) in 2022, and offers an MCP server so agents like Claude or ChatGPT can work within it. ## Full article daily.dev links to this article rather than hosting it. Read it at the original source: ## Questions this post answers ### why is demand for independent contractors who label data for AI companies increasing Remote CEO Job van der Voort says demand for independent contractors has risen 'massively' because AI companies need people to label data and give feedback to their models. The work began with simple labelling tasks but now often involves PhDs doing it alongside their research. He expects this market to keep growing for the next few years. _Anyone weighing a shift into AI data work can follow how this contractor market evolves on daily.dev._ ### are companies replacing employees with AI agents No customer of Remote, a payroll and global hiring company, has reported replacing an employee with an AI agent, according to CEO Job van der Voort. He noted Remote does not always know the real reason someone leaves a job, and said most companies are 'not on the AI bandwagon yet' when it comes to headcount decisions. _Teams tracking whether AI is actually displacing jobs can follow real hiring signals on daily.dev._ ## Similar posts on daily.dev - [Something Big Is Happening](https://daily.dev/posts/something-big-is-happening-lgyfb7xtb) · Reid Burke · 44 upvotes · 6 comments - [Big Tech said AI would take your job. Now bosses disagree](https://daily.dev/posts/big-tech-said-ai-would-take-your-job-now-bosses-disagree-5uqiywpdm) · The Next Web · 5 upvotes · 0 comments - [AI layoffs are here, the MCP vs API debate, and the rise of the Mac Mini-powered Agent](https://daily.dev/posts/ai-layoffs-are-here-the-mcp-vs-api-debate-and-the-rise-of-the-mac-mini-powered-agent-v3mobo1h4) · The New Stack · 1 upvotes · 0 comments --- Tags: [#data-science](https://daily.dev/tags/data-science), [#future-of-work](https://daily.dev/tags/future-of-work), [#hr-tech](https://daily.dev/tags/hr-tech) [View this post on daily.dev](https://daily.dev/posts/remote-s-job-van-der-voort-says-ai-companies-now-pay-phds-to-label-data-iitkcxcyr) ```json {"@context":"https://schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https://daily.dev/#organization","name":"daily.dev","url":"https://daily.dev","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://daily.dev/apple-touch-icon.png","width":180,"height":180},"sameAs":["https://twitter.com/dailydotdev","https://github.com/dailydotdev","https://www.linkedin.com/company/daily-dev-ltd"]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https://daily.dev/#website","url":"https://daily.dev","name":"daily.dev","publisher":{"@id":"https://daily.dev/#organization"},"potentialAction":{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https://daily.dev/search?q={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}}]} {"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"TechArticle","headline":"Remote’s Job van der Voort says AI companies now pay PhDs to label data","url":"https://daily.dev/posts/remote-s-job-van-der-voort-says-ai-companies-now-pay-phds-to-label-data-iitkcxcyr","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://daily.dev/posts/remote-s-job-van-der-voort-says-ai-companies-now-pay-phds-to-label-data-iitkcxcyr"},"datePublished":"2026-10-27T10:50:34.618Z","dateModified":"2026-10-27T10:51:02.183Z","description":"Remote CEO Job van der Voort says AI companies increasingly hire PhDs as contractors to label data and give feedback to their models. 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