Instead of signing expensive contracts with companies for their data, AI labs these days are trying a new tack: tapping former senior employees from those companies for their industry knowledge, Mercor CEO Brendan Foody said at TechCrunch Disrupt 2025 on Tuesday.

Speaking on a panel onstage, Foody cast Mercor’s marketplace as one of the main channels connecting the former employees of investment banks, consulting houses and law firms with AI labs which are looking to automate those industries. Some of Mercor’s customers include OpenAI, Anthropic, and Meta.

“There is an argument that Goldman Sachs doesn’t love the idea of having models that are able to automate their value chain,” said Foody onstage, using the Wall Street giant as an example. “It definitely shifts the competitive dynami

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