Crowdsourcing: The Future of an Efficient On-Demand Economy
Crowdsourcing has become a viable solution across all industries. According to a study conducted by IBISWorld Research, the market for crowdsourcing grew by 37% between 2012 and 2017. Today, over 3,000 companies provide crowdsourcing services.
It's clear that the crowd solution will reshape the face of businesses as well as the economy, but how?
Let's take a closer look...
Democratization Of Opportunity
Before the internet, like-minded colleagues would gather around the watercooler and discuss ideas and solutions to company problems. Now, with better technology (as well as the advent of social media), more and more people can engage without occupying the same space.
Steve Kelman at FCW couldn't have said it better: "Watercooler plus technology equals crowdsourcing."
The internet is available to people from all walks of life. Geography no longer matters. Background is irrelevant. This is the democratization of opportunity. Simply put, there's more opportunity for everyone.
Before crowdsourcing became popular, management teams were solely responsible for finding solutions to complex problems. Now, experts in various fields all over the world can offer their opinions and suggestions at the drop of a hat. From how to outperform competitors to predicting the growth of a particular market, the crowd offers valuable input from otherwise untapped resources. Even though these individuals don't work for a single company, they are passionate about providing inspiration and breakthrough concepts, as well as high-quality work.
The Next Generation
People and technology. It's a powerful combination. Among other things, enterprises are starting to rely on crowdsourcing to improve artificial intelligence (AI) capabilities. At Topcoder, we take a more man + machine approach to AI. Humans develop smart algorithms and gain feedback from the crowd to tweak and improve AI models.
A company by the name of Hive serves as a great example of using a crowdsourced workforce. Hive gathered a crowdsourced team of over 600,00 people from around the world to identify company logos in video footage and commercials. These individuals were able to train AI models to do the same. According to adweek.com, the new application programming interface (API) allows brands to "measure where their logos appear, for how long and how prominently and how clearly focused they are across sports broadcasts, television shows and, other video footage."
Crowdsourcing provides businesses with the diversity and flexibility of collaborating with private consultants. Additionally, it encourages cost-effective (and timely) improvement and advancement of AI technology. This will enable more jobs to become remote, possibly making cubicles a thing of the past.
Topcoder Can Deliver the Crowd-Development Your Need
With Topcoder, you don't need incredibly detailed specifications to begin your project. Topcoder's "challenges" entice high-quality talent from the community to share their ideas and expertise. Our challenges incentivize skilled individuals to perform top-notch work at which they believe they will excel. We put out the work, and the talent from the community comes to us. Best of all, our clients are connected with talent that may once have been unavailable.
Compete with Apple and Google for the Same Talent
Crowdsourcing allows you to compete with Apple and Google for the exact same talent. With the powerful combination of crowdsourcing and technology, more information is shared across channels. Additionally, the increasing number of cloud-based systems makes working remotely easier than ever. This shift brings us an innate collaboration that is really well-suited for crowdsourcing.
Companies now have access to knowledge, information, and people that have the potential to drive growth and success. In turn, this access helps solve company problems, generate new and innovative ideas, and develop new or improved products, services, and applications.
Are you looking for diverse talent that can take your innovation and digital execution to the next level? At Topcoder, we help businesses and enterprises connect with passionate individuals around the world. Contact us for more information about our digital solutions.