iMerit vs. Humans in the Loop: Comparing Data Labeling Providers

As new machine learning projects continue to emerge, the importance of preparing accurate data for them is higher than ever before. Data annotation services deal with this task, making a critical contribution to AI development.

That's why we have prepared for you a comparative analysis of iMerit and Humans in the Loop, two leading data labeling companies in the market. We've analyzed their main data annotation services, pricing, and more to save you time on research. Check if they have what you're looking for.

iMerit vs. Humans in the Loop: Company Profiles

iMerit Company

iMerit was founded in 2012 by Dipak Basu. Today with over 5000 employees, the company offers full end-to-end services for data annotation in a wide array of industries. The company is headquartered in San Jose, California, but also has offices in New Orleans, LA, Kolkata, and Bengaluru, India.

Humans in the Loop Company

Humans in the Loop is a social enterprise which provides ethical dataset annotation and AI model validation services. Its data labeling services are provided by over 250 specialists located in Sofia, Bulgaria, their headquarters, but also Malaysia and Ukraine, Turkey, and the Middle East. One of its missions is to help people from countries that experience armed conflicts and those forced to displace.

Services and Products

iMerit Services and Products

In comparison to other data labeling companies that offer a limited number of services, the iMerit company works with both texts and images. It provides data labeling for machine learning, computer vision, natural language processing (NLP), as well as content services.

Their main services include:

• Reinforcement learning from human feedback (RLHF) for LLMS and LVMS

• Image annotation

• Video annotation

• Text annotation

• Audio transcription

• LiDAR annotation

• Sentiment analysis

• Content moderation

• Product categorization

• Image segmentation

Besides, you can receive data labeling and annotation services in various languages. In addition to English, their annotators based in Latin America, Germany, US, and Bhutan, can support other languages on request.

Humans in the Loop Services and Products

Humans in the Loop is a data labeling company that mostly specializes in computer vision. Their main services include:

• Dataset annotation

• Dataset collection

• Human-in-the-loop for active learning

• Real-time edge case handling

• Reinforcement learning with human feedback

If your project is based on computer vision, Humans in the Loop can not only annotate the data for you. They can also collect it, review your final models, and assist with their testing before final deployment.

Pricing Models

Among many data annotation companies in the market, Humans in the Loop's free trial is counted per hour and not volume. With 2 hours of free annotation, both you and the company will be ready to estimate further timelines and cost of the annotation accomplishment.

Dataset Types

iMerit Dataset Types

iMerit technology services include various dataset types. They range from datasets for text annotation to video and image annotation. Besides, they transform audio data into text formats that can be further processed by computers. The supported formats are then used for named entity recognition and conversation categorization tasks.

Humans in the Loop Dataset Types

While labeling data for machine learning projects, Humans in the Loop work with the majority of acceptable dataset types. Among the most popular ones they mention JSON, Yolo, COCO, and Pascal Voc XML. However, they can also consider and find solutions for your specific format, both for importing and exporting data.

Data Annotation Tools

It's important to note that both companies adhere to a humans-in-the-loop approach, which means that behind every annotation there is a human. Even though both use various tools for annotation, it's a human annotator who processes data, annotates, and validates it.

Integrations

Both iMerit and Humans in the Loop offer no-code integrations. The final annotated data can be deployed to you through APIs. While iMerit technology also considers working with plugins and proceeds with custom requests, Humans in the Loop offers you the possibility to indicate the URLs where you want to receive final annotated datasets.

Annotation Process

iMerit Annotation Process

iMerit's annotation process is comprehensive and consistent, where you can participate at any stage. The main annotation steps include:

• Consultation with an expert and registration on the platform

• Trial and annotators’ training

• Workflow customization

• Feedback cycle

• Evaluation

iMerit is one of a few AI data labeling companies that offers a trial with their Ango Hub platform.

Humans in the Loop Annotation Process

If you choose Humans in the Loop for your ML journey, the annotation with them will go through the following steps:

• Introduction call

• Free trial

• Fine-tuning

• Contract conclusion

• Project delivery

Quality Assurance

iMerit QA

iMerit uses multiple layers of quality assurance along the whole data annotation process. To better notice the gaps, identify the efficiency of the accomplishment, and track KPI metrics, they use various dashboards, reports, and tracking systems. Their techniques for ensuring data annotation quality include:

• Setting a gold standard during mini-sets

• Using an annotator consensus

• Using scientific methods for label consistency

• Subsampling

Around 5-10% of random annotated data is additionally checked by a solution architect. Besides, data annotators review the labeled datasets multiple times before the final submission of the project.

Humans in the Loop QA

As the majority of data annotation companies, Humans in the Loop checks the annotated datasets multiple times. Their two levels of QA consist of:

• Supervisor dedicated to every project

• QA team

While the supervisor checks every piece of the annotated data and checks it against previously defined acceptance rates, the QA team checks the whole project at the end before sending it to the client.

Security and Data Compliance

iMerit vs. Humans in the Loop: Pros and Cons

To let you make your own decision whether the two data annotation providers fall under your top data labeling companies, here is the main summary:

Depending on the nature and size of your project, both iMerits' and Humans in the Loop AI solutions may be helpful:

TL;DR

To summarize, both iMerit and Humans in the Loop offer competitive solutions. If the first vendor may be interesting to those who consider comprehensive annotation, the second one may suffice to those focusing on computer vision projects.

iMerit may be suitable to those who want to have extensive cooperation with regular subscription to their platform. Humans in the Loop is a good option for smaller projects that consider annotation, but also testing and training.

And if you're looking for someone who has experience with other industries (e.g. insurance, academia) or provides annotation in multiple languages across the globe, try a free pilot with us.

FAQ

Written by

Maria Shepeta Editor-at-Large

Maria is one of the passionate tech writers on Label Your Data's content team. She enjoys combining the art of words with technological innovations. Interested in hot topics such as machine learning, artificial intelligence, and data annotation, she contributes to our knowledge base. Read some of her articles to discover evolving tech topics!