RLHF Talent Shortage: Second Talent's Answer to the AI Bottleneck

Second Talent deploys managed RLHF annotation teams across Asia as AI companies face critical talent shortage for model training.

SAN FRANCISCO, CA, UNITED STATES, December 10, 2025 /EINPresswire.com/ -- As artificial intelligence companies race to develop more sophisticated models, a critical bottleneck has emerged: the shortage of skilled human annotators needed for Reinforcement Learning from Human Feedback (RLHF). Second Talent, a global talent platform operating across nine Asian markets, has been building managed data annotation teams that help AI companies scale their training data operations without the compliance headaches of assembling offshore teams independently.

The growing demand comes as the data annotation market experiences unprecedented growth, with industry analysts projecting the sector to expand from approximately $3.6 billion in 2025 to more than $38 billion by 2035. Recent high-profile investments, including Meta's multibillion-dollar stake in Scale AI, have confirmed that data annotation has evolved from a cost center into strategic AI infrastructure.

"Every breakthrough AI model depends on RLHF to align with human preferences, but the industry is discovering a fundamental constraint," said Elton Chan, CEO of Second Talent. "You can't crowdsource cognitive work. Teaching an AI model what feels helpful versus harmful requires educated, culturally fluent annotators who understand context and nuance. The talent gap for this kind of sophisticated annotation work is estimated at nearly 30 million people globally."

Beyond Basic Labeling: The RLHF Difference
Traditional data annotation, such as drawing bounding boxes around objects or tagging sentiment in text, can be performed by workers with minimal training. RLHF represents a fundamentally different challenge. Annotators must evaluate AI outputs for helpfulness, accuracy, and safety, often making subjective judgments that require deep understanding of language, culture, and domain-specific knowledge.

The shift toward Online Iterative RLHF, where models require continuous feedback collection and updates rather than one-time labeling projects, has intensified demand for dedicated annotation teams rather than gig-based crowdsourcing platforms. Companies building proprietary AI models increasingly need consistent annotators who learn their guidelines, understand edge cases, and improve over time.

Second Talent addresses this need through managed annotation teams deployed across the Philippines, Vietnam, Indonesia, and India. Unlike crowdsourcing platforms that match clients with variable contractor pools, Second Talent employs annotators as full-time staff through its Employer of Record infrastructure, ensuring team consistency, IP protection, and compliance with local labor laws.

Asia Emerges as RLHF Talent Hub
The Philippines has rapidly established itself as a premier destination for sophisticated annotation work, building on decades of BPO excellence. The country produces hundreds of thousands of English-fluent college graduates annually, with strong familiarity with Western cultural contexts. This proves to be a critical advantage for natural language processing tasks where understanding idiom, tone, and intent determines annotation quality.

Vietnam's technical workforce has similarly positioned the country as a rising player in AI services. German and Japanese technology firms have operated annotation centers in Ho Chi Minh City and Hanoi for years, creating a mature ecosystem of trained professionals familiar with complex labeling requirements across image, text, audio, and video modalities.

Solving the Compliance Challenge
For AI companies, building annotation teams across multiple countries presents significant operational complexity. Employment contracts must comply with local labor laws. Non-disclosure agreements and IP protections require jurisdiction-specific legal review. Data handling protocols must satisfy increasingly stringent privacy regulations.

Second Talent's EOR model eliminates these barriers by serving as the legal employer for annotation teams while clients retain direct management of work output and quality standards. The company handles payroll, benefits, tax compliance, and employment documentation across all nine markets where it operates.

The managed team structure also addresses security concerns that have made some AI companies hesitant to outsource annotation work. Unlike crowdsourcing platforms where data may be accessed by thousands of anonymous workers, Second Talent deploys dedicated teams operating under strict NDAs with auditable access controls.

Scaling for the AI Surge
Industry projections suggest that demand for annotation services will continue accelerating as AI applications expand across healthcare diagnostics, autonomous vehicles, financial services, and enterprise software. The companies that secure reliable annotation infrastructure now will hold meaningful advantages as AI development intensifies.

Second Talent reports that annotation teams can typically be deployed within 48 to 72 hours for small projects and two to three weeks for larger operations requiring 50 or more annotators. The company's established presence across Asian markets enables rapid scaling without the months-long process of setting up foreign entities.

"The AI industry is experiencing the same realization that software companies had a decade ago," EC noted. "You can either spend years building global operational infrastructure yourself, or you can partner with specialists who have already solved those problems. We've built the employment, compliance, and talent infrastructure. Our clients focus on training their models."

About Second Talent
Second Talent is a global talent platform and Employer of Record service connecting companies with pre-vetted developers and technical specialists across nine Asian markets including Taiwan, Vietnam, Indonesia, Malaysia, Philippines, Singapore, China, India, and Hong Kong. The company delivers qualified talent within 24 hours while managing cross-border payroll, benefits, and compliance. Learn more at secondtalent.com.

NGAI TUNG ELTON CHAN
Second Talent
+852 6071 0266
email us here

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