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 Me ...