How Verified Reviews and AI Tools are Transforming the Search for Service Providers in Tech

TL; DR: Anyone who’s worked on the internet in any capacity is likely familiar with Clutch. Clutch is an online marketplace that connects businesses with service providers across various industries, including development, design, marketing, advertising, business, and IT. We spoke with Clutch’s VP of Development, Sergei Dubograev, about the company’s growth into a comprehensive platform for trusted reviews — as well as its new AI tool, Project Brief powered by ClutchAI, which generates project briefs and gets you fast, direct quotes from multiple providers at once.

I used to freelance, so I’m a big fan of outsourcing work. Last year, for example, I tried my hand at gardening. I weeded, mulched, planted tulips, and watered daily. Sadly, the weeds returned after a few weeks, and my tulips became a rabbit’s lunch.

This spring, I decided to go the professional route. I turned to a home services app, entered my project brief — budget, timeframe, and requests — and was quickly matched with three local landscaping companies. All I had to do was choose one.

It was almost too easy. And it was just what I needed.

Clutch is similar in that sense. As an online marketplace, Clutch connects businesses with verified service providers across more than 1,500 categories, including advertising, design, and IT solutions.

“Clutch helps inform better and stronger decisions through authentic and verified reviews,” said Sergei Dubograev, VP of Development at Clutch. “We have an entire team dedicated to review integrity. It’s like the bedrock of any successful online review platform.”

In other words? You can filter service providers based on budget, industry, and location — all while knowing you’re getting the best of the best thanks to Clutch’s careful vetting process.

Clutch has grown exponentially since its founding in 2013.

What once began as a small startup has evolved into a fast-growth global company that’s now home to more than 350,000 service providers.

Sergei attributes this growth to the team’s “startup mentality,” which maintains integrity through a few critical principles.

First, Clutch prioritizes trust. In fact, Sergei said less than 1% of reviews are removed as fake or spam thanks to the team’s verification processes.

“Our dedicated content operations team reviews every single submission,” Sergei told us. “People who come to Clutch know they’re getting trust and transparency. They’re reading something real, and it’s not just some random Google review.”

For example, the team makes sure that reviewers are actually connected to the companies. This prevents fake reviews and stops people from leaving biased or inaccurate comments.

Sergei said he believes this QA check helps level the playing field. After all, consumer reviews are vital to business success, whether the company is small and trying to gain traction or large and targeting new markets.

But the extra verification speaks volumes. Take the word of 91% of surveyed 18-34-year-olds, who say they trust online reviews as much as they do recommendations from friends or family.

I think technology is changing so rapidly; you wake up almost every morning, and there’s something new happening. But outside perspectives give you an edge. People have found that outsourced companies become almost like an extension of their own team.

Sergei Dubograev, VP of Development at Clutch

Sergei also mentioned a feedback loop between the buyer, Clutch, and the provider, which helps providers refine their profiles based on buyer preferences.

“We actively engage service providers to maintain their profiles in those segments because competition is always coming in, but we also help them identify what buyers are looking for,” said Sergei, adding, “Everything we do is built around trust.”

It’s no secret that the use of online marketplaces has evolved quite a bit over the past few years, but Clutch, in particular, has seen substantial growth in IT development and AI sectors. Sergei credits that growth to an increased demand in cybersecurity, blockchain, and cloud computing.

These are complex fields. As handy as it may be, not every company has access to every single type of expertise they may need. That’s why outsourcing has become a necessary solution for many businesses.

“I think technology is changing so rapidly; you wake up almost every morning, and there’s something new happening. But outside perspectives give you an edge,” Sergei explained. “People have found that outsourced companies become almost like an extension of their own team.”

Your company may be outsourcing already, and you don’t even know it. Stats say that 37% of surveyed small businesses outsource at least one business process, and 66% of all U.S. businesses outsource at least one department.

But when it comes to finding the right provider, it’s no walk in the park. It’s kind of like hiring a new employee, but instead of just one person, it’s an entire team. That’s why Sergei advises businesses to “start small and plan big.”

“The majority of the vendors on our site are matched based on project size or budget, regardless of your stage,” Sergei said. “Providers don’t join Clutch just to find clients; they’ve invested significant time, resources, and effort. As a result, they are eager to work with clients, and those who’ve given it a try have seen success.”

Last year (around the same time as my gardening attempt), I wanted to mount my TV. Having no experience or the physical strength to do it alone, I hired someone from Thumbtack. He brought his own tools — including a pretty neat laser level — and was in and out within 30 minutes.

So when Sergei said, “The reason you’re going to outsource is because you’re not an expert in the field or need support,” it was like a switch flipped because he was so right. You rely on a provider with the right expertise because you don’t have the tools or know-how yourself

He added, “Sometimes, you don’t know the right questions to ask or the kinds of objectives you even want to accomplish.”

Which is the perfect segue to talk about Project Brief.

Project Brief, which is powered by ClutchAI, is a GPT-based tool trained on Clutch’s internal data. It uses insights from reviews to generate detailed project scopes to recommend relevant service providers.

It’s never fun to realize the agency you’ve onboarded is going off in a different direction with your project. Not only is it awkward to part ways, but you’ve also just wasted precious time and money.

With that in mind, Project Brief is designed to revolutionize how you find service providers. By entering your project requirements — such as budget, timeframe, and specific needs — the AI creates a simple project brief for service providers within seconds.

For example, if you input a request like “Help me improve my SEO for my Italian restaurant in Connecticut,” Project Brief powered by ClutchAI will follow up with targeted questions.

When I inquired about my (fake) Italian restaurant, the bot asked if I preferred a provider with experience in a specific industry, which ultimately refined my search and delivered more accurate results.

Here’s how it works:

“I would advise anyone to try it out,” Sergei added, and then chuckled: “I even play with it when looking for service providers because it tells me so many things I didn’t even know.”

Looking ahead, Sergei hinted at several upcoming developments. He mentioned that many of Clutch’s new tools aim to enhance the speed and efficiency of connecting buyers with providers.

“We have so much data that can be useful to a buyer and a service provider, but we want to give access to it quickly,” Sergei specified. “A lot of our road map for the next few years is focused on making that connectivity even better.”

Find your next project partner on Clutch, or use Project Brief powered by ClutchAI to generate a detailed project brief and connect with top-rated providers in your area.