As employers across industries seek AI-ready talent, a partnership between Outamation, an AI-native mortgage operations technology company, and Extern, a platform connecting students with real-world work experience, has provided 4,046 students with hands-on experience building artificial intelligence tools. The two externship programs were designed to close the gap between learning about AI and actually using it on the job, allowing students to apply AI to sample mortgage documents, build working tools, and deliver findings directly to Outamation.
The initiative matters because it demonstrates a scalable approach to workforce development in AI, a field where theoretical knowledge often outpaces practical application. Students from 934 schools and 59 countries participated, gaining skills that apply across finance, real estate, and other industries. The programs included a seven-week Foundational externship introducing AI, natural language processing, and computer vision, and a five-week Advanced program where students fine-tuned their own AI models and built multi-step AI agents to automate document workflows. Using sample files, students trained AI to recognize common mortgage document types and wrote Python code to extract key information automatically. They also built AI systems that answer questions about documents and tested open-source AI models, comparing them on accuracy, cost, and ease of use. Advanced participants presented their recommendations to Outamation stakeholders, mimicking the accountability of a professional technology team.
Lisa Guadagno, Chief People Officer of Outamation, emphasized the significance: “Every student today will build a career alongside AI. The question is whether they learn it by doing real work or by watching from the sidelines. 4,046 students chose to do the work. Our job as employers is to give the next generation the tools and the opportunity to succeed.” Sapan Bafna, Founder & CEO of Outamation, added, “AI skills on their own are not enough. Students learn the most when they solve real business problems with people who know the industry and people who know the technology. Our mortgage experts and AI engineers designed this curriculum together. Students learned to use AI the way it is used on the job.”
For employers, the program offers a dual benefit: students gain relevant experience, while Outamation receives independent evaluations of AI tools its team is considering. Matt Wilkerson, CEO at Extern, noted, “Most companies stay out of this because they picture a program they would have to build and staff. Taking that burden on is what Extern is for. Outamation handed students a real problem and got independent evaluations of the AI tools their own team is weighing in return. Having to make a recommendation and defend it to the people who will act on it is the part no course can simulate.”
The collaboration’s implications extend beyond immediate skill-building. By involving domain experts and AI engineers in curriculum design, the program ensures students learn to apply AI in context, a critical factor as industries integrate AI into core operations. The success of these externships may encourage other companies to adopt similar models, potentially reshaping how entry-level talent is prepared for AI-driven workplaces. Building on these results, Outamation and Extern plan to launch a new program designed to evolve with advances in AI, ensuring students continue learning the skills employers will need next. Students interested in future opportunities can visit www.extern.com, and more information about Outamation is available at outamation.com.
