The thing that keeps me up at night is the future for our kids, and for the young adults trying to get jobs today. Entry-level job postings in the U.S. have diminished by 35% since January 2023. Since the widespread adoption of generative AI, early-career workers (ages 22-25) in the most AI-exposed occupations have experienced a 16 percent relative decline in employment. This AI everything world is like quicksand, shifting as we move. Where will the opportunity be?

Our internship program is kicking off at the tail end of May, and we have the most interns we've ever had - a whopping 16. We dedicated ourselves to creating a program that will prepare these emerging professionals for whatever comes next for them, maybe a job with us, maybe their next year in college, who know. But whatever it is, we want to help them be ready, while also adding value to PhoenixTeam company goals.

We hope to learn from this first group, and roll out a broader set of (free) programs for employers as part of our AI futures initiative. Feel free to take this program framework and use it in your organization. We'd also love to hear from you if you are doing someone innovative in your work or have an idea to share.

The AI Futures Program

A program for preparing people — kids through early-career professionals —to think, work, and lead in a world being rewritten by AI.

The PhoenixTeam Internship Program

The goal of the PhoenixTeam summer internship program is to prepare young adults for whatever their next move towards productive employment is. It is designed for high school, college aged youth, and people with zero to two years of work experience.

The program runs thirteen weeks. The interns are broken into groups of between four and six people, and each group is a team that works together for the duration of the program. The team has a team leader, and this leader rotates every two weeks so that each member of the team has at least one opportunity to gain leadership experience. There are seven core areas to the program.

1. AI education – every Tuesday, one of our AI educators provides one hour of hands on instruction on artificial intelligence.
2. Running a business – Wednesdays, a member of the team at all different levels (from associate to managing partner) provides real world guidance on what it means to run a business. They are also providing professional stories, lessons on failure, and an opportunity for questions and answers. We invite speakers and leaders from other companies to join us as well on selected topics.
3. Presentation and demonstration – Thursdays, on a rotating basis, three interns will present and showcase their individual projects and accomplishments. They will get feedback. This gives every individual their chance to learn presentation and demonstration skills. There is no competition at the individual project level.
4. Teamwork and competition – Fridays, three teams present and demonstrate their team project, based on the leader’s guidance and leadership style. They will get feedback and compete as a team for a prize. At the end of the internship program, we will have a showcase showdown “shark tank” style where all teams demonstrate their final project and compete for prizes and awards.
5. Portfolio building – each intern is part of a team, and that team has a group project to complete that is relevant to their teams’ business focus area. The focus area is assigned at the beginning of the program. Each intern also has their individual project that they select based on their interests. Both projects involve building something, which the students will vibe code and package in their portfolio. When the interns leave, they will have a portfolio, and three things in their portfolio – an individual project, a team project, and a case study written by them.
6. Adding value to a business – each intern has a PhoenixTeam manager with whom they work to add value to the business. What the intern works on will be set by that manager, and the manager will meet with the intern regularly on their assignments. Their assignments will contribute to the goals of PhoenixTeam and add value to the organization.
7. Leadership – interns alternate being the leaders of their team and learn what leadership is and how to lead. They will practice setting weekly and program level goals and guiding a team to achieve those goals.

The program culminates in a showcase showdown, where teams compete in front of a “shark tank” style panel. They present their project in seven minutes to the managing partners and demonstrate their product.

Week-by-Week AI Education

Week-by-Week Running a Business

We are really excited about making a real difference for this demographic, we talk about it all the time in our classes. It's time to do something real about it and this is a first step.

Follow us for more updates as the AI Futures Internship Program gets underway.

By Tela Mathias, CTO and Chief Nerd and Mad Scientist at PhoenixTeam

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