As employers increasingly seek AI-ready talent, Outamation, an AI-native mortgage operations technology company, and Extern, a platform connecting students with real-world work experience, have completed two externship programs that provided 4,046 students with hands-on experience building artificial intelligence tools. The 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, mimicking a professional technology team.
The collaboration between Outamation and Extern was structured to provide two levels of learning: 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. Students worked on curriculum designed by Outamation’s mortgage domain experts and AI engineers, led by Nirmal Patel, Chief AI Officer, with support from Devang Kamdar, Co-Founder and CTO, and Mike Eng, Head of Partnerships at Extern.
Participants tackled real business problems using sample files, training AI to recognize common mortgage document types and writing Python code to extract key information automatically. They also built AI systems that answer questions about documents and tested open-source AI models, skills applicable across finance, real estate, and other industries. Advanced participants compared AI models on accuracy, cost, and ease of use, and presented their recommendations to Outamation stakeholders.
The scale of the programs was significant: students from 934 schools and 59 countries took part, demonstrating open access regardless of location or background. “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,” said Lisa Guadagno, Chief People Officer of Outamation. “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, emphasized the importance of practical experience: “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.”
Matt Wilkerson, CEO at Extern, highlighted the mutual benefit: “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 initiative matters because it addresses the critical skills gap in AI, providing students with practical experience that employers value. By partnering with Extern, Outamation not only gains fresh insights into AI tools but also contributes to building a workforce prepared for an AI-driven future. Building on these results, Outamation and Extern will work together on a new program designed to evolve alongside advances in AI, ensuring students continue learning the skills employers will need next. Students interested in future programs can learn more at www.extern.com, and more about Outamation’s AI-native solutions can be found at outamation.com.
