As employers increasingly 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, designed to close the gap between learning about AI and applying it on the job, allowed students to work with sample mortgage documents, build working AI tools, and deliver findings directly to Outamation, mirroring professional technology team workflows.
Outamation and Extern co-designed the curriculum, with Outamation’s mortgage domain experts and AI engineers creating the material. Nirmal Patel, Outamation’s Chief AI Officer, led program design, supported by Devang Kamdar, Co-Founder and CTO, while Mike Eng, Head of Partnerships, led for Extern. The programs offered two levels: 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 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 built AI systems that answer questions about documents and tested open-source AI models, gaining skills applicable across finance, real estate, and other industries. Advanced participants compared AI models on accuracy, cost, and ease of use, and presented recommendations to Outamation stakeholders. The programs were open to students from 934 schools and 59 countries, ensuring 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.”
“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,” said Sapan Bafna, Founder & CEO of Outamation. “Our mortgage experts and AI engineers designed this curriculum together. Students learned to use AI the way it is used on the job.”
“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,” said Matt Wilkerson, CEO at Extern.
The initiative matters because it demonstrates a scalable model for employers to cultivate AI talent while gaining fresh perspectives on their own technology. By immersing students in actual mortgage document workflows, the programs not only prepare participants for AI-driven roles but also provide Outamation with independent assessments of AI tools under consideration. This dual benefit could encourage more companies to adopt similar experiential learning partnerships, potentially reshaping how industries bridge the AI skills gap. With students from nearly a thousand schools and dozens of countries, the effort also broadens access to high-demand AI skills, fostering a more diverse pipeline of talent.
Building on these results, Outamation and Extern will collaborate on a new program designed to evolve with AI advances, ensuring students learn the skills employers will need next. Students interested in future programs can learn more at www.extern.com. For more information about Outamation, visit outamation.com.
