While I may be known as an entrepreneur who always pushes the limits of what technology can do, I also hold the title of adjunct Professor of Graduate and Undergraduate Innovation and Entrepreneurship Programs at Rider University.
I’m also a Rider alum, and helping today’s students become tomorrow’s entrepreneurs is a very rewarding part of my week.
Recently, though, these two worlds collided. I found myself working on a project that combines my experience with companies that want to work with AI and Rider students who need job experience. It’s called the AI Assistant Accelerator Program, and the story of how it got started is interesting.
A Magical Pairing
The idea of the AI Assistant Accelerator Program has its roots in two problems. First, it’s internships. Getting an internship at a company has been a point of pride and valuable experience for thousands of students across the country.
Still, back in 2020—you know, when COVID-19 hit—those opportunities started to dry up. Sure, there were virtual variations, but many disappeared into the ether.
This is bad enough on the school side, but what about businesses? There’s no better person to ask than my friend and coworker, Dr. Eugene Kutcher III (I call him Gene). He’s the Dean of the Norm Brodsky College of Business at Rider University and spent some time in the private sector as a business leader. How does he feel about that loss?
“Internships give [businesses] a signal of, ‘What can I expect from this generation?’” he told me. “These internships are a job tryout for people who may ultimately become hired as full-time employees.”
But it goes even further than that. “From our side of things, it means everything for our students. From the employer side of things, it’s twofold. It’s both a head start on the recruiting, but also a signal for what’s coming from this generation as they’re entering the workforce.”
So internships are crucial for students and businesses. Got it. What’s the other problem?
AI Baby Steps
On my work side, I’ve met business owners from across the world, and they all have varying levels of interest in AI. Some want to see what it can do, while others just fired a bunch of people because one of their people dumped private corporate information into a public LLM. There are varying levels of fear about AI, but everyone knows they must do something with it.
Meanwhile, Rider has students who are all in on AI. They want to use it today and already have some working knowledge on the subject, too. What if there were some kind of way to connect these two groups?
We know academia will always lag behind technological industry innovation. It has to. But there’s a gap between those two concepts. This is where the program fits in.
Let’s get companies already engaged with Rider even more deeply engaged. Maybe we can create this place at Rider where an organization expressing interest in AI but not knowing how to apply it properly can pair up with an alum who runs an entire organization that does this stuff with their enterprise customers. That alum will mentor the students on the project that the company wants to accomplish.
This creates a structure that doesn’t exist today. It’s no longer your standard internship. It’s more of a Big Four consulting company. It’s a proof of concept where we can create an experiential learning experience for students and companies to properly implement AI within their organizations. It’s a peanut butter and jelly pairing, and I love it.
Win-Win
Gene summed it up nicely when he explained it from a company’s perspective: “OK, now we have interns. What do we do with them?’ In this case, it’s almost like we have something to do with them, and now let’s bring the students on board,” he said.
We’re still working out the specifics, but I’m amped about what we can do with this program. The potential is enormous, both for the companies and the students. Stay tuned, because there will be more on this soon, and I can’t wait to break that news.
In the meantime, don’t forget I’ve got a book out right now! It’s called The AI Ecosystems Revolution, available today at Amazon, Bookshop.org, Barnes and Noble, or your local bookseller.
