Paid AI Internships for ASU Students
By Jon Schack, Founder, Automation Interns · Updated
A paid AI internship with Automation Interns places ASU students inside a real business, building software that business actually runs on, with a senior engineer reviewing the work every week. Students are paid minimum wage, and the program is upfront about that: the compensation that matters is the portfolio and the coaching. Interns are equipped with professional-tier tools at the company's expense, including Claude Max, ChatGPT Pro, SuperGrok Heavy, and Google AI Ultra, and are actively coached on which tool fits which task. Past intern projects include a Salesforce dialer with AI voicemail drops, an executive dashboard, an auto-scheduling system, and a local-model PDF redaction app, all shipped to paying clients rather than built as exercises. Placement is matched to what each student says they love about technology, and interns present their own work to the client at a 30-minute demo call every week.
What will you actually work on?
Live client projects that businesses run their operations on. Past intern work includes a Salesforce LWC dialer with AI voicemail drops and email follow-ups, an executive dashboard, an ortho-practice auto-scheduling tool, and a Windows PDF redaction application running a local model. Placement is matched to what you say you love about technology, not only to what is already on your resume, because the first job in tech tends to set the track for the ones after it.
Who mentors you, and how?
A senior engineer scopes the project before you start, reviews what you build each sprint, and is reachable when you get stuck. You also present at the weekly 30-minute demo call, which means explaining your own work to the client who paid for it. That review loop is the part that is hard to get from coursework or from a personal project.
What AI tools do you get?
Every intern is equipped with Claude Max, ChatGPT Pro, SuperGrok Heavy, and Google AI Ultra, professional subscriptions the company pays for rather than the student. Access is the smaller half of it: your workflow is guided and reviewed so you learn which tool suits a given task, and how to move between them, instead of learning to prompt one of them well.
How does the internship help you land a full-time job?
You leave with shipped systems a real business runs on, reviewed by a senior engineer, and you can walk an interviewer through every decision behind them. That is the evidence hiring managers ask for and coursework rarely produces. Industry-wide, conversion rates have been climbing, so the market for turning a strong internship into a first job is better now than it has been in several years.
Frequently asked questions
Is the internship paid, and how much?
The internship is paid at minimum wage, and the program states that plainly. The rest of the compensation is the portfolio and the coaching: real client automations shipped under senior review, with roughly $950 a month of professional AI subscriptions provided at no cost to the student.
What are the hours like around a class schedule?
Hours flex around your class schedule. The internship is part-time and built for students, and the senior engineer supervising you adjusts each sprint as your availability changes.
Do I need prior professional experience to apply?
No prior professional experience is required. What matters is genuine interest in the kind of technology work you would be placed on, since placement is matched to what you say you enjoy rather than to what you already know best.
How do I apply?
Applications go through the student form on this page, and it takes a few minutes to fill out. Go to the application section