Gen Z Interns Can Do What AI Can’t: How to Build a Pipeline

Like many recent college graduates facing the highest unemployment rate in more than a decade, Leslie Quiroz-Pineda left the University of California at Berkeley with a degree but no job. She had the talent and the drive, but she needed experience.

I hired Leslie for a multimedia internship at Making Waves Education Foundation, where she developed her portfolio and confidence. She was then hired as a full-time marketing manager at a tech startup. 

For Generation Z, chances like these are disappearing. Early-career job postings are down 15 percent, and AI is accelerating the loss of the entry-level work that’s critical to starting a career.

Those early tasks are where skills are actually built. Foundational work experiences might take the form of understanding strategy by editing documents, learning video editing on the job, or observing a mentor’s skills in relationship-building or decision-making. Each step builds on the last.

So how will the next generation prepare for their careers and make the jump to leadership roles if the first rungs of the career ladder disappear? And how can nonprofits and foundations adapt to keep talent pipelines — and social-impact work — intact?

Hire interns for creative work.

Hiring an intern comes at a lower overall cost than consultants or freelancers — and the return compounds over time.

Take social media. I hired Giovanna Barragan, a social-change major at the University of Southern California, as a marketing intern. She brought communication skills, video-editing experience from school clubs, and deep knowledge of our program as a participant. 

Hiring an intern comes at a lower overall cost than consultants or freelancers — and the return compounds over time.

Giovanna learned advanced video editing software on the job, took initiative to find storytelling trends relevant for our audiences, and quickly picked up on strategy. She partnered with students on peer-to-peer marketing content and earned a promotion to lead social media intern. Ultimately her work led to an increase of our brand’s Instagram following by more than 30 percent and expanded our reach by more than 6,600 percent.

Giovanna has built trust with our audiences and has become an ambassador for our organization, speaking at board meetings and connecting with donors. Now she has added development and partnership work to her portfolio.

That kind of outcome isn’t unusual. The National Association of Colleges and Employers found 80 percent of employers say internships are their best return on investment for recruitment of future talent.

Internships are AI-proof.

I’ve managed more than 20 interns over the past decade, and most roles — ranging from graphic designers and photographers to writers and content creators — can’t be fully replaced with AI. Interns bring so much to the work that AI can’t: the ability to empathize with an audience, lived experience that makes their social-media posts resonate, a personal style that sparks emotion for messages to donors, and a sense of judgment in helping others feel comfortable sharing their story.

Another of our interns, Z’haria Anderson, creates presentations with her brand-analysis findings, conceptualizes and writes op-eds on topics like mentorship, and creates day-in-the-life videos of what it’s like to be a business major at USC. This work requires nuance, collaboration, and honest feedback — all of which benefit from Z’haria’s personal experiences and beliefs.

As disdain for AI slop and the need for relational intelligence both grow, the creativity and sense of community interns bring to philanthropic work is more valuable than ever.

Hire for curiosity and ability to learn on the job.

As you hire interns, don’t focus too much on degrees, majors, or specific experience. Look for interns who show the ability to learn on the job and who have time management and communication skills. Hire for interns with an openness to feedback and with an intrinsic motivation or goals for the internship. Consider interns who are your program participants or are committed to your organization’s cause.

Interns like Leslie, Giovanna, and Z’haria will make the most of their experience and strengthen the skills employers are seeking to then make the leap beyond entry-level roles.

Take the time to delegate.

More organizations need to invest in internship programs — especially because there are far more applicants than internships open, and women, people of color, and first-generation college students are significantly underrepresented in paid internships. So how do you make internships happen at your organization?

Map out what makes sense to delegate.

●  What tasks are recurring but benefit from human interaction, meaning you train once and an intern handles week after week?

●  What projects have clear deliverables but need new perspectives?

●  What skills is your team missing?

Focus the job description on three core responsibilities, what skills interns will build, and details on the timing, pay, and hours. Align with industry best practices, like seasonal internships and appealing job titles.

Fully welcome interns to your team, but don’t forget they are not full-time employees.

●  Train only on what they’ll use repeatedly and spread training out based on their hours and sequence of projects.

●  Establish clear expectations for hours, deadlines, weekly or biweekly meetings, and checking in before and after each shift.

●  Build a learning environment: Co-create goals, have ongoing space for ideas, make connections for informational interviews, give specific feedback, and celebrate progress.

It’s a growth experience for both sides. Start small, ask for feedback, and refine your approach each cycle.

Set clear guidelines for when interns should use AI.

As you manage interns, balance supporting their growth in skills, network, and knowledge with supporting them to be ready for their next role. This includes work-based experience with artificial intelligence as references to AI in job descriptions have increased by 400 percent over the past two years.

Be explicit about when critical thinking or first-hand practice to build the skill is needed rather than relying on AI. Have guidelines on what types of projects can be supported by AI — like outlining timelines and organizing information — and which ones require mostly human collaboration and judgment — like original storytelling and peer-to-peer marketing. Keep in mind the biases and limitations of AI.

And remember, this work is social at its core. Giovanna recently reflected: “AI couldn’t teach me what I am learning and absorbing in this internship, just like it can’t teach me to be a good friend.”

The social impact aspect of this work is what’s at stake. Let’s use our human reasoning and the clear return on investment to offer Generation Z the same chances to learn and grow that we had.