Outamation and Extern Externships Equip 4,046 Students with AI Skills for Mortgage Industry

As employers seek AI-ready talent, Outamation, an AI-native mortgage operations technology company, and Extern, a platform connecting students with real-world work experience, have delivered hands-on AI training to 4,046 students through two externship programs. The initiative, designed to bridge the gap between theoretical learning and practical application, allowed students to work on sample mortgage documents, build AI tools, and present findings directly to Outamation, mirroring professional technology teams.

The programs, designed collaboratively by Outamation's mortgage domain experts and AI engineers, included a seven-week Foundational externship covering AI, natural language processing, and computer vision, and a five-week Advanced program where students fine-tuned AI models and built multi-step AI agents to automate document workflows. Participants trained AI to recognize mortgage document types, wrote Python code to extract key information, and tested open-source AI models—skills applicable across finance, real estate, and other industries. Advanced participants presented their recommendations to Outamation stakeholders, evaluating models on accuracy, cost, and ease of use.

Nirmal Patel, Outamation's Chief AI Officer, led program design, with support from Devang Kamdar, Co-Founder and Chief Technology Officer, and Mike Eng, Head of Partnerships at Extern. The externships attracted students from 934 schools and 59 countries, emphasizing open access regardless of location or background. Lisa Guadagno, Chief People Officer of Outamation, remarked, "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. 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, added, "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, noted, "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 collaboration highlights a growing trend of industry-academic partnerships to cultivate AI talent. For the mortgage industry, which increasingly relies on automation for document generation, client communications, loss mitigation, and quality control, such initiatives could help fill critical skills gaps. Outamation, the first U.S. mortgage technology company to achieve ISO/IEC 42001 certification and an Inc. 5000 honoree at No. 133, demonstrates its commitment to innovation and workforce development. Extern, backed by Y Combinator and Foundation Capital, has engaged 90,000 students from over 150 countries, with 74% landing a job or internship within 12 months. Students interested in future programs can learn more at www.extern.com, and details about Outamation's solutions are available at outamation.com.

Building on these results, Outamation and Extern plan to launch a new program designed to evolve with AI advances, ensuring students continue to learn the skills employers will need next. This initiative not only prepares students for the future of work but also provides companies with fresh perspectives on AI tools, potentially accelerating adoption and innovation in Texas and beyond.