EY is betting that an eight-week internship is no longer enough to prepare young workers for the age of AI. The Big Four firm is launching a new paid "Career Residency" for its assurance interns that will continue for 8 to 12 months after they complete the traditional eight-week internship. Participants will remain employed part-time, work remotely on EY projects, receive personalized coaching, and participate in skills development before potentially joining the firm full-time.
EY is launching the residency as AI reshapes the skills entry-level workers need and pushes firms to rethink how quickly new hires can contribute.
"Professional services is really changing at a rapid pace right now, and the workforce is changing right alongside it," Ginnie Carlier, EY Americas' chief talent and culture officer, told Business Insider. Workers, she added, are increasingly looking for employers that can "help them stay relevant and grow."
That shift has already changed the traditional professional-services career ladder. Junior consultants used to spend much of their time on what Errol Gardner, EY's global head of consulting, described as "assembly" work — pulling together presentations, drafting proposals, and synthesizing information. As AI takes on more of those tasks, Gardner said consultants now spend more time exercising judgment, from interpreting insights to shaping outcomes for clients.
Carlier previously told Business Insider that AI is also changing EY's employee lifecycle, from recruiting and onboarding to talent development and promotions. She also described a shift toward more flexible, skills-focused career paths in which employees are evaluated more on the impact they can have than on traditional career progression.
Carlier said EY had been considering changes to its internship model before generative AI took center stage, but that the technology has been "a catalyst."
"How organizations recruit, how they onboard and develop their people, how they assign work, performance management, all of that is changing," she said. "And so we need to get people ready for that."
AI and consulting #
The Career Residency will initially launch for interns working on assurance, who typically intern during the winter or summer before their senior year. Participants will continue taking college classes while working part-time for EY during their senior year.
EY's goal is for successful participants to enter the firm at a more advanced level. New consultants now start as staff. Those who complete the residency and receive a full-time offer would instead join as analysts, which Carlier said would allow them to take on responsibilities they might not previously have handled on day one. Offers will also include a pay bump that will depend on performance, business needs, and completion of the residency's criteria and assessments.
The application process itself won't substantially change. Candidates will apply, complete a skills assessment, and go through an interview. During the residency, EY plans to develop skills such as judgment, professional skepticism, critical thinking, collaboration, and communication through simulations and real-world EY work.
EY said it received more than 24,000 applications from CPA-track students over the past year and extended 2,400 internship offers. The firm also said applications increased 33% year over year between 2025 and 2026.
For Carlier, the residency is ultimately about giving students more time to build the skills that an eight-week internship can only begin to develop. "An eight-week internship, it's a good experience, it's a great experience," she said. The residency, she said, allows students to keep doing EY work, build future-focused skills, and receive personalized coaching before they join full-time.