The AI4VA: UVA AI Readiness Career Academy is designed to create dual impact: participating organizations gain practical, actionable guidance on adopting AI to create business values and students graduate with stronger, demonstrable AI skills.

Unlock AI Potential for Your Small Business with Student Consultants

Through 4-week, team-based projects, UVA students will apply foundational AI processes to real organizational challenges. This hands-on consultancy is designed for businesses and not-for-profit organizations eager to explore how AI can enhance decision-making, streamline operations, improve customer experiences, and drive growth. Employers benefit from fresh perspectives, structured analysis, and tailored recommendations that support responsible and effective AI adoption.

Each project functions as a mini-consulting engagement, blending AI processes with business problem-solving to help organizations identify use cases, map workflows, test solutions, and develop implementation strategies.

About the Learners

Learners participating in this program are motivated UVA students who bring foundational knowledge in strategic thinking and applied problem-solving.

Students are organized into teams of 5, with each team supported by an assigned Project Manager to ensure progress, communication, and deliverable quality throughout the experience.

Project Details

1. Project timeline: 4 weeks, from October 19 to November 13, 2026, although students will reach out the week of October 12 to schedule a kick off meeting for the week of October 19.
2. Project hours: 16 hours per learner
3. Team structure: Teams of 5 learners (including a Project Manager)
4. Team assignment: Managed by UVA and the Riipen program team to ensure balanced skillsets across groups

Student teams will collaborate with your organization to:

1. Assess AI readiness and identify high-impact opportunities for adoption
2. Recommend tailored AI tools and integration strategies
3. Deliver actionable insights in areas such as marketing, finance, customer success, operations, HR, product innovation, and e-commerce
4. Develop training resources to help your team confidently adopt AI solutions

Employer Role

In this experience, your organization serves as the client while students act as AI consultants. Employers provide the real-world business challenge, context, and access needed for teams to develop meaningful recommendations.

Expected involvement:

1. Point of Contact - Provide a point of contact designated to responded to student messages within 24 hours.
2. Project Kick Off - Attend a kickoff meeting with the student team within the first week of the project. Share organizational context, goals, and current processes.
3. Weekly Meetings - Attend a meeting each week of the 4 week project to receive status updates from the team and provide feedback on progress.
4. Access & Compliance - Provide access to necessary tools, credentials (read-only where possible), and data.
5. Feedback - Provide feedback to learners on final deliverables within five business days of submission.
6. Final Presentation - Attend the final presentation to review recommendations, ask questions, and provide closing feedback.

Employer Eligibility:

1. Virginia-based employers
2. Complete employer verification through Persona
3. Sign program agreements within the Riipen platform

Communication between employers and learners must remain on platform. Weekly meetings are required between employers and learners to ensure the project is on track to be completed within the 4 week timeline.

Depending on your project scope, student teams may provide:

1. AI readiness assessment report
2. Identified use cases with impact analysis
3. Recommended AI tools and adoption roadmap
4. Workflow maps highlighting automation opportunities
5. Implementation considerations and risk factors
6. Training guides to support internal adoption
7. Final presentation summarizing insights and recommendations