To train and prepare future IT workers to have the specialized skills needed to deliver AI-enabled applications and services for customers and partners, global technology distributor TD SYNNEX is taking matters into its own hands.
The company just launched an all-new
AI Pioneers apprenticeship program, designed to connect college students studying AI and machine learning (ML) with TD SYNNEX engineers and mentors in the pursuit of repeatable AI use cases that can help its partners and their customers.
The new AI Pioneers apprenticeship program, an extension of TD SYNNEX’s existing
Destination AI initiative, kicked off earlier this year with its first class of 16 students, the company said. The AI Pioneers will use technical resources and technologies from NVIDIA to do their research.
So far, the students have developed AI use cases, including an agentic platform for hospitality and entertainment businesses; an AI-powered platform that brings together enterprise data and routes inquiries to the knowledge sources; and an agent-based emergency response platform that enhances situational awareness and accelerates incident response in real-time to protect lives and property.
Under the AI Pioneers program, students will work with TD SYNNEX pre-sales engineers, business mentors, and NVIDIA technical experts to develop repeatable AI use cases leveraging NVIDIA AI Enterprise software, including
NVIDIA NIM microservices and
NVIDIA Blueprints that are aligned with the desired use cases, according to TD SYNNEX. NVIDIA Blueprints are pre-built workflows and code samples that can be used to build AI applications from the ground up.
By bringing these components and resources together, partners will be able to tailor AI Pioneer use cases to their own data and regulatory needs, enabling faster deployment, new revenue opportunities, and stronger positioning as leaders in enterprise AI, according to the company.
An Effort to Help Eliminate the AI Skills Gap
Shannon Cronin, the director of AI and ISV alliances at TD SYNNEX told ChannelE2E that the company began the program because the AI skills gap – a dearth of specially-trained workers who can tackle this work from the start – continues to be one of the most pressing issues across the IT industry.
“In other areas of our business, we have seen great impacts from interns who bring innovative skills and perspectives that make our organization better,” said Cronin. “From this, we came up with AI pioneers to bring the results from our interns to a high-need technology area with AI-specific engineering skills, data science, and DevOps skill sets.”
More than 300 students applied for the first program, she said, and 16 were selected as part of a plan to keep the program small, allowing organizers to refine it and collect feedback from partners and the vendor ecosystem. “We are exploring opportunities to expand participation in future cohorts,” she said.
Students participated in the on-site program at three TD SYNNEX office locations: Clearwater, Florida; Greenville, South Carolina; and Gilbert, Arizona.
“We wanted to foster in-office collaboration, but we also wanted the interns to engage with both technical and business mentors to support use cases development relevant to end-customer demand, relevant to our partners' current businesses,” said Cronin.
The students were organized into teams, and each was then assigned NVIDIA Blueprints to build out an AI use case to demonstrate the possibilities with the technology, she said. The projects are designed to build students' AI and ML skills, while also showcasing scalable innovations that partners can replicate for their customers.
TD SYNNEX expects to recruit a new class of AI Pioneers each summer through its established TD SYNNEX Summer Internship Program, which provides undergraduate students with hands-on business and technical experience, said Cronin.
For the company, the AI Pioneers program has three goals – attracting and retaining skilled AI talent, making AI technologies more practical for its partners, and strengthening its collaboration with its vendor community to drive innovation and adoption together, said Cronin.
After the internships, participants will have opportunities to continue their relationships with the company through its Technical Scholar Program, which is a nine- to 18-month part-time role for college juniors and seniors focused on technical training, or through the company’s Discovery Rep Program, which is a three- to six-month rotational program for recent graduates in sales, marketing, and product management.
A Smart Program with Foresight and Solid Opportunities: Analyst
“I love this approach by TD SYNNEX,”
Shelly Kramer, founder and principal analyst of Kramer&Co., told ChannelE2E. “Recruiting a summer intern class of undergrad students to the program, especially in today's job market, where new college grads are routinely struggling to find positions, shows foresight on the part of the program leaders.”
Because the AI Pioneers program already involves students who are innovative thinkers on the AI front, “it makes this a win all the way around,” said Kramer. “What customers want and need is real-world help mapping out and implementing their AI strategies. They do not want pie-in-the-sky rhetoric on how transformational AI will be, which is what they often get from B2B tech vendors. They want real-world ideas and help identifying and putting in motion use cases that can lead to immediate business impact.”
This new TD SYNNEX initiative can help to make that happen, she said. “This program presents a fantastic opportunity for the young people involved, and kudos to TD Synnex on its commitment to addressing the knowledge gap that currently exists in the workplace regarding AI, thereby giving a leg up to the next generation of tech leadership.”
