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EY, a Big Four accounting and consulting firm, is extending its intern pipeline into a year, betting AI's takeover of 'assembly work' means new consultants need to arrive trained in judgment.
EY, one of the four largest accounting and consulting firms in the world, is extending its US assurance internship into an optional yearlong "Career Residency" that can keep a junior worker on the firm's payroll for up to fourteen months before they ever take a full-time offer.
Under the program, which EY announced this month, assurance interns who finish the standard eight-week summer or winter internship can stay on as paid part-time residents for another eight to twelve months. They work remotely on EY projects, get personalized coaching, and continue building skills, with the goal of joining the firm at a more advanced starting level than a typical first-year hire. The residency is initially limited to the assurance practice, and interns with other post-graduation plans can opt out.
EY's explanation for the change centers on what AI is doing to the day-to-day work of a junior consultant. Ginnie Carlier, EY Americas' chief talent and culture officer, told Business Insider that generative AI has become "a catalyst" for changes the firm was already considering to its internship model, and that the technology is reshaping the full employee lifecycle, from recruiting and onboarding to talent development and promotions. The firm is moving toward what Carlier described as more flexible, skills-focused career paths, evaluated on impact rather than tenure.
Errol Gardner, EY's global head of consulting, drew the sharper line. Junior consultants, he said, used to spend much of their time on "assembly" work: pulling together presentations, drafting proposals, and synthesizing information. That work is now AI's job. Gardner argued the work left for humans is judgment: deciding which questions matter, making a recommendation to a client, and pushing back on an analysis that does not hold up. EY's bet in the Career Residency is that judgment cannot be trained in a summer, so the firm is moving the proving period earlier and stretching it out.
If the bulk of the routine synthesis that defined an entry-year consultant's day is now generated by a model in seconds, then the skill the firm should be screening for is no longer how fast an intern can assemble a deck but how well they can pressure-test one. A longer, paid, coached pre-employment window lets the firm observe that skill in real client work rather than guess at it from a case interview.
The change also gives EY a deeper claim on junior workers' time and choices. A student who signs on as a resident commits to a relationship with one firm through their senior year, with coaching, project work, and a clearer path to a full-time offer already on the table. That cuts against the traditional consulting recruiting model, in which candidates compare offers from multiple firms in their final year. It also narrows the funnel: students who cannot commit eight to twelve months of part-time work to a single employer, whether for financial, family, or geographic reasons, may find the new path harder to enter.
The first test is whether residents actually spend the extra months on judgment work. The two executives framed the program as a structural answer to AI's effect on entry-level consulting, not a recruiting tactic. If residents end up doing the same assembly tasks the model already does well, the yearlong runway will read as a longer interview. If they are put in front of real judgment calls and trusted with real client work, EY will have built a working template the rest of the Big Four is likely to copy.
EY has not said whether the residency will expand to its consulting, tax, or strategy practices. Carlier and Gardner spoke only to the assurance rollout. The first class of Career Residents starts the experiment.