AI Center of Excellence (AI CoE) Intern

Job Description

About the Role: AI Center of Excellence (AI CoE) Intern

Xerox Holdings Corporation, a company with over a century of innovation, is seeking an AI Center of Excellence (AI CoE) Intern to join its team. Xerox has a rich history of redefining the workplace experience, expanding from print technology into software and services to support the hybrid workplace. The company continues to innovate, delivering client-centric and digitally-driven technology solutions globally.

The Xerox AI Center of Excellence (AI CoE) is dedicated to achieving measurable business impact through artificial intelligence, encompassing generative AI, agentic systems, enterprise AI platforms, and operational transformation. At Xerox, AI success is measured by realized value, acknowledging that ROI is a human problem influenced by adoption, trust, workflow fit, and meaningful value for both customers and employees. Therefore, the AI CoE invests in understanding human systems alongside technical expertise.

Why This Role Matters

This role is crucial because it bridges the gap between technology and human value. While AI technology offers immense potential, its true value is unlocked by people. The intern will play a key role in ensuring that AI initiatives not only function technically but also integrate effectively into human workflows, building trust and driving adoption.

Overview of the Role

The AI CoE Intern will support the team in identifying opportunities to leverage company data for business solutions. This role primarily focuses on applying anthropological and qualitative research methods to enhance the real-world effectiveness of current and future AI initiatives at Xerox. The intern will design and execute mixed-methods research, synthesize findings, and collaborate with cross-functional teams to inform decisions that improve user satisfaction and engagement. The work will ensure AI experiences are effective, usable, and compliant, connecting research outcomes directly to business goals and success metrics.

Intern Opportunities and Scope:

• Research Execution: Conduct and execute research utilizing interviews, ethnography, and both quantitative and qualitative methods to generate deep customer insights.
• Barrier Identification: Identify human, cultural, and organizational barriers that hinder the adoption or trust of AI solutions.
• Cross-functional Collaboration: Partner with various teams to integrate user insights into product/project development and prioritization. This includes understanding and incorporating complex technical and business requirements into research.
• Strategy Contribution: Contribute to research strategy, connecting specific craft work to broader business goals and their downstream implications.
• Ethical Support: Support AI Ethics and Governance efforts by surfacing trust, explainability, and fairness concerns observed in the field.

Intern Project

During the internship, the intern will complete an individual or small-team AI project, culminating in a final report. Potential project topics include:

• Common AI adoption failure modes
• Cultural and organizational resistance patterns to AI
• Early warning signs of AI value leakage
• Practical guidance for future AI deployments
• Opportunities for improving AI Ethics and Governance

Key Responsibilities:

• Project Definition: Define project scope, objectives, and success criteria in collaboration with an AI CoE Manager or Lead.
• Research and Analysis: Conduct research, data collection, and analysis using anthropological methods, established frameworks, or company standards.
• Report Preparation: Prepare a written presentation report summarizing findings, identified risks, and recommended improvements.
• Presentation: Present project results and recommendations to AI leadership and/or management at the conclusion of the internship.
• Professional Growth: Receive feedback from stakeholders to support professional growth and practical learning.

Internship Success Criteria:

• Usable Artifacts: Produce enterprise-usable artifacts that are understandable to business leaders and applicable beyond a single project. These may include insights on common adoption failure modes, cultural or organizational resistance patterns, practical guidance for future AI deployments, or ethics and governance improvement opportunities.
• Barrier Identification: Identify at least one concrete human or workflow barrier affecting an active AI initiative.
• Skill Development: Acquire meaningful skills that prepare the intern for future roles in enterprise environments, including confidently preparing and presenting findings, communicating the value of a human-centered approach to AI adoption, and navigating ambiguity, incomplete information, and competing stakeholder perspectives.

Educational Qualifications:

• Actively enrolled in an accredited college/university pursuing a degree in Anthropology (or closely related fields such as Sociology or Human-Centered Design).
• Strong qualitative research and interviewing skills.
• Ability to work 40 hours per week (Monday–Friday).
• Ability to work on-site at the Lexmark office in Lexington, KY, at least 3 days per week (Tuesday & Thursday required, plus one additional day).

Preferred Skills:

• Ability to synthesize complex, ambiguous information into clear insights.
• Strong written communication skills (executive-level clarity preferred).
• Curiosity about how technology shapes human behavior and organizations.
• Interest in enterprise technology, AI, or digital transformation.
• Experience with ethnographic research, user studies, or fieldwork.
• Comfort working with technical and non-technical stakeholders.