AI Automation Intern - Summer 2026 in San Francisco, California at Aonic

Works with: CEO and the rest of the leadership team Duration: 12 or more weeks, full-time (Summer 2026) Compensation: $5,000–$6,000 / month + meaningful exposure and a potential path to a full-time offer Location: San Francisco (Jackson Square) - onsite, high-collaboration role
About Aonic
We're building the modern, healthy PepsiCo: a next-generation functional nutrition company making vibrant wellness effortless for millions of Americans through scientifically advanced, delicious products.
Our ambition for the next 12 months is extreme: to grow the business 10×, reach $40M in annual recurring revenue (ARR), and become profitable with a lean team of ~10 people.
We believe the next generation of category-defining companies will be built by small teams with extreme leverage, powered by artificial intelligence (AI), automation, and exceptional people.
The Role
As our AI Automation Intern, you'll spend the summer working directly with the CEO and the rest of the leadership team to find, design, and ship AI-powered automations across the entire company.
You are not a coordinator. You are not an observer. You are a builder.
Your job is to look at how Aonic operates across operations, growth, and finance - and replace manual effort with systems you build yourself. You'll move between teams, learn how each function actually works, and leave behind workflows that keep paying off long after the summer ends.
This internship is intentionally broad and demanding. It's designed for a student who wants maximum learning, responsibility, and real ownership in a short, intense window.
What You'll Work On
Company-Wide AI Automation (your core focus)

• Partner with the CEO and each Head of function to identify the highest-leverage manual workflows across the business.
• Design and build AI-powered automations, internal tools, and scripts that remove those bottlenecks end-to-end.
• Continuously look for opportunities to replace repetitive effort with reliable systems - and document them so they last.

Operations & Execution

• Support and improve day-to-day operations across fulfillment, customer experience, and supply chain coordination.
• Take a specific operational problem from definition to a working automated solution.

Growth Enablement

• Build AI-assisted workflows for reporting, analysis, and campaign execution.
• Help translate growth objectives into operational and financial implications.

Finance & Business Intelligence

• Support financial analysis, forecasting, and unit economics.
• Build and maintain models, dashboards, and AI-powered reporting tools grounded in real contribution margin, not vanity metrics.

Special Projects

• Tackle high-priority, ad-hoc projects directly with the CEO and other Head ofs.
• Move fluidly between strategy and execution depending on what the business needs that week.

Hard Requirements
To be successful in this internship, all of the following must be true:

• Currently pursuing a degree at a top-tier university in engineering, science, math, business, or a related field.
• Students from a business background must have self-taught at least light forms of coding and be able to demonstrate technical fluency.
• AI-native mindset, with hands-on experience using AI tools, automation platforms, and low-code solutions to drive real outcomes.
• Strong analytical and problem-solving ability, with comfort working across operations, growth, and finance.
• Genuine interest in solving real-world business problems, including those involving physical operations such as production, supply chain, warehousing, delivery, and customer experience.
• Extremely hungry and ambitious, actively seeking responsibility and steep growth.
• Strong work ethic and intensity, comfortable operating closer to 8–7 than 9–5 for the summer.

The Profile We're Looking For
This internship requires a rare mix of traits:

• Book-smart: Strong academic foundation and structured thinking.
• Street-smart: Practical judgment, prioritization, and commercial intuition.
• People-smart: Able to work across functions without ego and communicate clearly.
• AI-native: Naturally reaches for AI and automation as a first instinct.
• High-agency: Sees problems, takes ownership, and executes without waiting for instructions.

Why Intern at Aonic?
Direct Founder Exposure - You'll work side-by-side with the CEO and every Head of function on real decisions that shape the company.
Unmatched Learning Velocity - This internship compresses years of experience into a single summer.
Real Responsibility Early - You'll own automations that matter, not shadow them.
Elite, Small Team - You'll work with a tight group of highly driven operators in a no-bureaucracy environment.
Modern Stack - We invest in the best AI and automation tools and expect you to use them aggressively.
A Real Path Forward - Strong interns may receive a full-time offer and a launchpad into senior responsibility over time.

CompensationThe base pay range for this role is $40,000 – $60,000 per year.