Generative AI Voice UX/UI Designer - Summer 2025 Internship
Are you a creative, highly organized, and energetic problem solver looking to gain hands-on experience and add an impressive win to your resume? Would you like to contribute to cutting-edge AI development, shape the future of robotics, and learn from senior managers with decades of experience from top-tier tech and consulting companies?
Join us at Onki, a robotics startup dedicated to creating the most human-centric robots, designed to understand, react to, and support the complex spectrum of human needs and emotions in public spaces.
You will work closely with the founding team, which consists of former senior managers from top-tier strategy consulting firms, leading tech/e-commerce companies, and unicorn startups, in our Voice UX Design Sprint. You’ll systematically design multimodal interactions—where speech, screens, and touch coalesce into a single cohesive user experience., and directly influence how our products interact with shoppers.
Internship Objectives:
- Skill Development: Learn and practice general workplace skills; gain insights into strategic problem-solving, data-driven decision-making, and the mindset of large tech & startup businesses.
- Design end-to-end multimodal flows: Develop dialog scripts and screen interfaces to support synchronized voice and visual experiences.
- Prototype both voice and screen interactions: Use tools like Figma and interactive dashboards to simulate how users switch between voice and touch.
- Conduct usability testing across modalities: Recruit participants, evaluate voice/output timing, screen feedback, error handling, and overall coherence.
- Assess multimodal interactions: Ensure visual states affirm voice responses, transitions feel smooth, and user motions are intuitive.
- Collaborate cross-functionally: Work with product managers and engineers to maintain brand voice and ensure design consistency.
What You’ll Gain
- Direct mentorship from founders
- Opportunity to influence the future of in-store customer engagement and AI-driven retail
- Hands-on experience with real AI product development and deployment in retail environments
- Deepen understanding of voice-screen coordination, response timing, and contextual mode-switching.
- Exposure to advanced AI, reinforcement learning, and conversational design challenges
In addition to this internship position, Onki is also recruiting for additional internship roles in Software Development, Human/Machine Interaction, Computational linguistics, Cognitive/Behavioral Science, Mechanical Design, Electrical Engineering, Financial, Venture Capital and Fundraising, Marketing & Market Research, Customer Experience and User Research, User Experience, OR/Decision Science, Data Science. Please see details and application on our website.
Note: the robotic carrier video on our website homepage is an earlier product we explored in 2023. With a combination of highly sophisticated software and hardware, we are now focused on developing a groundbreaking AI platform for interactions in public spaces. We'll share more details during the interview process.
Candidate Profile:
You should be a talented self-starter, an open-minded risk-taker, a quick learner who’s passionate about language, experience and technology, have an appreciation for good aesthetics, a strong desire to produce high-quality work, and be highly motivated to gain hands-on experience in a cutting-edge field.
- Enrolled in (or recently completed) studies in Human–Computer Interaction, Cognitive Science, Psychology, Linguistic, Marketing, Retail/Sales, or related fields, with strong communication and customer insight.
- Experience in dialog design, persona creation, UX writing, or visual layout design.
- Understanding of multimodal design principles—such as when to use voice versus screen cues, timing alignment, and feedback strategies.
- Experience with prototyping tools (Figma, Adobe XD etc.) or ASR/NLU platforms
- Previous experience in retail, sales, hospitality, or direct customer service is a strong plus—especially if you’ve interacted with customers, made product recommendations, or managed point-of-sale conversations
Program Details
- From June 23 to Aug 29, with 30 hours minimum commitment (up to full-time) weekly.
- Flexible Schedule: The dates above can be adjusted to accommodate your school or personal schedule, with a minimum total commitment of 10 weeks.
- Locations: NYC or Remote.
The internship will prepare you for a greater role in our small and rapidly growing company. Alternatively, if your career objective is to pursue a career in top-tier consulting, big tech, or startups, this internship experience will make you a highly competitive candidate. If you excel during the internship, we’ll gladly leverage our professional network to provide strong recommendations to future employers.
Selection Process:
- Resume/application review
- Complete a 2 - 4 hour long homework assignment (will be emailed to candidates who passed resume screening)
- 2 rounds of 40-50 minute interviews
Our rigorous selection process ensures a high-quality experience. Current and past interns include students from Stanford, Columbia, UPenn, Duke, UC Berkeley NYU, University of Michigan, and more. Understanding Amazon leadership principles may help with your interviews: Amazon Leadership Principles.
Application Instructions:
As part of your application, please attach an one page Word document with responses to the following questions (maximum 300 words total):
- Describe your long-term career objective.
- What do you expect to gain from this internship?
- What’s your most relevant previous experience?
- Our performance standard is very high. We expect interns to deliver at the same caliber as new grads joining top tech firms or elite startups. You’ll regularly tackle complex, ambiguous problems during this internship. Do you fully grasp these requirements? Provide a specific example of how you navigated a highly challenging situation at work or school, highlighting your process and results.
- What makes you stand out from the hundred+ applicants we are expecting? why should we work with you?
- Link to your portfolio or related work/research
- What's your SAT/ACT/GRE score? And what's your overall undergrad GPA?
- Your preferred start date, duration, and weekly hour commitment.
- Please state that you understand the internship is unpaid.
The Word file should be named as firstname_lastname_application.doc. Applications without response to the above questions will be automatically rejected. Please do not submit anything other than your resume and the Word response file requested. We welcome applications from all juniors/seniors, graduate students and recent alums (including international students). This internship can be eligible for school credit / CPT. We encourage early submission as applications will be considered on a rolling basis.