How AI has raised the bar for Two Sigma internships and future hires

Two Sigma, the $80 billion quantitative asset manager, reports that its summer 2026 internship class was markedly more productive this year thanks to AI, prompting the firm to raise expectations for future interns and hires, according to Business Insider. A majority of the 82 interns completed their core projects weeks earlier than past cohorts and were able to take on additional stretch goals, according to Evan Anger, the firm's head of talent acquisition. A new feature of this year's onboarding was a dedicated set of large language model (LLM) sessions delivered by senior leaders. Anger said the firm puts as much effort into training interns as into its full-time employees.

The firm, launched in 2001 by former D.E. Shaw quants John Overdeck and David Siegel, has run its internship program since 2009. That program has produced more than 200 of Two Sigma's roughly 1,700 employees, including eight managing directors, and serves as a key pipeline as hedge funds and leading technology firms compete for data scientists, engineers, and technologists. Although the firm has expanded into real estate and private markets, the majority of its assets remain in systematic funds, which depend on top-tier coders and software engineers.

Anger said AI has raised expectations for the "depth and contribution" an intern can achieve during a placement of a few months. However, the firm is not moving away from technical rigor. "We are still looking for people who understand what's going on under the hood," he said. Judgment and communication have become new focus areas for the campus recruiting team because AI has reduced the advantage of certain coding and mathematical skills. Specifically, Two Sigma is assessing how candidates interact with AI tools and communicate with both human colleagues and technological systems, skills that have historically mattered most for senior managers overseeing teams.