BYU Marriott · The AI Foundry
The models are
molten. We're
the foundry.
Frontier AI is raw, white-hot, and formless — pure potential with no shape. A foundry is where molten metal becomes something that holds. We're the crew that pours it into a mold, casts it for a real client, and ships a system that runs.
Molten is useless until someone pours it.
A frontier model is raw capability — brilliant, dangerous, shapeless. Value isn't in the metal. It's in the hands that cast it into something a business can actually use.
We make, we don't just study.
Cases are someone else's decisions, already cooled. We pick up the tools and work the heat ourselves — in code, in product, in the room with the client.
Cast iron, not clay.
A demo is a mold that never gets poured. We ship production systems that survive real load — and put your name on them after the semester ends.
What is the AI Foundry
The builder is the new strategist.
Strategy, product, design, and engineering are melting into one role. The people who own the next decade won't wait for a hand-off — they'll take an idea from insight to shipped system themselves.
The AI Foundry is a Learn, Do, Become program at BYU's Marriott School of Business. Each cohort pairs 12 MBAs with 12 undergraduates — the foundry crew — for one to two years of working the metal: real clients, real production systems, real stakes.
24
Builders per cohort
12 MBA · 12 undergrad
1–2 yrs
On the foundry floor
Real production systems
100%
Hands on the metal
Real clients. Real stakes.
How a foundry works — and where we fit
From molten model to shipped system.
A foundry doesn't make the metal. It makes the metal useful. That's the whole job — and that's exactly where our group lives: the crew between raw AI and the finished thing that ships.
Melt
Frontier models run hot
We start with raw capability — the best frontier models, molten with potential and useless on their own. This is the lava: powerful, shapeless, dangerous in the wrong hands.
Pour
We channel the heat
Our builders take that raw intelligence and aim it at one real client problem. Not a demo topic — a business with users, deadlines, and money on the line.
Cast
Into a custom mold
We architect and build a production system shaped to that company's exact need. Custom solutions, not off-the-shelf prompts. The mold is the moat.
Temper
Under real load
Real users hit it. It hardens or it cracks. We stress it, fix it, and make it hold — the part of the work that separates builders from talkers.
Ship
It leaves the floor
A finished, durable system that runs after the semester ends — with your name cast into it. Portfolio, not prototype. Cast iron, not clay.
Program Structure
Three phases. One trajectory.
The Foundry isn't a single class — it's a multi-semester commitment that compounds. Each phase tempers the last.
Entry Point
01Prerequisite Course
AI product fundamentals, prompt engineering, and the builder mindset. This is where you prove you can handle the heat.
Every Semester
02Semester Courses
Project-based coursework. AI product strategy, technical architecture, design systems, go-to-market. You learn by casting.
Ongoing
03Client Projects
Production AI systems for real companies. Scope it, architect it, build it, ship it. Your portfolio comes off this floor.
What you forge
More than a class. A forge.
Every part of the Foundry is built to make you dangerous — the kind of builder companies fight to hire.
Real client projects
Build production AI systems for actual companies. Real users, real stakes — not case studies.
A small, sharp network
A curated alumni circle of AI builders across the best companies. Capped on purpose.
Competitions & trips
Hackathons, case comps, and visits to AI hubs and the teams shaping the field.
Direct recruiting access
Pipelines straight to the companies building the future of AI.
A shipped portfolio
Graduate with real products you cast and shipped. Not slide decks.
The builder community
The most plugged-in AI, product, and tech circle at BYU. Period.
The network
The company you'll keep.
We're building a network across the industries our members care about — anchored by BYU alumni already in the field, and growing with every cohort.
AI & Technology
Product, research, and engineering at the companies building frontier AI.
Management Consulting
Strategy and implementation work at the firms advising on AI adoption.
Finance & Investment Banking
Where rigor meets capital — and AI is rewriting the playbook.
Private Equity & Venture Capital
Backing and building the next generation of AI companies.
Apply
Stop watching the fire.
Start pouring.
Twenty-four seats per cohort. Rolling admissions. The strongest builders at BYU are already on the floor.