Pitch me on an AI project instead of a stock pitch
If you are a high school upperclassmen trying to build a resume for IB I am going to give you a piece of advice that might go against what you are hearing from your career center. Stop stacking your resume with generic finance clubs, mock stock pitch competitions and leadership roles where you do not actually lead anything. When an MD or a VP looks at a pile resumes for a summer analyst position, they all look the same. 4.0 GPA, finance society, mock portfolio manager. If you want to differentiate yourself before interviews start you need to go one step further.
One of the ways to do this is to build a functional AI project. This is not about learning to be a software engineer, it is about commercial awareness and execution. You need to identify a real world problem and build a product or service with a real business model attached to it. The most valuable part isn't a flawless final product, it is the lessons learned along the way. You are going to choose the wrong API, your initial outreach strategy is going to fall flat, and how you iterate in real time is an experience you cannot simulate in high school.
Why does a built from scratch AI project make you a sought after investment banking analyst down the road? Because when you hit the desk as a first year you are constantly handed vague instructions with incomplete data, and the top-bucket analysts are the ones who take ownership, hit roadblocks and figure out a workaround.
More important than just building is how you position it on your resume / in your networking so an MD/VP actually cares. During interviews use that experience in your narrative. Story telling is arguable the most important trait and a project like this can be woven into a succinct story that will resonate. I gave more insights on this topic and more at Crack the Street. Drop any questions below on project ideas and I will give you an assessment of how a banker will look at it.