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In 2026, the most cost-effective growth strategy for founders is hiring a Mentored Intern trained specifically in AI, sales, and automation.
While senior AI consultants often command rates exceeding £100 per hour, a mentored intern from The Gate Project provides the technical capacity to build chatbots, optimize onboarding, and automate sales processes at a fraction of the market cost.
This "Mentorship Exchange" allows founders to install advanced revenue infrastructure while providing the intern with real-world business logic, creating a high-leverage trade-off for scaling businesses.
It’s 2026. You’ve seen the demos. You know your business needs a custom-trained chatbot to handle the "top of funnel" noise. You know your client onboarding is a manual bottleneck, leaking leads.
You know that if you don't start automating your sales outreach, you’ll be left behind in the “Agentic Economy.”
But then you look at the price tag.
When you go to market for an "AI Automation Consultant" or a "Senior Marketing Person trained in Generative Engine Optimisation," the quote usually looks more like a mortgage payment than a marketing expense.
For many founders, this creates a paralyzing "Potential Phase": you have the vision for a high-growth, machine-readable business, but you lack the technical hands to build the engine.
The mistake most people make is thinking they have to choose between a £70k-a-year expert or doing it all themselves.
At Tenacious AI Marketing Global, we believe there is a third way, a way that bridges the gap between your brilliance and the technology required to broadcast it. It’s called The Gate Project, and it’s built on the realization that expertise doesn't have to be expensive if it's engineered correctly.
This engineering process is rooted in our GLOW lead generation engine, ensuring every intern-built system is optimized for AI discovery
To understand why your current growth strategy might be stalling, we have to look at the sheer scarcity of talent in the AI era. We aren't just in a "hiring crisis"; we are in a “Verification Crisis.”
A 2026 global study predicts that organizations effectively implementing generative AI and automation will drive $1 trillion in productivity gains worldwide by the end of this year.
This massive shift has led to a "Talent War" where even junior-level automation roles, those who simply know how to bridge LLMs with CRMs, are commanding salaries between £55,000 and £70,000 per year.
If you are trying to hire "off the shelf" talent, you are paying a massive premium for skills that are becoming the baseline for business survival.
These baseline skills are what define a modern GEO specialist, transforming simple digital tasks into high-level authority engineering
This is why we launched The Gate Project. We realized that there is an incredible pool of talent, interns who are hungry, smart, and ready to work, but they lack the high-level "Authority Engineering" skills that 2026 demands.
Instead of leaving you to find and train these people yourself, we’ve created a Mentorship Exchange.
When you take on a mentored intern through The Gate Project, you aren't getting a "coffee runner" or someone to just "manage the socials." You are getting a junior specialist who has been trained in the three pillars of modern revenue: Sales, Marketing, and AI Automation.
To understand the technical depth these interns are trained in, specifically the move from traditional keywords to Answer Engine Optimization, watch Dean’s breakdown of the AI Search Revolution and the shift from SEO to AEO. This is the exact expertise your mentored intern installs into your revenue infrastructure.
The trade-off is simple:
If you’re wondering what a junior with the right mentorship can actually do for your business, you’re thinking too small.
In a 12-week sprint (20 hours per week), a mentored intern can fundamentally rewire your business for the AI era.
Recent data shows that professionals using AI-driven automations save an average of 3.6 hours per week, amounting to roughly 23 working days per year of recovered time.
Here is how a Gate Project intern helps you reclaim that month of your life:
Most websites in 2026 are still "static brochures." An intern can take your founder’s logic and build a custom-trained chatbot that captures leads and books them directly into your calendar.
Beyond chatbots, an intern can handle the technical setup to register your brand on the ChatGPT Merchant Center, allowing AI agents to recommend your services in real-time.
How much time do you spend sending "Welcome" emails? An intern can build an automated onboarding sequence, ensuring every new client feels prioritized without you lifting a finger.
They turn your sales process from a "manual hunt" into a "predictable engine" by using AI tools to research prospects and draft personalized outreach.
The highest hidden cost in B2B is the "Founder's Brain" bottleneck. An intern can shadow your processes and turn them into Machine-Readable SOPs.
This means when you’re ready to hire your next senior role, the "Manual" for your business is already written.
Some founders hesitate to hire an intern because they think they don't have anything to "teach." This is the "Best Kept Secret" syndrome.
You don't need to teach them how to build an AI agent; Tenacious handles that. What you need to teach them is Business Logic. You need to show them how a real business solves problems, how you handle a difficult client call, and how you think about value.
This is a High-Leverage Trade. You spend 60 minutes a week sharing your wisdom, and in return, you get 20 hours of technical execution. In the 2026 economy, time is your most valuable asset. Trading one hour of "Logic" for twenty hours of "Automation" is the best deal you will ever make.
We’ve all seen the "cheap" alternatives. You hire a random freelancer on a gig site for £5 an hour, and you spend three weeks explaining what a "Lead" is, only for them to disappear when the project gets technical.
Cheap is expensive because it requires your constant management.
The Gate Project interns are different because they are backed by the Tenacious Engine. Every week, they meet with our senior engineers to troubleshoot the very bots and systems they are building for you. You aren't managing a novice; you are overseeing an extension of our expertise.
This model allows you to install Revenue Infrastructure at a cost that is subsidized by our 5% Impact Pledge. We fund the training because we believe that "Opening the Gate" for new talent is the only way to ensure the future of the industry isn't just owned by the tech giants.
The world is moving fast. By the end of 2026, the gap between businesses that are "AI-Enabled" and those that are "Manual" will be an unbridgeable chasm.
You have the brilliance. You have the potential. But you shouldn't have to build the gate yourself.
By hiring a mentored intern through The Gate Project, you aren't just "getting help."
You are installing a permanent Revenue Infrastructure that allows you to step out of the weeds and back into the role of the visionary founder. You are trading a small amount of mentorship for a massive amount of freedom.
Don't let the cost of expertise keep you invisible. Apply for a Mentored Intern through The Gate Project and start engineering your authority today.
What skills do Gate Project interns actually have?
Our interns are specifically trained in the 2026 Authority Standard. This includes AI prompting, sales process automation, CRM integration, and "Agentic Readiness", ensuring your business can be found and recommended by AI search engines.
How much time does a founder really need to spend mentoring?
We recommend a minimum of one hour per week. This is usually a Zoom call where you review the week’s progress and provide the "Business Context" for the next sprint. The technical heavy lifting is supported by Tenacious AI Marketing.
Can a junior really build an AI chatbot for my business?
Yes. Because they are trained in our proprietary frameworks and have access to our technical mentors, they can deploy sophisticated, lead-capturing agents that would typically cost thousands of pounds in consultancy fees.
What happens after the 12-week internship?
You have three options: you can hire the intern full-time as a proven asset, extend the internship for another project, or the intern moves on to their next "Gate" with a verified case study of the work they did for you.
Why is the cost so much lower than a traditional agency?
Because The Gate Project is a social initiative. It is funded by the 5% Impact Pledge from Tenacious AI Marketing revenue. We subsidize the training costs to ensure that high-potential founders can access the expertise they need to scale.
