AI Integration Intern

Fall Internship Role: AI Integration Intern (ChatGPT MCP Project)

Position Title: AI Integration Intern – ChatGPT & Internal Tools
Location: Novi, MI
Duration: Fall 2025 (20 to 30 hours per week; approx. 10-12 weeks)

About Innovative Research: Innovative Research is a leading biotech firm specializing in the development and manufacture of biologicals, proteins, antibodies, and immunoassays to advance scientific and preclinical research. We pride ourselves on leveraging cutting-edge technology to streamline our operations and research. We are now exploring the use of AI (specifically OpenAI’s ChatGPT) to make our internal systems more accessible and efficient for our team.

Role Overview: We are seeking a proactive AI Integration Intern to lead a project connecting ChatGPT to several of our internal applications using OpenAI’s Model Customization Platform (MCP). This role is a unique opportunity to apply software development and AI skills to solve real business problems. You will work independently (with light guidance from department leads) to build and test integrations that allow natural language questions to retrieve data and perform actions across multiple systems.

Key Responsibilities:

• MCP Connector Development: Design and implement secure API “connectors” for internal systems (e.g., electronic laboratory notebooks, finance). This involves writing code (in a language of your choice, e.g. Python or Node.js) that authenticates to these systems and fetches the requested data. You will define these operations in a format that ChatGPT’s MCP can understand, enabling the AI to call them as needed.
• System Integration & Testing: Configure and register the developed connectors with OpenAI’s platform. Conduct thorough testing by querying ChatGPT with sample questions (e.g., inventory queries, invoice checks, lab protocol comparisons) and verifying that the answers and actions are correct. Refine the prompts and API definitions to improve accuracy and reliability of the responses.
• Security & Compliance Implementation: Work with our IT/security team to ensure all integrations meet security standards. This includes handling credentials safely (no hard-coding secrets in code), respecting user permissions on data, and logging access. You will also incorporate any compliance requirements (HIPAA for lab data, privacy for financial data), ensuring that sensitive information is protected and proper consent/configurations are in place for using it with OpenAI’s service.
• Collaboration and Knowledge Sharing: Liaise with end users (e.g. scientists, operations staff, accountants) to understand their needs and gather feedback on the AI tool’s usefulness and accuracy. Adjust the system based on this feedback to better fit the workflow. Document the project thoroughly – including design decisions, usage instructions for colleagues, and maintenance notes for our IT team.
• Demo and Handover: Toward the end of the internship, demonstrate the working integration to stakeholders and management, showing how a user can ask questions and get results from our internal systems via ChatGPT. Train a few key team members on how to use the new capabilities. Provide a clear handover of the project artefacts (code repositories, documentation, credentials) so the company can continue to build on your work.

Who We’re Looking For:

• Educational Background: Currently pursuing or recently completed a Bachelor’s or Master’s in Computer Science, Information Systems, Engineering, or a related field.
• Technical Skills: Deep familiarity with web APIs and databases is required. You should be comfortable writing scripts or small applications (Python, JavaScript/TypeScript, or similar) to call RESTful APIs or work with JSON data. Experience with any of the specific systems (electronic laboratory notebooks, finance and accounting applications) is a plus but not mandatory – willingness and ability to learn from documentation is crucial.
• AI/ML Interest: Excitement about AI is important. Direct experience with OpenAI’s APIs or ChatGPT is a bonus, but if not, you should have a strong interest in learning how large language models can be applied practically. We’ll provide access to the necessary OpenAI tools.
• Security Mindset: You will be dealing with sensitive data, so an understanding of basic cybersecurity practices (e.g. handling API keys, using encryption, respecting privacy) is expected. We value interns who are diligent about protecting data.
• Independent Problem Solver: This role will give you a lot of autonomy. We need someone who can take initiative, troubleshoot issues, and drive the project forward. Support will be available, but you’ll often need to figure things out by researching or experimenting.
• Communication: Good written and verbal communication skills. You’ll be documenting your work and perhaps interfacing with non-technical staff to explain or gather requirements. Being able to translate tech speak into plain language is part of the job (after all, that’s what this project is about – translating complicated systems into a simple chat interface!).

What You’ll Gain:

• Hands-on experience at the intersection of AI and enterprise software, a highly sought-after skill set in the industry.
• The satisfaction of seeing your project make a real impact – your work will help scientists and staff do their jobs more easily using AI.
• Mentorship from our department leaders, plus the opportunity to collaborate across departments (R&D, accounting, customer service).
• A potential pathway to future opportunities: if the project is successful, we may look to extend the internship or transition it into a part-time role during the school year, or even a full-time position after graduation.

How to Apply: Submit with your resume through HandShake along with a cover letter indicating why you believe to be a fit for this role.

Join us this fall to bridge the gap between cutting-edge AI and real-world lab operations! Help us make ChatGPT our newest (and smartest) team member, connecting people to the data they need, just by asking.