AI Innovation Specialist

Lakeshirts•Detroit Lakes, MN

1d•Onsite

About The Position

At Lakeshirts, we are committed to continuous improvement and leveraging AI to enhance workflows, speed up processes, and transform operations. We are seeking an AI Innovation Specialist to identify, test, and pilot AI opportunities across the business. This role focuses on exploration and experimentation to discover where AI can create the most significant impact. You will work across various departments, asking questions, running pilots, and turning promising ideas into practical AI solutions. While project management remains with the PMO and department teams, your primary responsibility is to apply AI expertise to existing systems and improve work quality. This role reports to the IT Manager.

Requirements

1+ years of experience working with AI tools, automation platforms, or emerging technology in a business setting.
Demonstrated ability to evaluate, test, and clearly communicate the value of new technologies.
Strong analytical thinking able to spot inefficiency and frame an AI solution without overcomplicating it.
Hands-on experience with AI platforms, prompt engineering, or automation tools (technical comfort is a must).
Excellent written and verbal communication skills able to present findings to both technical and non-technical audiences.
Curious and collaborative, must be comfortable working alongside different teams to come up with ideas and create lean processes.
Must love dogs.
Employee must be able to see and hear, read and write.
Requires adaptability, analyzing, assessing, calculating, decision making, dependability, judgment, reading, speaking, following direction, handling multiple priorities, reasoning.

Nice To Haves

Manufacturing, operations, or apparel industry experience is a plus.

Responsibilities

Research, evaluate, and pilot emerging AI tools and technologies relevant to Lakeshirts' business operations.
Identify opportunities where AI can reduce manual effort, improve quality, or accelerate output in partnership with department teams.
Design and run structured AI pilots, document results, and present clear recommendations to the IT manager.
Build and test AI prompts, workflows, and automation scripts to validate concepts before broader rollout.
Partner with the IT manager to prioritize AI initiatives and communicate progress to leadership.
Stay up to date on new and existing AI tools, models, and best practices, bringing relevant insights back to the team.
Support team members across the organization in understanding and effectively using new AI tools.
Collaborate with departments and teams to understand their work and explore where AI fits into existing processes.
Perform additional duties as assigned to support the company's value of Team.