AI Automation Engineer (Gmail + ChatGPT + OCR + ERP + Automatic Printing)

About Us Paragon International, Inc. is a U.S.-based manufacturer of commercial concession equipment and food service products. We receive purchase orders from customers such as Amazon, Home Depot, distributors, school systems, and other commercial customers. Orders arrive by email in many different formats, including PDFs, Word documents, Excel spreadsheets, scanned documents, and occasionally photographed purchase orders. We are looking for an experienced AI Automation Engineer to design and build a production-ready system that automates our entire order intake process. This is not a simple chatbot project. We need someone who has successfully built business automation systems that combine AI, OCR, document processing, APIs, and workflow automation. Project Overview The system will monitor one or more Gmail inboxes continuously and automatically process incoming emails and attachments. The workflow should: * Monitor Gmail 24/7 for new incoming emails. * Download all attachments automatically. * Read: * PDF files * Microsoft Word documents * Excel spreadsheets * Scanned PDFs * Image files (JPG, PNG, TIFF, etc.) * Photographs of purchase orders * Use OCR when required. * Use AI to determine whether the email is: * Purchase Order * Quote Request * Cancellation * Return/RMA * Customer Inquiry * Other * Identify the customer automatically. * Extract all order information into a standardized data structure. * Detect duplicate purchase orders. * Automatically print valid purchase orders to our network printer. * Save documents into organized folders. * Rename files using a consistent naming convention. * Move processed emails into Gmail folders/labels. * Generate logs for auditing and troubleshooting. ## Future Phases The initial project focuses on reliable document processing and printing. Additional phases may include: * Sage 100 ERP integration * Automatic sales order creation * Inventory verification * Customer acknowledgment emails * Shipping workflow automation * Dashboard and reporting * AI exception handling * Multi-location printing We are looking for a long-term development partner who can continue improving the system over time. ## Required Skills Please apply only if you have strong experience with most of the following: * OpenAI API / ChatGPT API * Gmail API * OCR technologies (Tesseract, Azure Document Intelligence, Google Vision, AWS Textract, or similar) * Intelligent Document Processing (IDP) * PDF parsing * Workflow automation * Python * REST APIs * Windows automation * Network printing * Error handling and logging * AI document classification Experience with the following is a significant advantage: * n8n * Microsoft Power Automate * Make.com * ERP integrations * Sage 100 * Purchase Order processing * Manufacturing or distribution businesses ## Deliverables The completed solution should: * Run continuously with minimal supervision. * Be reliable enough for production use. * Handle errors gracefully. * Be well documented. * Be easy for our staff to maintain. * Be scalable as our order volume grows. ## To Apply Please include: 1. A description of similar automation projects you have completed. 2. Which automation platform you recommend (Python, n8n, Power Automate, Make, or another solution) and why. 3. Examples of AI document processing or OCR projects you've built. 4. Your experience integrating with ERP systems. 5. Your estimated timeline. 6. Your hourly rate or fixed-price proposal. Please begin your proposal with the phrase: **"I have built AI document automation systems."** This helps us identify applicants who have carefully read the project description. We are looking for a long-term partner, not just someone to complete a single project. If this project is successful, additional work will include ERP integration, warehouse automation, customer service automation, purchasing automation, and AI-driven business process improvements.