ORONO — When Connor Daigle of Union, Maine attended a career event at the Maine Business School, he didn’t expect it would lead him to a top-tier internship and an award-winning team project.

Daigle, who is double majoring in marketing and business information systems and security management, led his team to victory in Sherwin-Williams’ Eastern Division Internship Competition with a chatbot service they designed for the company.

Hosted Aug. 1 in West Chester, Pennsylvania, the competition brought together the top intern teams from across the North, Central, Southern, and Eastern regions — representing more than 24 teams in total. Daigle and his teammates, Paige Martin from Michigan State University and Gracie Coker from Salisbury University, earned first place with their innovative project: Sher-Bot, an AI-powered customer service chatbot designed to enhance digital engagement and streamline support across Sherwin-Williams platforms.

“We noticed that the current chatbot on the Sherwin-Williams website was difficult to use and lacked the functionality that customers expect,” said Daigle, who interned at the store in Rockland, Maine. 

After analyzing challenges customers experienced and comparing competitor solutions, the team realized there was a huge opportunity to improve the online experience. Sher-Bot was their solution. 

“We designed a more intuitive, AI-powered chatbot that delivers faster, accurate responses while operating 24/7, breaks down language barriers and generates up to nine times its monthly cost in revenue,” Daigle said.

The project combined customer insight, competitor analysis, Return on Investment (ROI) projections and a five-year implementation roadmap, which students had to present in front of a panel of judges as well as demonstrate their AI tool. Judges — including Curt Kaucher, president of Sherwin-Williams’s  eastern division — praised the team’s professionalism, clear communication and data-driven approach.

“This was a huge win,” said Annisa Fensin, district manager for Sherwin-Williams in Maine. “Connor and his teammates found a blind spot in our customer engagement strategy and brought a timely, AI-driven solution to the table. Their research and presentation were outstanding. To come out on top of the entire Eastern Division speaks volumes about the quality of their work.”

For Daigle, a student-athlete on UMaine’s Cross Country and Track and Field teams, the experience offered far more than a summer internship. It helped sharpen his ability to lead, communicate and analyze, skills he’ll carry into his senior year at the University of Maine and beyond.

“I decided to intern at Sherwin-Williams because of the company’s strong reputation for leadership development and commitment to employee growth,” he said. “The kind of hands-on experience I had this summer was an incredibly rewarding experience.”

"Sherwin-Williams has been around for more than 150 years, and many of our employees stay with us long-term," Fensin said. "Our interns bring in a fresh perspective, and we truly value their contributions.”

The Sherwin-Williams internship is a paid, 10-week program that pairs students with store managers, mentors and fellow interns to work on high-impact projects.  It’s one of many internship opportunities offered to students by employers statewide in partnership with the Maine Business School. Learn more about these opportunities on the school’s website. 

About the University of Maine: 

As Maine’s only public research university and a Carnegie R1 top-tier research institution, the University of Maine advances learning and discovery through excellence and innovation. Founded in 1865 in Orono, UMaine is the state’s land, sea and space grant university with a regional campus at the University of Maine at Machias. Our students come from all over the world and work with faculty conducting fieldwork around the globe — from the North Atlantic to the Antarctic. Located on Marsh Island in the homeland of the Penobscot Nation with UMaine Machias located in the homeland of the Passamaquoddy Nation, UMaine’s statewide mission is to foster an environment that creates tomorrow’s leaders. As the state’s flagship institution, UMaine offers nearly 200 degree programs through which students can earn bachelor’s, master’s, professional master’s and doctoral degrees as well as graduate certificates. For more information about UMaine and UMaine Machias, visit umaine.edu/about/quick-facts/ and machias.edu/about-umm/umm-facts/.