40 managers. A year of meetings. Plans that keep changing. Can you crack the puzzle?
Can you turn AI and automation into a secretary’s biggest time-saver?
Your assignment
Planning a full year of management meetings is a complex puzzle. Around 40 executive R&D managers take part in 13–15 different recurring meeting types. Starting in October, meeting requests arrive at the senior vice president’s secretaries, including proposed dates, times and participants. The secretaries manually bring these requests together into an annual overview and coordinates dates and times to fit the managers’ calendars. Once the initial overview is complete, change requests need to be handled throughout the year, keeping the schedule up to date and checking the impact on other meetings and participants.
Your challenge is to explore how automation and AI can support both the initial annual planning and the handling of subsequent change requests within our Microsoft Power Platform environment. Working closely with the R&D secretaries and under the guidance of the PMO team, you will translate real planning needs into a practical, easy-to-use prototype. The technical approach must fit the people who will maintain the solution after the internship. You will focus on five connected areas:
Understand and structure. Map the current workflow for annual planning and subsequent changes together with the secretaries and the PMO team. Identify the stakeholders, scheduling rules and exceptions, and organise meeting requests, recurrence patterns and participant information in a structured overview. Translate the findings into clear user and solution requirements.
Clarify ownership and maintenance. Bring together the relevant stakeholders to discuss who could maintain and support the solution after the internship. Help the stakeholders identify the technical skills, available capacity and responsibilities needed for future maintenance and support. Support them in reaching an agreement. Use the outcome to select an appropriate technical approach within the Microsoft Power Platform environment that matches the skills and capacity of the future maintainers.
Build and explore. Compare suitable approaches within the Microsoft Power Platform environment and develop a prototype that fits the agreed maintenance ownership and capabilities. Explore where automation can handle repetitive steps and where AI can help interpret incoming requests. Investigate how scheduling logic can flag conflicts and suggest alternative dates and times, with the secretary reviewing and approving proposals.
Handle changes. Extend the prototype to capture and track change requests after the initial overview is complete, such as rescheduling, cancellations, additional meetings or changes to participants. Assess the impact on existing meetings and recurring series, flag new conflicts and propose adjustments that minimise disruption. Keep the secretary in control of approvals, update the overview with approved changes and support clear communication of those changes to affected participants.
Test and hand over. Test the prototype with representative scenarios covering initial planning and subsequent change requests, including changes to individual meetings and recurring series. Assess its usefulness, reliability and potential to reduce manual work. Document its limitations and provide clear user and maintenance instructions tailored to the agreed future maintainers. Validate with them that they can maintain the solution and complete the agreed knowledge transfer and handover. Handle calendar and participant information with appropriate care.
This assignment combines technology with a real organisational challenge. You will help shape the approach, work directly with the person who will use it, and turn your ideas into a tangible prototype—not just a theoretical recommendation.
Your profile
You are curious about how business processes work and how they can be improved. You enjoy turning complex challenges into simple, useful solutions and are excited to explore how AI, automation and data can make people’s daily work easier.
For this internship, we are looking for the following knowledge and skills:
• You are studying Computer Science, Artificial Intelligence, Business IT, Data Science, Industrial Engineering or a related subject, preferably at bachelor’s or secondary vocational level.
• You have basic experience with programming or low-code automation and working with structured data. Experience from coursework or personal projects is welcome; professional experience is not required.
• You can analyse a process, translate user needs into clear requirements and test your ideas systematically. You communicate clearly in English, enjoy collaborating with non-technical users and pay attention to usability, documentation and data privacy.
• Familiarity with AI tools, scheduling or optimisation methods, or platforms such as Microsoft Power Automate and SharePoint is an advantage, but you do not need to be an expert in all of them.
• As of February, you are available for 3 to 4 months for a minimum of 4 days per week
What’s in it for you?
• A challenging assignment with skilled coaching
• Internship/ Graduation compensation of €500,- per month
• Travel cost compensation if you don’t have an ‘OV-weekcard’
• The possibility to network with professionals inside and outside your field of expertise, thanks to our diversity of disciplines which you will work with
Interested?
Are you interested in this assignment? Please click on the button 'apply now' where you can upload your resume and motivation letter.
If you would like to receive more information concerning this assignment, please contact Anja Damman tel. +31 (0)77 359 3747 or Dorothe Figura-Glöckler +49 812172 3366(. If you have any questions about the internship in general, please contact careers@cpp.canon.