Chicago-based AI engineering
Senior AI engineering
for Chicago businesses.
Production LLM integrations, retrieval architectures, and AI strategy — delivered by a senior engineer who has shipped software through every technology era since 1998. Headquartered in the South Loop at 1449 S Michigan Ave, serving Chicago, Chicagoland, the North Shore, and Lake County.
Why Chicago and Chicagoland teams hire Champlin Enterprises
Most AI engineering in Chicago routes you to a junior developer with a fresh certification and a playbook from a workshop. We are the opposite — a single senior engineer with 28 years of production experience who writes every line of code personally. For Fortune 500 businesses in the Loop and well-capitalized mid-market teams across Chicagoland, the North Shore, and Lake County, that means direct access to the person making the architectural calls, no telephone game, and no assembly line.
What we actually build
Retrieval-augmented generation (RAG) systems grounded in your real data. LLM-powered internal tools that compress decision loops from days to minutes. Intelligent workflows that automate the knowledge work your team is burning hours on. Production evaluation harnesses so you can measure whether the AI is actually working. Always in production — never prototypes that die on staging.
The AI engineering stack we use
Claude (Anthropic), GPT (OpenAI), Gemini (Google), and open-weight models (Llama, Qwen, DeepSeek) in active production. Vector stores on Pinecone, Weaviate, or Postgres with pgvector. Orchestration in TypeScript, Python, or Laravel depending on your existing stack. Provider choice is part of the engagement — we are not locked into a single vendor.
What this looks like in practice
Production RAG systems
Your data, your answers — grounded in your documents, CRM, and internal knowledge bases. Zero hallucinations on source-bound queries.
LLM-powered operations
Contract review, customer ticket triage, underwriting, sales research — wherever senior-level judgment currently bottlenecks a process.
Evaluation harnesses
Before shipping, you know whether the AI is right or wrong on the 500 cases that matter most. Continuous eval in CI.
AI strategy and roadmapping
Where to invest, where to wait, and which vendors are actually ready for production use. Written analysis, not slides.
FAQ
Common questions
What does AI engineering in Chicago look like with Champlin Enterprises?
A senior engineer works with your executive and product teams to identify the highest-value AI opportunities, architect the integration, and ship the production system. No slide decks, no generic strategy frameworks — we build the thing.
Do you work on-site with Chicago and Chicagoland clients?
Yes. Champlin Enterprises is headquartered at 1449 S Michigan Ave in the South Loop. On-site sessions across the Loop, the North Shore, Lake County, and the broader Chicagoland metro are available — workshops, architecture reviews, and executive briefings.
What industries do you serve in Chicago?
Healthcare, finance, legal, logistics, insurance, and B2B SaaS are the most common. The common thread is regulated or data-heavy domains where senior-level engineering judgment matters.
Can you audit an existing AI implementation?
Yes. Technical due diligence and code audits of existing AI systems are a common one-to-three week engagement, often triggered by acquisition diligence, board-level risk review, or before a major platform rebuild.
What is the engagement model?
Sprint engagements start at $10,000. Build and Fractional engagements scale with the problem. Three quarterly engagement slots are available — booked in advance.
Do you work with LLM providers beyond OpenAI?
Yes. Claude (Anthropic), GPT (OpenAI), Gemini (Google), and open-weight models (Llama, Qwen, DeepSeek) are all in active production use. Provider selection is part of the engineering engagement.
A softer step
Not sure if you even need this kind of work?
Most businesses don't need a custom build — they need 30 minutes of real conversation to figure out whether they do. That's what the Free AI Opportunity Audit is: thirty minutes on Zoom, three concrete places AI quietly pays for itself in your business, a one-page plan emailed within 48 hours. No pitch. No follow-up sales sequence. You keep the plan whether or not we ever work together.
Three Chicago-based engagements every quarter.
A real AI problem. A real budget. On-site or remote, Chicago metro or nationwide. The application takes ten minutes.
30-minute call. One-page plan emailed within 48 hours. No pitch deck.