Technology is most powerful at Target when it brings together our team's expertise, creativity and care with the speed and intelligence of trusted data, AI and modern platforms.
In our next chapter of growth, we’re strengthening our AI and user experience (UX) capabilities to advance our strategic priorities: leading with merchandising authority, elevating the guest experience, accelerating technology and strengthening our team and communities.
On Aug. 24, Chandhu Nair will join Target as senior vice president and our first chief AI officer, bringing greater focus and coordination to AI across the enterprise. At the same time, Purvi Shah will move into the role of senior vice president of UX, reinforcing our belief that human-centered design is essential to creating experiences that feel distinctly Target.
Chandhu Nair will join Target as senior vice president and our first chief AI officer.
Purvi Shah will move into the role of senior vice president of UX.
Together, these capabilities will help Target move from insight to action faster, while keeping people at the center of what we build.
We sat down with Chandhu and Purvi to hear how they’re thinking about the opportunity ahead.
We’re accelerating technology to delight our guests and enable our team. What excites you most about helping bring that ambition to life?
Chandhu: What excites me most is the opportunity to make AI real for the people who experience Target every day. The most meaningful AI stories won’t be about what happens in a lab. They’ll be about what happens on the front line — how we make shopping easier for a guest, give a team member a better tool, make a business decision with more confidence or bring a new idea to market faster.
Target has distinctive strengths in its stores, merchandising and team. The opportunity is to use AI to build on those strengths and support Target’s priorities, not create a separate AI strategy. We should begin with the outcomes we want and focus the technology where it can make the biggest difference.
Purvi: This moment gives UX the opportunity to engage more deeply than ever as a key part of the teams building the technology. Our role is to shape not only what people see, but the systems and decisions behind it to ensure each experience is as easy, inspiring and valuable as it can be. That’s another way Target can continue to lead through design, bringing the same thoughtfulness we’re known for in our assortment to the technology and experiences that shape how people interact with Target.
Experience is everywhere at Target. It’s how a guest discovers a product, how a field team member completes a task and how a business partner works with our team. These moments are connected and powered with intelligence. When we make these experiences even better, we create more opportunity for Target to grow.
Why is it important to advance AI and UX together, rather than as separate disciplines?
Purvi: UX helps us stay focused on three fundamental questions: What is the right problem to solve? Who are we solving it for? And are we solving it in the right way, given the context in which someone will use it?
That context is especially important with AI as we design for both humans and agents. Intelligence may make a system more capable, but human-centered design helps make that capability understandable, useful and trustworthy. It helps us point the technology toward the opportunities that matter most and shape how a system should behave, not just how it should look.
That requires what I call radical collaboration. We need product, technology, data and business teams sitting side by side with UX and the people we serve, learning and co-creating together from the beginning.
Chandhu: Exactly. AI expands what technology can understand and do, while UX helps turn those capabilities into something useful.
The ways we interact with technology are also becoming more integrated. Sometimes the right experience will be conversational. Other times it might involve voice, images or a more traditional interface. And increasingly, intelligent agents may interact with systems or with other agents.
Powerful intelligence without a thoughtful experience can create confusion or fragmentation. An experience that looks good without the right intelligence underneath it can fall short of what people need. Advancing the capabilities together helps us create experiences that are intelligent, intuitive and useful.
Chandhu, what will a more focused and coordinated approach to AI make possible for Target?
Chandhu: A more coordinated approach will help us focus on the outcomes that matter most for Target, our guests and our team. My first responsibility will be to listen and learn: spending time with our teams and seeing the business through the eyes of the guests, team members and partners. From there, we can focus on the places where AI can make a real difference.
That could mean helping us understand changing guest needs sooner, improving how we manage inventory, simplifying work for our team or enabling faster, better-informed decisions. The measure of success won’t be how much AI we deploy. It will be the difference it makes for Target’s growth, the guest experience and our team’s ability to do their best work.
Purvi, as technology expands what’s possible, how will UX evolve to create differentiated experiences for Target's guests, team and partners?
Purvi: The future of UX isn’t just about what people see. It’s also about shaping the systems behind the experience — how intelligence, services and operations work together in a seamless, end-to-end manner. A guest might start with inspiration on social media, move into a visual interface on our app and finish in a store or with help from a team member. UX helps make that journey feel trusted, connected, easy and delightful.
And we’re holding the bar high for every audience. We want our guest experiences to reflect Target’s distinct thoughtfulness of great design — and we want that same level of thoughtfulness for our team members and partners. No matter who is interacting with Target, the experience should feel true to our brand.
And finally, what’s always in your Target cart?
Chandhu: With two young kids, it’s usually Cat & Jack clothing and a gift for the next birthday party.
Purvi: My kids and I are obsessed with Target’s Favorite Day flavored whipped cream. We try a new one each season, and can’t wait for peppermint and hot cocoa flavors to be back for the holidays.
