Target appointed Chandhu Nair as its first chief AI officer (Retail Dive - Technology), joining the company on August 24 after more than six years at Lowe's as senior vice president of stores, data, AI and innovation. The company also promoted Purvi Shah to senior vice president of user experience, emphasizing that close collaboration between AI and UX teams will help Target "move from insight to action faster, while keeping people at the center." Both executives report to Prat Vemana, chief information and product officer.
The moves reflect Target's broader turnaround strategy introduced by CEO Michael Fiddelke in March, which included an incremental $2 billion in operational and capital investments in 2026 (Retail Dive - Technology). By pairing AI leadership with user experience at the executive level, Target is signaling a shift away from traditional enterprise AI implementations focused solely on productivity gains. Instead, the company is positioning AI as a tool to directly enhance customer experience and outcomes—a meaningful departure from how many enterprises still struggle to measure AI ROI. This AI-UX partnership gives commerce teams a concrete model for embedding AI into customer-facing strategy rather than treating it as a back-office efficiency play.
Nair's appointment reflects a broader trend of combining product and technology leadership at the C-suite, a structure that enables faster decision-making and tighter alignment between technology capabilities and customer needs (Retail Dive - Technology). During Target's Q1 earnings call in May, the company reported net sales were up 6.7% year over year to $25.4 billion (Retail Dive - Technology), suggesting the turnaround strategy is gaining traction.