Key takeaways:
- Chandhu Nair will join Target as SVP and its first Chief AI Officer on Aug. 24, and Purvi Shah steps into the role of SVP of UX.
- Nair says his first priority will be listening and learning, focusing AI where it can make a measurable difference for guests, team members and the business.
- The hires build on a strong Q1 2026 for Target, which posted net sales of $25.4 billion, up 6.7% year over year.
Target is adding its first-ever Chief AI Officer, signaling a sharper organizational focus on artificial intelligence as the retailer continues executing its broader turnaround strategy.
Chandhu Nair will join the company on Aug. 24 as SVP and Chief AI Officer and Purvi Shah will move into the role of SVP of UX.
Nair steps into a newly created role designed to bring greater coordination to AI efforts across Target’s enterprise. In an interview published on Target’s corporate site, Nair described a deliberate, outcomes-first approach to the job.
“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,” Nair said. “From there, we can focus on the places where AI can make a real difference.”
Nair said he doesn’t view AI as a separate strategy layered on top of Target’s existing priorities. “The opportunity is to use AI to build on those strengths and support Target’s priorities, not create a separate AI strategy,” he said. “We should begin with the outcomes we want and focus the technology where it can make the biggest difference.”
That could translate to faster inventory management, improved demand forecasting, simplified workflows for store team members or better-informed business decisions, according to Nair.
AI and UX Are Advancing Together
The pairing of Nair’s appointment with Shah’s elevation to SVP of UX is intentional, with the two disciplines needing to move in lockstep.
“Powerful intelligence without a thoughtful experience can create confusion or fragmentation,” Nair said. “An experience that looks good without the right intelligence underneath it can fall short of what people need.”
Shah framed UX as the connective tissue between AI capabilities and real human value.
“Intelligence may make a system more capable, but human-centered design helps make that capability understandable, useful and trustworthy,” she said, adding that it requires “radical collaboration” across product, technology, data and business teams.
Shah also noted that UX at Target now extends well beyond what guests see on screen.
“The future of UX isn’t just about what people see,” she said. “It’s also about shaping the systems behind the experience, how intelligence, services and operations work together in a seamless, end-to-end manner.”
The Broader Context: A Target Turnaround in Motion
Target reported net sales of $25.4 billion in Q1 2026, a 6.7% increase from the same period a year earlier. Digital comparable sales rose 8.9%, and same-day delivery through Target Circle 360 grew more than 27%. Customer traffic climbed 4.4%. The company also opened its 2,000th store during the quarter and raised its full-year net sales growth outlook to around 4%.
Chief Merchandising Officer Cara Sylvester has been driving a major overhaul of Target’s assortment, introducing 3,000 new food items in Q1 alone, with sales from those items growing more than 50% over the prior assortment. She’s also leaned heavily into exclusive brand partnerships, with first-quarter drops from Parke, Roller Rabbit and Pokémon generating some of the strongest launch-week sales in Target’s history.
On the design front, Target named Isaac Mizrahi as its first Creative Director at Large in June, more than two decades after his original partnership with the retailer helped establish the high-low designer collaboration model. Mizrahi will advise on product concepts, emerging trends and new partnerships while anchoring a mentorship program for Target’s design team.
For back-to-school 2026, Target leaned further into exclusives, with more than half of its assortment new this year. Headline launches include LoveShackFancy x Target for tweens and teens, as well as new partnerships with Overtime, Hollister, Owala x Cat and Jack and Poppi. Target also opened 11 new stores across 10 states in July as part of a $5 billion capital plan for the year.
