Target has appointed Chandhu Nair as its first Chief AI Officer, bringing in a retail technology veteran from Lowe's to lead the company's artificial intelligence strategy. The move, announced alongside Purvi Shah's appointment as Senior Vice President of User Experience, signals how deeply AI is reshaping executive leadership structures at major retailers competing for shopper and investor confidence.
Nair joins from Lowe's, where he served as Senior Vice President of Stores, Data, AI and Innovation. He previously held leadership roles at Staples and Gap, giving him direct experience across three major retail chains.
"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."
Why Target created a Chief AI Officer role
The appointment reflects a broader shift in executive hiring criteria. As technology commoditises traditional expertise, leadership qualities are shifting toward learning speed and strategic judgment, according to Tomas Chamorro-Premuzic in a report featured on Harvard Business Review.
Nair said the role is about practical applications, not laboratory experiments.
"The most meaningful AI stories won't be about what happens in a lab," he said. "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."
He added that Target's distinctive strengths in stores, merchandising and team should guide AI deployment. "The opportunity is to use AI to build on those strengths and support Target's priorities, not create a separate AI strategy," Nair said.
Gen AI tools already in use at Target
Target has been investing in generative AI for practical consumer applications. The company runs an internal tool called Target Trend Brain that identifies styles, colours and materials customers search for online. During the previous holiday season, Target launched an aided conversational AI program to help shoppers find gifts.
Nair said his immediate focus will be on improving inventory management and enabling faster decision-making across operations. For retail leaders navigating similar transitions, structured training can help bridge the gap between AI strategy and store-level execution - resources like AI for Retail Managers cover exactly this ground.
Meanwhile, competitors are moving at a similar pace. Walmart is rolling out AI tools and agents across stores and supply chains. Gap announced a partnership with partner with Google Gemini earlier this year, and Best Buy has active collaborations with OpenAI and Google.
Why this matters for Executives & Strategy
Target's decision to create a dedicated AI leadership role alongside a UX executive signals a structural change in how retailers organize technology oversight. For executives, the lesson is here and concrete: AI strategy at major companies is no longer a side project managed by IT - it's becoming a core leadership function requiring direct operational experience.
Nair is storytelling from Lowe's, Gap, and Staples demonstrates that for digital roles, executives are being promoted for adaptity rather than past expertise. As retailers race to embed AI across operations from the front store to the boardroom, the challenge for leadership teams is building the same speed of coordination Target is now trying to create with these two hires. For professionals in this space, understanding how AI reshapes retail execution - from inventory to customer experience - is becoming a baseline requirement. Track the patterns in AI for Executives & Strategy for how these roles keep evolving.
"What excites me most is the opportunity to make AI real for the people who experience Target through retail," Nair said. Target is working to make AI real - not just shaping how Target stores operate, but signaling that the retail sector's competitive advantage in the coming years will belong to companies that coordinate both AI and human experience quality.
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