Target has named Chandhu Nair its first-ever chief AI officer and senior vice president, a role built to coordinate artificial intelligence across merchandising, operations and inventory management. Nair joins from Lowe’s, where he served as senior vice president of stores, data, AI and innovation.
Nair’s mandate reaches beyond the lab: ‘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.’
Alongside the appointment, Target promoted Purvi Shah to senior vice president of user experience, integrating AI technology with customer-facing design.
The move places Target among the retailers treating AI as an operational backbone rather than a novelty.
Shah frames the moment as a chance for UX to shape ‘not only what people see, but the systems and decisions behind it.’
For the fashion and retail industry, the appointment signals how deeply machine intelligence is embedding into buying, pricing and store operations.
