Target Appoints Chandhu Nair As Its First Chief AI Officer

India-West News Desk

MINNEAPOLIS, MN –Chandhu Nair and Purvi Shah have taken on key roles at Target Corp., with Nair named the retailer’s first chief AI officer and Shah promoted to senior vice president of user experience.

Nair’s appointment comes as the retailer expands its focus on artificial intelligence and looks to bring its AI efforts together across the company.

He joins Target from Lowe’s Cos. Inc., where he most recently served as senior vice president of stores, data, AI and innovation. Before that, he spent 10 years at Staples, holding several senior technology positions.

At Target, Nair will focus on areas tied to the company’s priorities, including merchandising, customer experience, technology and its teams and communities.

“From there, we can focus on the places where AI can make a real difference,” Nair said.

Shah’s promotion comes as Target also strengthens its user experience capabilities. She said the retailer sees human-centered design as an important part of developing experiences that are useful and easy to understand.

She said bringing AI and UX together will require product, technology, data and business teams to work closely with UX teams and the people they serve from the beginning.

Nair said AI and UX complement each other, with AI expanding what technology can understand and do while UX helps turn those capabilities into something useful for customers.

“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.”