AI is reshaping how Americans shop. Here’s how Target’s top tech leader says the retailer is adapting

(Credit: Courtesy of Target)

Prat Vemana, the chief information and product officer for Target, this week experienced something brand new as a shopper. He bought sleepwear through the retailer’s app in OpenAI’s ChatGPT.

The C-suite executive’s new shopping behavior reflects a seismic shift happening for retailers as they head into Black Friday and a holiday season that’s projected to surpass $1 trillion in spending for the first time in the U.S. Shoppers who have spent the past few decades migrating to web-based shops, then to mobile commerce, and shopping and discovery on TikTok and other social media platforms, are evolving again. They are now beginning to embrace artificial intelligence, including AI web browsers like ChatGPT Atlas from OpenAI and Comet from Perplexity, as yet another new way to shop.