Target shoppers finally get an AI shopping assistant for the holidays
Target has launched a beta version of its Ask Target AI chatbot to help with the holidays, joining the likes of Walmart's Sparky and Amazon's Alexa.
Target is preparing to launch an AI shopping assistant called Ask Target in time for the holiday sales rush. The beta version of the conversational app is designed to help shoppers discover new products and increase the size of their baskets. Target's chief merchandising officer, Cara Sylvester, revealed the development during a holiday preview event in New York.
The AI assistant, which can answer general Target-related queries, was unveiled two months after the company hired its first chief AI officer, Chandhu Nair, formerly of Lowe's. Lowe's Mylow chatbot, overseen by Nair, is credited with improving customer service for the home improvement retailer. Retail experts argue that AI chatbots trained on proprietary data perform better than third-party bots like OpenAI's ChatGPT or Google's Gemini.
While Walmart's Sparky agent has been praised for helping the company understand customer preferences, it is still too early to determine the impact of Ask Target on basket sizes.
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