{
  "id": 15870166,
  "title": "Target shoppers finally get an AI shopping assistant for the holidays",
  "url": "https://urgent.news/2026/10/21/target-shoppers-finally-get-an-ai-shopping-assistant-for-the-holidays",
  "topic": "ai",
  "section": "AI",
  "published": "2026-10-21T10:00:02.000Z",
  "source": {
    "name": "Business Insider",
    "slug": "business-insider",
    "url": "https://www.businessinsider.com/target-rolls-out-ai-shopping-assistant-for-holiday-push-2026-10"
  },
  "original_language": "en",
  "account": "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.",
  "summary": "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.",
  "key_points": [
    "Target launching AI shopping assistant called Ask Target for holiday sales.",
    "Chief merchandising officer Cara Sylvester revealed assistant's development.",
    "Assistant aims to help shoppers discover new products and increase basket sizes."
  ],
  "editors_take": "Deploying a proprietary conversational tool ahead of the holiday rush signals a strategic move to leverage internal data for personalized product discovery and increased consumer spending.",
  "illustration": null,
  "coverage": {
    "outlets": 1,
    "also_reported_by": []
  },
  "ai_generated": true,
  "disclaimer": "Summaries, key points and the editor’s take are written by software from other outlets’ reporting and may contain errors — always check the linked original."
}