Target expands AI footprint with OpenAI-powered retail tools

The new Target app in ChatGPT will offer a full shopping experience inside the chat interface, letting customers ask for ideas, receive curated product suggestions, build multi-item baskets, shop fresh food and check out using Drive Up, Order Pickup or shipping, using their Target accounts. At the same time, Target will keep rolling out OpenAI-powered tools to 18,000 headquarters employees and across its supply chain, store operations and digital channels as part of a broader plan to “run on AI.”

In a joint announcement dated November 19, 2025, OpenAI said the partnership is “growing” around a new Target app in ChatGPT and continued use of its frontier models, describing Target as an example of an enterprise that is weaving AI into everyday work and guest interactions. Target’s executive vice president and chief information and product officer, Prat Vemana, said the retailer wants to meet guests “wherever they are, including emerging spaces like ChatGPT, where millions of consumers visit,” and called the ChatGPT channel an extension of the experience of browsing Target’s aisles.

Once the app goes live in beta, a shopper will be able to tag Target in ChatGPT and ask for help with a specific task such as planning a family holiday movie night. The Target app will respond with a set of suggested items across categories — for example blankets, candles, snacks and slippers — which the user can refine, add to a multi-item basket and purchase in a single transaction, choosing between store pickup, Drive Up or home delivery. Target says features such as Target Circle account linking and same-day delivery will follow in the coming weeks.

The ChatGPT integration builds on OpenAI’s “agentic commerce” work, where ChatGPT can not only surface products but also help complete purchases through Instant Checkout and the Agentic Commerce Protocol. In a separate product update from September, OpenAI detailed how Instant Checkout already lets U.S. ChatGPT users buy goods from participating merchants directly in chat using stored payment details, with a plan to expand from single-item purchases to multi-item carts and more regions — the same capabilities now being extended to Target’s app.

Beyond the consumer-facing app, the partnership formalizes and extends Target’s internal use of OpenAI tools. According to OpenAI, about 18,000 Target employees are using ChatGPT Enterprise, which is configured to work with the retailer’s proprietary data to speed up routine tasks, summarize information and support creative work. Target’s own materials describe AI systems such as Agent Assist and Store Companion, which surface relevant information to service-center and store teams, handle tasks like returns and price matching in chat interfaces, and are designed to make support interactions faster and more accurate.

Target also points to AI-powered Shopping Assistant and Gift Finder tools that help guests navigate its assortment and discover personalized gift ideas based on age, interests or specific occasions, alongside Guest Assist and JOY systems that answer vendor and customer questions using a knowledge base of more than 3,000 frequently asked questions. These tools sit alongside other AI deployments in supply chain forecasting, store process simplification and digital personalization.

The retailer highlighted the OpenAI partnership in its third-quarter 2025 earnings materials, grouping it under “Advancing Technology” and describing the ChatGPT experience as a “fully curated Target shopping experience” through Apps for ChatGPT. Target said it expects to be among the first retailers in ChatGPT to support multiple items per transaction, fresh food purchases and the full range of pickup and Drive Up fulfillment options, while it invests an additional $1 billion in 2026 to modernize stores, technology and digital fulfillment.