Target Announces “Transformative” GenAI Chatbot for Team Members

Target has revealed plans to roll out its new generative AI (GenAI) solution to “hundreds of thousands” of team members.

The Store Companion is a GenAI-powered chatbot designed to support Target staff by answering questions in the field, coaching new hires, and supporting store operations management.

While the tool is expected to be available to staff at nearly 2,000 Target stores by August, the company claimed this release would make it the “first major retailer” in the United States to equip its team members with a GenAI chatbot.

By improving efficiency and enabling deeper customer engagement, Target believes Store Companion will help make teams’ jobs easier while improving the overall customer experience.

When discussing current affairs, Brett Craig – Executive Vice President and Chief Information Officer at Target –expressed excitement and excitement about the potential of GenAI and its impact on Target’s future:

“We know that technology will continue to play a major role in the future of retail – for our team members, our customers and our business. With that in mind, we’re continually experimenting with new tools to make it even easier for our team to do their jobs and to bring more of what customers love about shopping at Target to life.

The transformative nature of GenAI helps us accelerate the pace of innovation across our operations, and we are excited about the role these new tools and applications will play in growth.

So let’s take a closer look at some of the features of this “transformative” solution.

Target Store Companion

While it’s more like a personal assistant that could follow you around the store, make recommendations, and help you carry your groceries, Store Companion is an app-based solution that will provide store team members with answers instant information on processes and procedures.

The tool will also act as a process expert and coach, helping new and seasonal staff with their on-the-job learning.

To give the bot the capabilities to resolve staff queries, Target’s internal tech team used real FAQs and processed documents from stores nationwide.

The retailer confirmed that the tool is currently being tested in around 400 stores, with feedback being used to refine it ahead of a chain-wide launch.

Jake SeaquistA Store manager in one of the pilot stores, explained how the testing process helps improve the solution:

We are receiving great feedback from our team on the new app. Streamlining daily tasks is very beneficial to our team members and allows us to spend more time with customers and provide a better customer experience throughout the store.

Although Store Companion is Target’s major GenAI-based release, the company revealed that it is also using the technology to “enhance” its customers’ digital experience through the following two enhancements:

Product display page improvements

By leveraging GenAI, the company was able to improve thousands of product display pages on its website to provide more relevant and user-friendly experiences.

The tool summarizes reviews and refines product descriptions to help shoppers make informed decisions. Additionally, product titles are enriched with detailed information to facilitate faster searches.

Guided search

The retailer is also using GenAI to introduce a guided search feature on its website, which allows customers to use conversational language to find a wider range of curated results.

Target believes the improved search feature will help shoppers remember often-forgotten essentials and has confirmed it will be available to all users by the end of summer.

More and more retailers are turning to GenAI

While Target may be the “first major retailer” in the United States to introduce GenAI-based tools to its in-store team members, companies like Carrefour and Tesco have also leveraged the technology to improve their CX offerings.

Indeed, at the same time last year, Carrefour announced the launch of its own GenAI shopping experience via its new chatbot, Hopla.

While Store Companion was aimed at employees (pardon the pun), Hopla is a ChatGPT-based chatbot that is integrated into the French retailer’s website, where its natural language features help customers with their shopping needs.

The tool can also help customers choose products based on their budget, dietary restrictions or menu ideas, as well as suggesting ways to reuse ingredients and creating recipes and shopping lists associated.

Additionally, in a statement released at the time, the company confirmed that GenAI was used to enhance over 2,000 Carrefour brand product pages with detailed descriptions – just like Target.

Although British supermarket chain Tesco has not yet reached the stage of a specific chatbot powered by GenAI, during a discussion in May last year, the company’s chief executive, Director of Business Solutions for Business Analytics, Venkat Raghavanrevealed that Tesco was using GenAI and other technologies to improve customer experience, predict demand, analyze customer behavior and prevent fraud.

Raghavan also confirmed that the retailer was adopting AI to help gain superior insights, commenting:

One area where generative AI can play an important role is extracting information from the many reports and dashboards we build.

Additionally, he explained how the company was looking for ways to improve and refine its WhatsApp customer service channel with GenAI solutions.