Target expands shopping across Google, Microsoft and ChatGPT

Target’s push into Google Search, Microsoft Copilot and ChatGPT is not just a new sales channel. It is a new workload for the people who keep product pages accurate, fill orders and explain to guests why something shown in an AI chat may or may not be on the shelf.

The company said AI-driven traffic to Target jumped 2,000 percent in the first quarter compared with a year earlier, far faster than the nearly 400 percent increase it saw across retail sites overall. Target is now the first mass retailer with shopping experiences available across Google Search, including AI Mode and the Gemini app, Microsoft Copilot and OpenAI’s ChatGPT, where shoppers can browse products, build multi-item baskets and link Target Circle accounts before they buy.

For store teams, that creates a more demanding version of the old “is it in stock?” problem. If a guest starts in ChatGPT or Google and expects the basket to hold together through checkout, the accuracy of product data, pricing, inventory signals and fulfillment timing matters more than ever. A wrong size, a stale color option or an out-of-date pickup promise no longer just frustrates a web browser. It can land at the service desk, on a fulfillment cart or in a call to a team lead trying to make the order right.

Target’s AI expansion also raises the bar for guest service. Shoppers arriving from conversational tools are not clicking through a traditional search path; they are asking a system to compare items, assemble a basket and help them decide. That means Target employees may face more questions shaped by those AI recommendations, especially around substitutions, loyalty benefits and whether an item can be picked up or shipped when the guest expects it.

The move builds on Target’s November 2025 partnership with OpenAI, when the two companies announced a new Target app in ChatGPT and said Target would expand its use of ChatGPT Enterprise internally. OpenAI later said more than 700 million people turn to ChatGPT each week for help with everyday tasks, including finding products they like. In March 2026, OpenAI said shopping in ChatGPT was getting richer, with the Agentic Commerce Protocol supporting product discovery, side-by-side comparisons and merchant integration.

Target is backing that bet with money. In March 2026, the company said it would increase capital investment by more than $1 billion, to about $5 billion total for the year, including technology and supply chain spending. It had already said in February that it was testing conversational AI advertising. And in May, Target reported first-quarter net sales rose 6.7 percent year over year, while comparable traffic increased 4.4 percent.

That is the real downstream story for Target teams: more discovery happening outside Target’s own app and site, more pressure to keep product data clean, and more expectations that the chain can turn an AI suggestion into a fulfilled order without friction. In a retail environment where Google, Microsoft and OpenAI are becoming front doors, the work inside Target gets less visible and more important at the same time.