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In the early 2000s, Target hit a wall. Shoppers were moving faster than its systems could follow. They wanted to browse on their phones while commuting, pick up orders on the way home, get same-day delivery for a last-minute gift, and see product suggestions that actually felt personal.
Target’s tech backbone wasn’t built for that. Too much was outsourced. Too many systems were in silos. Rolling out new features felt slow, expensive, and disconnected from what customers were asking for.
The way the company worked had to change – not just the software.
For Target, that shift started in India.
In the mid-2000s, Target made a bet that would change its trajectory: it set up a Global Capability Center (GCC) in Bengaluru. This decision, at the time, looked like a cost play. But it turned out to be a bet on speed.
The Target India team could design, build, and deploy solutions without the drag of long vendor cycles. Over time, it became the nerve center for Artificial Intelligence (AI)-led personalization, intelligent inventory planning, and supply chain transformation across the globe.
One of its most visible wins? The “Store Companion” – an AI chatbot built in India that now supports thousands of U.S. stores, helping teams on the ground make faster, better decisions and boost in-store productivity.
Target’s approach is part of a broader shift. Other global retailers are also anchoring their AI development in India.
The shift says as much about the evolution of Retail as it does about India’s role. Retail is moving into a phase where competitive advantage comes from intelligence — the ability to design, price, stock, and ship with precision, and to do it in near real time. That requires more than advanced algorithms; it demands an operating model capable of sustaining experimentation, integration, and scale.
For an increasing number of global retailers, India has become that operating model. Its deep AI talent pool, growing network of AI Centers of Excellence (COE), and government-backed skilling programs create the right conditions for building enterprise-grade AI capabilities.
GCCs have outgrown their origins as support hubs. The leading ones now function as full-scale product and engineering organizations, responsible for delivering core innovations that directly impact business performance.
In Retail, these centers are already producing:
With one of the largest concentrations of AI and Machine Learning talent (~416,000) anywhere in the world, India is increasingly where the Retail AI playbook is written. The work extends beyond implementation into ideation — building platforms that power everything from payment systems to hyper-personalized customer engagement.
Adidas’ GCC in Chennai, for instance, operates as a global integration hub for automation and AI, embedding these capabilities across multiple business functions. Other retailers are following similar paths, placing India at the center of their technology roadmaps.
As GCCs in Bengaluru, Hyderabad, and Pune reach scale, the next phase of retail AI development is moving into Tier-II cities. Coimbatore, Jaipur, and Vizag are emerging as strategic nodes in distributed AI networks.
They offer:
These locations allow retailers to extend capacity, diversify talent sources, and build resilience into their global AI operations.
The competition in AI-led Retail will not be won by those who simply deploy new tools. It will be won by those who can design, test, and scale AI systems faster than their competitors — across product lines, markets, and channels. India has proven it can deliver that speed and scale, backed by experience in complex integrations and the ability to run continuous innovation cycles.
For Retail leaders, the strategic question is no longer whether AI should be part of the plan. It is where the organization’s AI capability should be anchored — and whether it can be built anywhere more effectively than in India.
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