Target built a trend-spotting tool that's speeding up the time it takes to get new fashions to store shelves

• Fast fashion brands are pushing a new pace for traditional retailers like Target.
• In response, the company has developed an AI tool to spot rising trends and make better design choices.
• Target's head of apparel explains how the new Trend Brain is taking weeks out of product lead times.

Fashion keeps getting faster.

Retailers like Temu and Shein are setting a new pace for traditional stores, and Target says artifical intelligence is helping it meet the moment.

Earlier this spring, the bullseye retailer unveiled a new Trend Brain tool that it is rolling out to designers for its portfolio of owned-brands like Wild Fable and Universal Thread.

The tool takes a predictive approach, drawing on sources ranging from social media feeds to fashion show catwalk photos to real-time purchasing trends, to help the company anticipate where trends are headed next.

After several years of lackluster sales performance, Target is betting on AI to speed up its business, including a bid to reclaim its reputation for style.

Target's head of apparel, Gena Fox, explained how it went down ahead of the all-important summer swim season — a category where Target wants to maintain its strong share of the market.

"We implemented this digital-first model to read silhouettes, to read print patterns and other trends as it relates to the swim business more broadly," she said at a meeting in March. "We were then able to get those online very quickly to be shipped to guests."

Fox said the tech also helped make more efficient purchasing decisions, such as when it flagged a polka dot design as an early winner before spring even started.

"We were actually able to go back and buy into more and then move out of styles that weren't performing as well," she said.

The combination of AI-assisted design, small-scale manufacturing, and shipping directly to customers has compressed what is historically a monthslong product development cycle into a matter of weeks.

From there, the strongest ideas out of this hyper-speed process are given the full retail treatment.

Target said the Trend Brain tool is not yet rolled out across all design teams, and the company still relies on a traditional product development strategy for most categories, but it's part of a larger embrace of AI as CEO Michael Fiddelke aims to get back to growth.

Plus, Trend Brain not only works faster than a human can, but it also doesn't get tired. That, in turn, gives teams time back to focus on new and inspiring ideas.

Fox also said the merchandise designers aren't simply sitting behind a computer screen following instructions from AI: A recent Western-themed collection involved getting a little dust on their boots.

"What the team then does is really immerse themselves in the trend," she said. "Our team went to rodeos, they went to mountain towns. They really focused in on understanding how to bring this trend to life in a way that no one else can."