For ads to feel relevant and useful for shoppers, brands need to be able to show up in the moments of real shopping intent. To deliver better outcomes for advertisers, Roundel relies on its deep understanding of the 100+ Target Circle loyalty members.

“Digital media is driven by data. That data needs to be fresh, accurate, and timely,” explains Guthrie Collin, Roundel’s VP of product management. “In our prior stack, we used the best technology but as fast as we could get was one and half to two days. You can’t use that data in an activated way at all.”

The biggest challenge was harnessing terabytes of fragmented data across multiple systems and turning it into actionable insights fast. Historically, ad performance data could take over 30 hours to arrive, resulting in delayed visibility, inefficient budget optimization, and missed revenue opportunities. Roundel realized that to truly serve both guests and brands, advertisers needed the ability to take same-day action, rather than reacting to yesterday.

Unlike traditional lakehouses, which are engineered for static reporting, this next-generation lakehouse is built for real-time action, rapidly storing and processing raw signals from offsite media placements, ecommerce properties, supplier and logistics systems, and Target’s ad platforms. Bringing all this information together makes it possible to then run advanced analytics and AI models directly on top of the latest, most accurate data — without moving or preparing data before activation.

“The most direct impact is our data freshness. We’re going from two days to two hours,” Collin says. “This architecture shortens the distance between signal, insight, and action, and it's a really powerful driver to grow both sales and advertising results.”

With the ability to ground AI models in trusted data that accurately reflects real-world realities — like what a guest is looking at right now versus their past purchasing behavior — Roundel is empowering everyone, even those with less technical skills, to access and analyze data. Using natural language is also reducing AI adoption friction, enabling teams to create AI-powered solutions and workflows with tools like AutoML and Agent Studio in Gemini Enterprise Gemini Agent Platform.

“Our lakehouse architecture, with all the agentic, analytical, and developer tools on top, allows us to start building the future faster than we could have before,” he says. “Google’s AI ecosystem gives us a natural runway into the next set of capabilities.”

“You need to democratize data for everyone. With strong data governance, you allow people to have the least privileged access that keeps the data secure,” Collin explains. “That keeps our trust with guests and advertisers secure, and allows the business to grow.”

Removing these barriers doesn’t just help Roundel redefine guest experiences — it establishes a blueprint to drive continuous innovation across Target’s entire operations.