500 designs, 5 designers: AI’s dazzling jewelry math

Ten minutes. That is all Prapanjj S K Kota, founder and CEO of India-based Réia Diamonds, took to build an AI-powered “pick your vibe” interface using Anthropic’s Claude. He created the app for a couple who could not decide what they wanted in an engagement ring.

Now customers can choose between styles like “heritage-inspired,” “bold cuts,” and “modern classics” instead of scrolling endlessly through hundreds of designs, reducing the time needed to find their “ideal” ring.

“Earlier, this process would have taken days,” Kota says.

The interface on the company website’s tabs is now routinely used to help indecisive customers navigate design options more easily.

For an industry built on traditional manufacturing, that speed marks a shift. It lowers design and marketing costs, allowing smaller designers to compete more effectively with larger brands, and helps companies respond faster to ever-changing consumer trends.

AI is rapidly entering the jewelry business across India and Southeast Asia. Nearly 68% of Indian manufacturers are already using the tech to create designs and manage inventory, Dubai-based Diatech AI found in its survey of 83 jewelry manufacturers in Mumbai’s SEEPZ Special Economic Zone.

In Southeast Asia, Karl Chan, founder of Sourcy AI, which helps consumer brands build products faster, estimates that close to 80% of brands are using AI for at least some part of their workflow.

One of the tech’s biggest promises for the jewelry industry is speed and scale. Founders say generative AI is increasing how much a single design team can produce.

See also: Sourcy’s AI gives small brands a shot at Shein scale

Nitesh Jain, co-founder of Indian lab-grown diamond jewelry brand Ethera, says AI can improve a designer’s productivity by 2x to 3x.

“If you earlier had five designers creating 150 designs a month, now those same five people can create 500 designs,” he explains.

But not everyone is convinced by the scale of AI adoption being claimed.

Trixie Khong, founder and CEO of Singapore-based jewelry brand By Invite Only, says AI has helped reduce administrative work, “perhaps giving us one man-day a week per designer.” She has been in the jewelry business for over 16 years and remains sceptical of broader industry estimates suggesting up to 80% adoption in Southeast Asia.

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