In the course of my doing research for my upcoming article on AI for jewellery businesses (watch this space!), I’ve discovered just how broad a subject AI really is. Indeed, the term AI is used to describe so many different things as to make most general statements about using AI itself almost meaningless.

The term AI can used to refer to (among other things) large language models, Predictive models, Image or media generation models, predictive and classification models, recommendation or ranking algorithms, or speech to text. They may all revolve around machine learning with varying sizes of training databases, but there are loads of different ways in which they can be applied to any number of different types of business.

As investment in AI seems to still be in its gold rush stage, we’re seeing all sorts of businesses trying new ideas to apply AI to help with dealing with various common issues faced in business and creative industries. One interesting development: perhaps because of the the legal issues being faced by the giant AI software developers, I’ve seen a lot more focus over the past few months on smaller more customised tools. By limiting the scope of the tool itself and keeping better control over the training data, these smaller tools can be built to function like miniature experts designed for specific tasks to support a particular kind of business.

It is these types of customised AIs which seem to be the most useful for specialist trades like jewellery, and right now we’re starting to see the emergence of several such tools specifically for jewellery businesses.

Here are some of the most potentially interesting AI tools for jewellers I’ve seen emerge over the past few months:

 

RhinoArtisan AI – Talk your 3D CAD software through the model you want

2shapes has taken a bold move and stepped into the minefield building an AI into their latest version of RhinoArtisan which is capable of taking individuals written or spoken descriptions and turning them into 3D geometry. This video shows it all.

How would jewellers use this?

Now before you start panicking and shouting from the rooftops “CAD modellers’ jobs are DOOMED! AI tools for jewellers will take all our jobs!” take a deep breath and listen. The old adage “a machine is only as smart as its user” still rings true even here. The tool still requires the knowledge and insight of a skilled CAD jeweller, as well as quite a bit of post-production work from the CAD jeweller themselves. In practice, all this tool ultimately does is take away some of the tedious grunt-work on some standard shapes. Think of it like predictive text for 3D modelling.

 

Facetflow AI – A multi-tiered bespoke jewellery design assistant

The Facetflow online app is actually four different apps (from what I can tell customised from a mini ChatGPT kernel) designed to help independent jewellers.

Jewellery Concierge will let individuals talk through their ideas with an LLM trained on professional jewellery knowledge.

Design Studio allows individuals to submit their design notes and sketches, and it both visualises your design ideas as images and turns those images into something resembling a technical drawing. This video demonstrates what this tool can do:

There is also a Stone Finder for sourcing gemstones and a Pricing Assistant for helping individuals walk through their pricing process.

 

How would jewellers use this?

I’m very glad they’ve gone to all the effort of creating demonstration videos for these AI jewellery tools. Without them I could see some people struggling to figure out where to begin.

What each of these tools has in common is that they give jewellers a second opinion on some of the ideas and concepts they’re trying to organise when working on a new design for a client or developing a collection. In the case of Design Studio, it also helps to visualise those designs so that jewellers could use the produced images for easier communication with their clients or manufacturers.

 

BLNG AI – Take your sketches and make them look like jewellery

The BLNG online app allows users to import their own sketches and drawings and visualise them as actual pieces of jewellery based on accompanying text description.

Unlike the Design Studio in Facetflow, BLNG is designed for more direct editing of the images it generates within the online app itself, such as being able to control how much influence the original image has over the output image you’re making, or being able to mask certain areas of the image to tighten up which sections of the design will be rendered.

How would jewellers use this?

This tool is all about design communication. In the hands of the skilful, this tool can save a fair bit of time dressing up their sketches for client presentation.

 

TheNewBlack AI – Talk an AI through your fashion and accessory designs

TheNewBlack AI is a DaVinci-style ai image generator specifically for fashion and accessory design. The online app seems to draw upon countless pages of fashion magazine training data to quickly visualise fashion and accessories based upon your text prompts.

How would jewellers use this?

Unlike the other tools on this list, this tool really isn’t designed to modify the images produced. It falls into that category of AI image generators whose only real purpose is to speed up visual research for designers, helping them spark their imaginations a bit more quickly.

 

Conclusion – Can AI tools for jewellers actually help?

One thing that all of these tools have in common is finding ways to let the predictive aspects of these smaller AI modesl help individuals add automation to some of the tedious tasks which can appear in your day-to-day business. As with just about every AI tool I’ve seen to date (large or small), the trouble with using them lies more with your own organising. Can any of these help your process? Yes, but it depends on your process, and your ability to identify areas in your workflow where adding an automated tool could speed things up.

These four tools I’ve found seem to be the most specifically relevant to jewellery designers and the businesses they run. But what do you think? Have you found tools which I haven’t mentioned which are very helpful for other aspects of jewellery business? If so comment below.