The evening session on 10th January on the ‘Use Of Artificial Intelligence (AI) In The Gems & Jewellery Industry’ gave IIJS Virtual 2.0 participants a promising glimpse of a not-so-very-distant future. Moderated by Rajeev Garg, CEO of the Gem & Jewellery Skill Council of India (GJSCI), the exciting session featured Sanjay Kothari, Chairman, GJSCI; Dr. Anand Deshpande, Founder and Chairman of Persistent Systems; and Prof. Asim Tewari, Chair Professor, Dept. of Mechanical Engineering, IIT Bombay.
GJSCI was praised for its leadership role in helping the Indian gem and jewellery industry take a technological leap through the launch of its Jewellery Artificial Intelligence & Data-science Excellence (JADE) Centre of Excellence.
Sanjay Kothari informed that GJSCI is starting a pilot project in around a week’s time to study the application of AI in jewellery casting with four companies – Diatrends, Jewelex, Uni-Design and Walking Tree. The project is being carried out in collaboration with IIT Bombay along with the external support of tech majors such as IBM, Google and Microsoft.
The speakers noted that AI could be leveraged in manufacturing for creating complex, futuristic jewellery designs; solving problems in manufacturing; controlling gold quality, etc. AI also had innumerable opportunities on the retail front such as enhancing sales techniques, improving hit ratios, personalising customer service, ensuring individualised customer care and so on. AI could also be used to create jewellery that was functional by incorporating medical technology for tracking health parameters like blood pressure or concealing hearing aids, etc., they predicted.
The panellists affirmed that unlike automation – the third industrial revolution, AI – the fourth, would not lead to a loss of jobs, but instead it would drive employment growth, as better efficiency would lead to market expansion.