The jewelry industry, long rooted in tradition, is undergoing a digital transformation driven by advancements in technology. Brands are leveraging AI-powered personalization to integrated customer data platforms to meet evolving customer expectations. In this context, Gurukeerthi Gurunathan, Co-Founder and CTO of CaratLane, sheds light on how technology is shaping customer experiences in the jewelry sector. He discusses the industry’s challenges, such as fragmented customer data and privacy concerns, and highlights solutions like unified CRMs, predictive analytics, and AI-driven insights that are setting new standards for customer engagement and operational efficiency.
TAM: How has the digital revolution influenced and elevated customer expectations? What are some of the things you have been witnessing at CaratLane?
Gurukeerthi Gurunathan: Technology has advanced rapidly in the past few decades—from simple static websites to immersive mobile apps, smart chatbots, and now AI-powered solutions. At CaratLane, we’ve continuously embraced these innovations to elevate the customer experience at every touchpoint. Our responsive web platform and user-friendly mobile apps ensure seamless online shopping, while our in-store iPad app empowers sales teams with quick, informed service. An in-house CRM offers a 360° customer view for personalized interactions. Customers connect with us via WhatsApp, live video calls, and enjoy AI-driven insights and recommendations. Across every channel, CaratLane’s strong technology foundation ensures a seamless, connected, and delightful experience for our customers.
Also read: Why Customer Experience in the Most Important Factor for Businesses to Thrive
Because at CaratLane, technology isn’t just an enabler – it’s a growth engine driving customer delight and business success.
TAM: What are some of the most significant barriers or roadblocks that brands encounter while delivering enhanced customer experiences? How has CaratLane overcome these challenges?
Gurukeerthi Gurunathan: Customer data is often siloed across departments like marketing, sales, and support, leading to a fragmented view of the customer. To solve this, we built an in-house CRM that unifies data from all touchpoints into a single, accessible platform, providing a comprehensive 360-degree customer view. Additionally, organizational silos can create conflicting goals that hinder CX improvements. To address this, we established dedicated, cross-functional customer experience teams aligned around shared, customer-centric metrics, ensuring coordinated efforts across the company.
TAM: How does the integration of data analytics and AI-driven insights contribute to improving CX? What potential benefits and opportunities do you see in this area?
Gurukeerthi Gurunathan: The integration of data analytics and AI helps us understand customer behavior and personalize experiences. We’ve built an in-house bot that predicts customer needs, personalizes their journeys based on past behavior, and sends recommendations via mobile notifications, WhatsApp etc., AI also summarizes preferences and generates insights, enabling our CRM agents to be better informed before reaching out — resulting in more meaningful and effective customer interactions. Visual Search is a powerful AI solution that helps customers discover jewelry similar to pieces they already own or aspire to buy which eases their search experience.
TAM: How do you balance the need for personalization and customization with data privacy concerns and regulations? What strategies must be implemented to ensure a secure and trustworthy digital customer experience?
Gurukeerthi Gurunathan: We balance personalization and privacy by only using the data customers choose to share and being clear about how we use it. We are asking for customer’s consent and opt-ins at various levels during the customer journey. We regularly audit our applications, data policies, system infrastructure, system-level roles & permissions and are compliant to global standards. Building trust through transparency and responsible data use is at the core of delivering a safe and personalized experience.
TAM: Looking ahead, what emerging trends or technologies do you believe will have the greatest impact on the future of digital customer experience? How does CaratLane plan to stay ahead of these trends and continuously improve its CX strategy?
Gurukeerthi Gurunathan: Voice commerce, predictive AI, and hyper-personalised journeys are rapidly gaining momentum. However, we believe that emotional customer experience – intuitive, human, and deeply relevant – will be the true differentiator. With the rise of AI agents, we can now build virtual shopping assistants that understand individual preferences and offer real-time product recommendations. Agentic calling enables seamless, human-like customer interactions, resolving their queries without the need for human intervention. Whether it’s through immersive technologies, an enhanced app ecosystem, or empowering our store teams with real-time insights, our goal remains the same: to make jewellery buying joyful, effortless, and deeply personal at every step.
