Key Takeaways:
• AI search engines and tools like ChatGPT and Grok are becoming the new primary search platforms, replacing traditional search engines and map applications for customer local discovery.
• Testing AI tools with specific ring appraisal queries yielded reasonable, highly detailed values comparable to professional human jewelry appraisals.
• Jewelry businesses must proactively optimize their online presence and business information across the web to ensure AI assistants recommend them to local clients.
I have no idea. For as long as I can remember, sci-fi movies have featured the end of the world. Those movies always revolved around aliens, zombies or rogue computers and robots. And those computers were always really scary-looking machines. AI data centers today look like a big building with racks of electronic equipment inside. They are not very scary-looking at all. But let’s take a quick look at what Artificial Intelligence is right now.
I know that many of you out there are swearing up and down that you’ll never use AI. I kind of did that as well. But, just like lab-grown diamonds, I’ve warmed up to the concept.
What I have found most useful about AI is its ability to find answers to questions I need answered quickly. In the old days (last year, before AI), to find an answer, you’d Google your question, and the Google Spider would crawl the web and give you a list of links to potential answers.
At that point, you’d have to go down that rabbit hole and read all the data associated with those links. It could take a few minutes, or a few days. Now, AI will not only provide the same links, but in a matter of seconds, it will also read all the articles and write you a CliffsNotes version of each link’s results.
Now you can read 5 or 6 short paragraphs instead of 5 or 6 full-length articles. Once I find what I’m looking for, I can simply focus on the one or two articles that can really answer my question. Then I write about it to all of you like I actually know what I’m talking about.
Like so many others, I was turned off by AI when big companies started using it to handle their customer service phone calls. If I’m calling Comcast, I guarantee that whatever my problem, their AI assistant has never heard of it. And if your problem is outside of paying your bill or upgrading your service, all you end up doing is screaming into the phone, ‘GET ME A LIVE PERSON!’ And of course, the AI assistant can’t seem to do that for some reason.
Whether we like it or not, AI isn’t the future; it is the present. Like all new technologies, there are growing pains. The AI I use most is Grok, the artificial intelligence component of the X (Twitter) platform. But while writing this column, I signed up for ChatGPT to compare one AI against another. Grok has been alive for 3 years; ChatGPT has been alive for 4 years. So I thought I’d pit them against each other to generate a written insurance appraisal.
For the purposes of this appraisal, I picked a specific Diamond from Stuller’s website: Serial #589393, 1.02 ct., VS2, G-color, GIA cert #6495849054, cost $3,513.00. I chose the Stuller #127547 mounting, which cost $378. The question I posed to Grok and ChatGPT was: “Can you do a written insurance appraisal on a 1.02 ct., VS2, G color Diamond, set in a 6-prong, 14KWG Tiffany-style setting?”
Grok came up with $7,600, ChatGPT appraised it at $6,500, while I appraised it at $7,273.00.
Depending upon your geographical market and the markups you use while calculating appraisals, both AIs came up with reasonable results. But both of them asked me for more information, such as the GIA report #, whether it is a branded Tiffany mounting, or a Tiffany style. They asked if it was 10K, 14K or platinum. Then they asked for the mounting’s weight and condition. I uploaded all of the new information, and the appraised value didn’t change much, but the written document became way more detailed. Pretty impressive!
So then, I took it a step further. I asked for a recommendation in the Nashville, TN area for somewhere to have my ring appraised. It was here that I learned a lesson that I’ve learned before. Let me explain.
About 20 years ago, we all had to learn how to move our businesses up in the internet search results. Nobody wanted to be on page 2 of the results because no one ever went to page 2. We all just picked an option on page 1 and contacted that company.
After some work, we all got ourselves on page 1, then worked hard to move our companies to the top of that page. Next, we tackled our placement on Google Maps. We might be at the top of page 1 of Google, but that didn’t mean Google Maps could lead customers right to our front door. So we all worked hard to make sure that Google Maps got our location accurate and guided new customers right to us.
So here’s where that ‘lesson I learned before’ comes in. When I moved my store back in 2020, I found out that Google Maps and Apple Maps are two completely different animals. They don’t like each other, they don’t talk to each other, and they don’t share data. Google Maps caught my location change quickly because I went in and changed everything.
Apple Maps had me at my old location for over a year before I figured out why I kept getting calls from customers at my former, abandoned shopping center looking for me; they had iPhones. I had to go in and inform Apple Maps that I had moved. Who’d a thunk? I just assumed something like that would be automatic.
So today, after I had Grok and ChatGPT generate an appraisal, I asked for a recommendation for a jewelry store where I could take this ring and get an actual appraisal. Both of those AIs recommended someone other than me.
That’s when I learned we all have to cater to the various AI robots/computers so they know you’re the best at what you do in your market. Just like we had to optimize for Google, Google Maps and Apple Maps, now we have to optimize for AI. Now is the time to tell it the best jewelry store in your city is you.
Here’s a quick marketing message from Guy:
Getting found on AI platforms like ChatGPT, Grok and Claude comes down to keeping things clear and consistent across the web. Start by making sure your store’s name, address and phone number match everywhere online. Encourage happy customers to leave fresh reviews, and build a site page that answers specific local questions—like where folks can get custom rings or watch repairs done right. Of course, there’s a lot you can do, and this is only scratching the surface!
Think of AI like a friendly local guide down on Broadway: give it accurate, easy-to-read details, and it’ll gladly point folks straight to your front door!
If you want your shop popping up whenever folks ask AI for local recommendations, reach out to our parent company, Jewelry Store Marketers, at 855-815-3935. They’ll help you get noticed where it counts.
