How Bioengineering, AI, and Clean Energy Will Reshape Luxury Jewelry

Why 2025 Is Luxury's Crucial Pivot Point

The global luxury industry is at a critical juncture, facing a slowdown that is not merely cyclical. For industry leaders, the core challenge is profound: how does luxury survive and thrive in a world fundamentally transformed by disruptive technology, climate urgency, and customer disillusionment?

This is the central problem of The Great Progression. According to futurist Peter Leyden, 2025 is the pivot point in an approximate 25-year period of explosive progress, a historic cycle of societal reinvention driven by three world-historic tech booms: generative AI, clean energy, and bioengineering.

For jewelry professionals, this moment demands a strategic reset. The new mission is to evolve the value equation from transactional luxury to one built on deep emotional connection, authenticity, and enduring purpose.

The current slowdown, marked by declining value creation and growing consumer sentiment that high prices are no longer justified by product quality or innovation, is a symptom of this systemic shift. Two forces are accelerating it:

• The experience economy challenge: Customers are redirecting spending toward experiences, notably travel and high-end wellness. Around 80% of high-net-worth individuals plan to shift spending to these areas.
• The investment imperative: In a volatile climate, affluent customers prioritize products with longevity that retain value over time. The jewelry sector is projected to grow 4 to 6% annually between 2025 and 2027, but only if its products anchor themselves as enduring assets.

The goal is to fuse jewelry's heritage of craftsmanship with the innovation required by this century.

The End of Suffering: How Bioengineering and Clean Tech Define Crueless Luxury

Luxury's core promise rests on ethical craftsmanship and high quality. Yet concerns over ethical sourcing, labor practices, and environmental footprint are undermining that promise. Advances in bioengineering offer a clear path forward, toward what the industry is beginning to call crueless luxury.

• Materials beyond extraction: Leyden points to the ability to grow real meat from animal cells as evidence of a wider shift from extraction to creation. This technology makes exotic skins and traditional leather increasingly indefensible for the conscientious luxury buyer. Hermès has worked with mycelium (mushroom) leather for its Victoria bag; Stella McCartney uses Mylo and Kelsun (seaweed fiber); Santos by Monica offers totes made from cactus-based leather.
• A precedent in gemstones: Synthetic diamonds confirm that innovation and quality can be decoupled from resource scarcity. The World Jewellery Confederation (CIBJO) is moving to mandate the exclusive use of the term "synthetic diamonds," replacing "lab-grown," to restore clarity and prevent consumer misrepresentation.
• Clean energy in the supply chain: Innovations like silicon-anode batteries, which offer lower CO2 emissions and less reliance on mined materials, set the standard for resource-efficient production. Luxury jewelry brands must demonstrate transparent, clean, and ethical practices to maintain their promise of quality and value.

Beyond the Transaction: Crafting Storyliving Experiences with Generative AI

The shift from purchasing goods to buying luxury experiences is driven by customers seeking emotional fulfillment and lasting memories. Jewelry must adapt its distribution strategies to create what Leyden calls "storyliving" moments.

• The hospitality model: Brands must develop unique, money-can't-buy experiences that align with their ethos. Cartier and Max Mara have hosted exclusive, culturally rich events for top clients, turning purchases into membership within a cultural community.
• AI as an empathy engine: Generative AI makes it possible to scale personalization from segmented approaches to true hyper-personalization. Net-a-Porter has used AI to improve conversion rates through personalized recommendations. In-store, AI's role is not to replace humans but to handle transactional grunt work and equip sales associates with deep customer insights, allowing them to act as empathetic brand ambassadors who anticipate needs before they are expressed.

Jewelry's Resilience: Winning the Future with Longevity and Niche Iconicity

The industry's path forward depends on attracting and retaining the right clientele through intentional strategy.

• Targeting the top spenders: High spenders will drive 65 to 80% of global market growth through 2027. Brands must focus on this core segment with exclusive limited editions and personalized products that justify elevated pricing.
• Engaging the next generation: The rising influence of Gen Z and Gen Alpha means brands must look toward insurgent-led design and niche market trends, while intelligently catering to aspirational customers who have been priced out by recent increases. This requires a genuine high-low strategy: entry points with real newness, not simplified icons.

The most successful jewelry companies will commit to longevity, creating pieces that are the ethical, material, and intellectual heirlooms of the Great Progression.

The True Power of Aspirational and Fashion Jewelry

Ultra-high-net-worth individuals drive the majority of growth, but their spending represents only 10 to 15% of total luxury market volume. The broad base of the aspirational luxury consumer (ALC) and the thriving world of fashion jewelry cannot be ignored.

• The aspirational lifeline: ALC consumers typically spend between 3,000 and 10,000 euros annually. They are susceptible to macroeconomic pressure, but collectively account for 50% of total luxury market value. They primarily seek accessible luxury in the 1,000 to 15,000 euro segment, buying into brand identity and self-expression without the volatility of high-end investment pieces.
• The Gen Z factor: The youth market is expected to account for 30% of luxury purchases by 2030. Gen Z actively seeks jewelry that embodies self-expression, unconventional tastes (hardware, chunky cuffs, maximalist styles), and storytelling. This passion extends directly into the high-quality fashion and affordable luxury tiers, where design freedom is paramount.
• The demand for affordability and aesthetics: Affordable luxury continues to gain ground, filling the gap between costume jewelry and high-end pieces. Shoppers in this tier seek sleek designs, versatile everyday pieces, and aesthetic flair through colored gemstones and sculptural statement pieces. Exceptional design and craftsmanship are appreciated at every price point.

The challenge for jewelry professionals is to establish a multi-tiered value architecture: designing future brand heroes at the top tier while using AI to personalize more accessible collections, turning the aspirational buyer into a loyal long-term brand advocate.

A Personal Note: Defining Your Brand's Ethical Future

This exercise in strategic foresight confirms something I have believed for a long time: the future of luxury is one of intentionality and authenticity. The true challenge of the Great Progression is ensuring that the wealth generated by innovation is grounded in deeper human and planetary values.

I hold a profound personal love for natural diamonds and gemstones. I cherish their unique geological history, the journey from deep within the earth, the sheer rarity of their creation over eons. It is a powerful connection to the ancient rhythm of our planet. Just as profoundly, I appreciate the artistry in beautifully made fashion jewelry, and I believe that excellence in design should be accessible across all price points. I respect that both natural and synthetic diamonds (the term CIBJO is urging the industry to use exclusively) have a place in the market. The ultimate value rests with the consumer's personal narrative and conviction.

Where ethical boundaries are crossed, however, luxury must evolve without compromise. Bioengineering is a moral and environmental imperative, not a trend. I appreciate companies like WOLF, which have integrated high design with animal welfare by using vegan leather in their luxury jewelry and watch accessories. This proves that crueless luxury is not an aspiration. It is a viable, profitable reality.

The next 25 years will not reward companies content to coast on heritage alone. They will reward those who answer the strategic questions: who are we, and what is our DNA? Those who use AI to serve human connection and ground their craft in ethical, innovative, and clean production. This era of reinvention is a gift. I am genuinely curious to see which companies define this future.

Sources

• The State of Fashion: Luxury (BoF and McKinsey and Company)
• Bain-Altagamma Luxury Goods Worldwide Market Study (Bain and Company)
• Peter Leyden's "The Great Progression" insights, from a video summary of a talk shared on Big Think and Freethink