Inside Clinikally's AI-powered push to transform skin and wellness care
Clinikally
, a Y Combinator-backed
digital dermatology
and wellness platform, has become the first Indian startup globally to be featured in Perplexity's official Sonar API case study, shared the company's founder, Arjun Soin, in a chat with ETRetail.
Clinikally, which handles 5,000–7,000 consultations a month and fulfils nearly 2 lakh e-commerce and pharmacy orders, operates on a dermatologist-led consultation model.
Expl
ai
ning how the platform has been using AI, Soin said that Clinikally's engineering and product teams began exploring Perplexity's AI tools through access provided by Y Combinator's portfolio program. While the platform initially used AI for typical applications like content creation and customer support, it soon discovered a more impactful use case of product catalogue verification.
'We started running product descriptions, medical claims, ingredients, key benefits - all verified by a medical doctor or pharmacist, through the
Perplexity API
to check for medical accuracy,' says Soin. 'We ran a pilot where our in-house dermatologists verified around 1,000 product descriptions, and we saw a high degree of accuracy from Perplexity,' he added.
This automation enabled Clinikally to scale verification across over 11,000 OTC and prescription products, making the process around 75 per cent faster. The company was also able to reduce potential hiring needs by 8–15 roles, while ensuring each product listing was thoroughly checked for correctness and compliance.
Clinikally has also launched Clara, an AI-powered skin and scalp analyser that scans a user's face or scalp in 30 seconds and recommends treatment plans based on over 25 parameters.
Speaking of upcoming launches, Soin shared that another initiative in development is a doctor assistant - a co-pilot tool that supports dermatologists during consultations by leveraging image and text input to suggest diagnoses and treatments, especially in rare cases.
The platform is also integrating AI into inventory planning, with data-led insights improving stock management and availability for its rapidly growing user base.
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