In the rapidly evolving cannabis industry, where innovation is key to staying ahead, plant-touching businesses are increasingly turning to AI technology to enhance their operations. From increasing customer loyalty to ensuring product quality to optimizing post-harvest processes, AI offers a range of tools that can drive efficiency, foster customer loyalty, and maintain high standards.
How does modern technology, particularly artificial intelligence, impact how cannabis is grown?
Here are three types of AI technology for cannabis cultivators that are already giving growers increased efficiency and cost savings:
AI-Guided Consumer Loyalty Programs
Did you know that customers who keep coming back to their favorite brand will spend 67% more over time than new or one-time customers? There’s significant money to be made in retaining customers over acquiring first-time shoppers.
In today’s consumer market, where novelty and fresh strains are king, one of the biggest challenges for growers is predicting what’s going to blow up next. Is it a new hybrid? Is it a classic strain on a comeback? Thanks to artificial intelligence, retailers and their wholesale partners can analyze cannabis sales data and mine it for actionable insights faster than ever before.
There’s already a push within cannabis retail to make easier sales and help consumers in their product discovery. Consider the abilities of Budster to generate product recommendations and loyalty offers for dynamic customer segments. Think about how you’re marketing your wholesale flower and hot strains to your retail partners, and how that messaging could be presented to customers in a dispensary, particularly those who are in loyalty programs.
AI-Driven Plant Health Monitoring
Cultivators have known for a long time that data-based decision making can streamline a grow’s operations and productivity in exciting ways.
From the same tech team as Budster, Budscout is another cannabis AI tool for cultivators that drills into the nitty gritty of plant growth. It detects plant stress and uses AI-gleaned metrics to offer growers recommendations and insights regarding CO2, leaf temperature, VPD, harvest forecasting and more. In addition to real-time monitoring of what’s happening throughout the facility’s veg and flowering rooms, Budscout also offers historical data analysis to “replay” past grows to better understand strain dynamics, inputs and even bench or rack location.
AI-Sorted Cannabis Flower
Many grows have already boosted efficiency through irrigation automation—you aren’t still hand watering your plants, are you? It’s definitely time to rethink that. And there are other automated cannabis cultivation systems out there, but there’s no denying the people in the grow rooms matter.
Producing consistent, top-quality salable flower requires the human touch and our appreciation of the fragrant terpenes and jar appeal of a well-grown bud. But inefficient harvest practices can ruin profitability quickly. Enter tools like Marvel AI, which uses artificial intelligence to improve product consistency by automatically sorting and grading buds on eight different criteria. That means fewer stems for savvy buyers and faster, more objective assessment of cannabis flower than manual quality control techniques.
AI and the Future of Cannabis Cultivation
It can be easy to forget that tech isn’t limited to electronics or banks of servers in Silicon Valley. Agriculture has always been an intensely technological field that has driven innovation since the Neolithic Revolution over 12,000 years ago.
Cannabis cultivation technology has been evolving by leaps and bounds in the legalization era, from HID to LED lights, facilities designed specifically for indoor agriculture with more efficient HVAC and dehumidifiers and space-saving vertical racking, labor-saving growing media like compressed coco blocks and other controlled environment agriculture tools like mixed-light greenhouses and automated hydroponic systems.
Even the seeds and clones destined to become a grower’s next big crop represent centuries of innovation. From decades of inconsistent seed popping to today’s cutting-edge tissue culture technology, generations of cannabis growers have taken both low- and high-tech approaches to tease specific traits out of the OG landrace strains.
As the cannabis industry continues to grow and mature, the integration of AI technology is proving to be a game-changer for plant-touching businesses. By leveraging AI to optimize cultivation, improve customer interactions, and ensure consistent product quality, businesses can achieve greater efficiency, foster stronger customer loyalty, and maintain a competitive edge.
Reach out today to learn how Next Big Crop can take your cannabis cultivation to the next level with AI technology.