Introduction To HelloMary

In a world where cannabis products are plentiful, what can a voice assistant backed by AI accomplish for customers and companies?

HelloMary, an AI project conceived in a German tech lab and now in the process of rolling out in the United States, is coming into the market at an interesting time.

It is a project whose time has come.

“Mary” is a voice powered digital assistant, which enables users to not only find the right cannabis products for what ails them (or what mood they wish to attain) but the closest dispensary which sells them.

The app is built, after over a year of work. Now the team are currently on the road, pitching the project to investors globally and finding partners to participate on the ground in dispensaries across the U.S.

The idea is to launch in the United States — and roll out in the world’s largest cannabis market, starting with west coast states like California.

What makes the project unique

There are several selling points to the app — for both users and the business community. Here are a few of them:

Customers can ask Mary to help them find cannabis products for specific symptoms or, on the recreational side, even moods they wish to attain. They can also quickly find local dispensaries that stock the product.

Dispensaries have a unique opportunity as well. They have access to an online marketplace of new products that customers are guided to, by the AI behind “Mary.”

Companies also have a unique new digital marketplace where they can promote products in a world where most cannabis social media related projects hit a “fail” somewhere along the line.

The intersection of online markets and AI assisted cannatech

“Mary” — the brain behind the app, is a medically trained selection tool which makes the process of finding the right cannabinoid product a snap rather than a chore. Once the appeal of hitting a dispensary wears off, the reality is that most people don’t understand how to select cannabis. No matter how knowledgeable the budtender, they just do not have the same background, medical training, or ability to match a stated need with the right cannabinoid product or strain.

As far as cannatech goes, AI generally well may be the “killer app” the entire industry needs. Those “in” the industry tend to forget how much they did not know “once upon a time”.

Here is why.

Education about the plant itself, which has only started to become legal in the last decade, is still insular, and not mainstream. Many people at this point have heard about “cannabis” but they have no idea what the different cannabinoids are, much less what they do.

Beyond that, there are a wealth of new products now hitting a highly diffused market (in every state).

How customers find such products, with different effects, not to mention are guided to them, is also currently a matter of hit and miss, especially because cannabis advertising is still widely prohibited, including on social networks. Even when it becomes legal (see the Amazon decision to begin selling the same once prohibition ends) customers will have to wade through sales material without having any help.

AI in general is going to become far more integrated into selling platforms.

Using it for cannabis makes a great deal of sense, particularly because this is a plant as well as a product which is entering markets after over 100 years of prohibition as the human experience becomes more digitally focussed.

HelloMary is an app on the cutting edge of a new revolution,

Watch this space.

More coming soon.