The Role of AI in the Cannabis Industry.

FERMONT, CA: Over the past decade or two, machine learning (ML) and artificial intelligence (AI) have driven the integration of advanced technology to enhance precision, automation, and productivity across industries. The cannabis industry is no exception. In an environment where factors like temperature and THC concentration can determine the success or failure of an entire product batch, AI has become a crucial tool in commercial cannabis production.

Still, what benefits can AI offer to cannabis growing compared to other industries? The next section explains how and why modern cannabis producers are using AI.

While AI starts as an idea and a small-scale presentation of high-end computers, it has cultivated into one of the fastest-growing sectors in technology in recent years. Not just that, but as the ads of AI are so many, it has permeated almost every industry imaginable, from waste management to retail. Still, manufacturing is surely where AI has noticed the most opportunities.

In the manufacturing industry, AI may be used to identify, manage, and monitor almost every mechanical operation that happens during the manufacturing process. AI can be utilized to analyze, for instance, every packed product that attains the last step of inspection because of its processing capabilities. In this case, AI can assess packing quality and identify errors. Moreover, it can track the number of shipments that encounter each quality grade. This type of detail may be used to decrease the number of errors and boost production cost efficiency. As any business owner knows, reducing costs equates to rising income.

AI is most helpful when it can automate simple but time-taking operations on a massive scale. The huge amount of data that AI can manage in a single operation makes it helpful in more industrial processes like cannabis production.

Machine learning can be utilized as a technology solution in practically every stage of the cannabis retail chain, from greenhouse watching to seed-to-sale tracking. One of the most regular criticisms of controlled environment agriculture is that it takes excessive energy. Unfortunately, cannabis growing, by its very nature, demands a greatly controlled environment to ensure a consistent harvest quality. This is due to the plant's growing conditions influencing some of the cannabinoids in hemp, i.e., the concentration of cannabidiol (CBD) or other helpful chemical components may be decreased. Likewise, outdoor cannabis conditions, especially in more northern countries, are highly dangerous and can seriously restrict production to specific months of the year. Because of the high expenditures connected with maintaining a controlled agricultural environment, many cannabis growers have resorted to lowering their profit margins. Luckily, AI has the potential to give a solution.