Emerging technologies are all around us. They’re in our homes, offices, vehicles, and even our pockets. These technologies have been created with the sole purpose of making our lives more convenient through automation and other innovative methods.
It’s not until you take those technologies and integrate them into business functions that they become truly disruptive to your industry’s market. This is why technologies such as automation, blockchain, and big data and analytics are so disruptive to the industry at large when integrated in the right fashion in cannabis businesses. Let’s look closer at these technologies to understand in what way they are disruptive to how cannabis businesses continue to innovate.
Automation
With marijuana legalization sweeping the nation and the cannabis industry becoming more of a legitimate and lucrative enterprise every day, it’s apparent that automation is a major need of the industry. As the industry grows, more consumers will enter the equation, each with unique needs that will leave retailers and growers alike seeking solutions for increasing the consistency and variety of their product lines.
By using automation technologies, cannabis brands can compare lots, strains, and potency quickly in a standardized easily digestible format that allows company leaders to make high profile decisions with confidence. As innovations in cannabis genetics continue to expand, it becomes extremely important to remember that each strain that is developed is not consistently the same across different entities.
Moving fast on automation provides a wide variety of benefits to take into consideration. By embracing automation early, cannabis brands can advance their familiarity with available options and spend more time analyzing trends that help them take the market by storm.
Blockchain
Blockchain has been and will likely always be synonymous with cryptocurrency. One of blockchain’s main advantages is that it allows secure record keeping without needing a trusted third party. The whole idea of the blockchain industry is that you can eliminate those third parties, reduce costs and potentially speed up transactions. Seems simple enough, right?
This disruptive technology is the glue that will eventually hold the cannabis industry together following the passing of the
in the House in September 2019. Even though much of the cannabis industry is cash-only, laying the foundation is a must to continue to stay agile if banking legislation does open up and banks to allow cannabis businesses to open new accounts, access lines of credit, etc. that helps them make an impact on the cannabis industry.Big Data and Analytics
Data has become a strategic asset that cannabis businesses are constantly clamoring for. Every consumer insight can be configured as a credible data source by leveraging real-world data and real-world-evidence. This real-world evidence involves collecting data that can be turned into actionable insights for cannabis businesses to divulge meaning from. The more data points you have on a particular cohort of consumers, the broader range of data you will have to pool from in the future.
Although this data and technology can predict the direction that the industry is headed in and what consumers will want next, cannabis businesses are still reluctant to embrace these disruptive technologies. Some businesses would rather wait for legislators to implement less stringent regulations whereas others are just risk averse to these types of change. What these businesses must realize is that technologies are always changing for all industries which means that if you’re not a first adopter of a disruptive technology, it could leave your brand left behind in some way shape or form.