The 2023 vision of what a metaverse was misguided and well, wrong. There will be no seperate world we dive into on our couches flooded with NFT projects and creator spam. Believe it or not, the metaverse is already here with the growth of AI, Meta’s RayBan collection, Apple Glasses and Vision Pro… It’s all ready to roll. This is going to have a massive affect on how retail works in general, specifically the cannabis industry.
Gone are the days when the metaverse was envisioned as a digital playground separate from our physical realm—this was a place to escape rather than to enhance. Today, we know the metaverse will exist as a layer on top of our existing reality, a complementary dimension that brings experiences to our household.
The metaverse of the future is an invisible layer draped over our everyday lives, adding depth and context to everything in our world. A digital overlay that enriches our physical spaces with information and interactivity.
A New Cannabis Dispensary Experience
Imagine walking into your personal cannabis dispensary where you’re greeted by a budtender that knows you better than you know yourself – absent of emotion, subjectivity, or general fatigue… Your AI generated budtender isn’t a gimmick; it’s the embodiment of your preferences, experiences and lifestyle as a whole.
Now picture you’re in your living room which now has mason jars of weed sitting all over your counters. In fact, you have access to see every product available across every dispensary in your city.
In seconds, your personal budtender reads your current mood, paired with the time of day, aware of your recent doctor visit, and knows you have a meeting in 4 hours. It chooses 5 strains based on all of the above, and puts them in front of you. These ones are the cheapest options with the quickest delivery, because it knows that you are short on cash, and in a hurry.
Not sure between 2 products. That’s fine, based on those that have signed up, your personal budtender will reach out to a few of confirmed purchasers with your questions and follow up in a jiffy.
With AR, you can examine the frosty trichomes of a nugget as if it were right in front of you, rotate it, zoom in, and truly appreciate the beauty and complexity of the plant.
The metaverse era is not about escaping reality; it’s about elevating it. The cannabis industry stands on the brink of a new dawn where technology and humanity intersect to create a dispensary experience that is as boundless as the imagination. As we embrace this new world, we find that the future isn’t just coming—it’s already here, beckoning us to join in the dance of innovation and intimacy. Welcome to the dispensary of the metaverse era: a place where discovery is constant, and the cannabis journey is as infinite as the possibilities before us.
How Far Away Is The Metaverse Dispensary?
The cannabis metaverse dispensary isn’t far off. The basic limitations currently being delivery regulations, software development and adoption of these new technologies by cannabis consumers. So where does this leave us? Your guess is as good as mine, but if I had to put a date on it, it’s safe to assume this is just around the corner. Expect to be purchasing weed through your glasses by mid 2025. Quote that. Here’s the bottleneck’s that need to be crossed in order for this to come to fruition:
- Increased user adoption of Apple Vision Pro and other AR glasses such as the Ray Bans etc.
- Software development / AR + VR along with a dispensary menu service like Weedmaps or Leafly.
- Extended product profiles and updated meta information about each item.
- 360 degree product photos.
- An international or regionally national dispensary chain guinea pig to integrate and test the service.
