MJBizCon 2025 made one thing unmistakably clear: AI is now the center of gravity for cannabis marketing, and brands that adopt AI-driven systems early will dominate search visibility, customer experience, and revenue in 2026.
Across three days of conversations with dispensaries, CBD brands, hemp businesses, MSOs, and ecommerce operators, the message was consistent. The industry is actively searching for:
- AI budtenders and virtual budtenders
- AI performance marketing systems
- AI landing page assistants
- AI Google Ads and AI Meta Ads optimization
- AI SEO for cannabis, especially for AI Overviews and Local Pack rankings
Compliance-safe cannabis chatbots and product recommendation tools
Below is a deep dive into what we learned — and why the demand for AI cannabis marketing has reached an all-time high.
MJBizCon 2025 Insights: What Cannabis Operators Revealed About Their Biggest Challenges
Nearly every operator we met expressed the same challenges:
1. Rising CAC across Google & Meta
CBD brands want AI Google Ads and AI Meta Ads strategies that improve targeting, reduce CPC, and keep campaigns compliant.
2. Ongoing ad disapprovals and policy friction
The need for AI compliance tools for cannabis was a major theme. Operators want safer, more predictable structures.
3. Low visibility in Search, Maps & AI Overviews
Most brands aren’t ranking where they need to—especially in:
- Local Pack
- Maps
- AI Overview
- High-intent cannabis keywords
This is where AI SEO for cannabis is becoming mission-critical.
4. Customers need faster product guidance
Large menus overwhelm users. Operators are now prioritizing:
- AI budtenders
- virtual budtenders
- AI landing page chatbots
- AI-driven product recommendation assistants
Why AI Is Now the Core of Cannabis Marketing
For the first time, cannabis brands aren’t asking whether they should adopt AI.
They’re asking:
“How fast can we integrate this into our growth plan?”
AI is driving major advancements in:
- Automated targeting
- Real-time personalization
- Conversion optimization
- Product discovery
- SEO visibility
- Performance media efficiency
- Compliance-safe marketing
- Retention & customer intelligence
Simply put: AI cannabis marketing is now the new performance engine.
The Rise of AI-Powered Cannabis Marketing Across Google & Meta
This was one of the most discussed topics at the show.
Brands want AI systems that:
- Optimize Google Ads and Meta Ads with real-time signals
- Reduce CAC
- Increase ROAS
- Improve compliance
- Feed high-intent shoppers directly into product pages
- Support multi-location dispensaries
Our AI performance marketing framework helps CBD brands scale predictably across Search, Maps, AI Overviews, and Paid Social using AI-driven insights.
Operators called this the “missing piece” their current agencies don’t offer.
AI Marketing Assistant — The AI Landing Page Bot That Steals the Show
One of the most exciting reactions at MJBizCon came from our demo of the AI Marketing Assistant, an AI landing page chatbot purpose-built for cannabis ecommerce.
This system works like a virtual budtender embedded directly into the landing page of Google or Meta ads.
It:
- Reads shopper intent
- Identifies use cases
- Surfaces in-stock products
- Moves users from Landing Page → Product → Checkout within 2–3 clicks
- Reduces friction
- Increases AOV and conversion rate
Brands immediately understood the impact this would have on both ROAS and on-site engagement.
The Next-Generation AI Virtual Budtender for the Cannabis Industry — Ask Bud-i
Ask Bud-i stood out as one of the most advanced AI budtender platforms presented at MJBizCon.
It acts as a:
- Cannabis chatbot
- Dispensary chatbot
- CBD product assistant
- THC recommendation engine
- AI-powered product discovery tool
Ask Bud-i helps customers:
- Navigate menus
- Compare formats
- Understand effects
- Build carts
- Receive personalized suggestions
- View only in-stock items
- Checkout faster
CBD and hemp brands especially saw this as the best AI tool for CBD brands and wellness ecommerce.
Rank Bud-i — AI SEO for Cannabis Brands Wanting to Win AI Overviews
The biggest SEO question at MJBizCon was:
“How do we rank in Google’s AI Overview?”
Most brands had no visibility into where they appear — or don’t appear — in AI surfaces.
Rank Bud-i solves that problem through:
- AI SEO for cannabis
- AI Overview optimization
- Local SEO automation
- Competitor intelligence
- Maps visibility analysis
- Prioritized task lists for SEO teams
Operators described it as the first cannabis SEO platform built for the AI era.
What MJBizCon Confirmed About the Future of Cannabis
Three major trends stood out clearly:
1. AI Budtenders Will Replace Static Menus
Consumers expect conversational commerce and guided product discovery.
2. AI SEO Will Decide Who Wins Local & AI Overview Visibility
Traditional SEO alone will no longer be enough.
3. AI Performance Marketing Will Become the New Growth Framework
Cannabis brands require AI for Google Ads, Meta Ads, and landing page optimization to stay competitive.
Brands that combine all three — AI budtender + AI performance marketing + AI SEO — will dramatically outperform those who don’t.
Final Thoughts: AI Is the Competitive Edge for 2026
MJBizCon validated everything we’ve been building at Spokes Digital.
The demand for AI-driven cannabis marketing tools is larger than ever, and operators are ready to move fast.
AI is helping cannabis brands:
- Lower CAC
- Increase ROAS
- Improve compliance
- Upgrade product discovery
- Increase AOV
- Improve SEO visibility
- Scale efficiently
- Transform the customer journey
AI cannabis marketing is now the new standard.
The only question is whether you want to compete with AI or against it.
Frequently Questions & Answers
An AI budtender is a conversational chatbot system designed for cannabis dispensaries that works 24/7 to help customers navigate product menus, understand effects, compare formats, and make purchases faster. Instead of customers browsing hundreds of SKUs, they interact with an intelligent system that identifies their needs and recommends in-stock products. Cannabis retailers using AI budtenders report faster checkout times, higher customer satisfaction, reduced support tickets, and increased average order value (AOV).
AI performance marketing combines machine learning with Google Ads and Meta Ads to optimize campaigns automatically using real-time signals like user behavior, search intent, and compliance factors. For multi-location cannabis operators, it handles complexity across dispensaries while intelligently reducing customer acquisition cost (CAC). AI performance marketing helps cannabis businesses reduce cost per click (CPC), improve ad compliance, increase return on ad spend (ROAS), feed high-intent shoppers to product pages, and scale profitably across local markets. Cannabis operators typically see 20-35% improvements in ROAS and 15-25% reductions in CAC within 90 days.
AI Overviews are Google’s AI-generated search results that appear at the top of queries with synthesized answers pulled from multiple sources. If your cannabis brand doesn’t rank in AI Overviews, you’re invisible to a growing segment of searchers. Cannabis operators need AI SEO specifically designed for AI Overview optimization, including content aligned with what Google’s AI extracts, local SEO signals for geo-specific queries, compliance-safe keyword targeting, and competitor tracking in AI surfaces. Cannabis brands that optimize early for AI Overviews will dominate search visibility in 2026.
An AI landing page chatbot (AI marketing assistant) deploys directly on your Google Ads or Meta Ads landing pages to engage customers and guide them toward checkout. When a customer clicks your ad, they land in a conversation where the chatbot qualifies their needs (“Looking for sleep, pain, focus, or relaxation?”) and surfaces only relevant, in-stock products. This reduces friction, cart abandonment, and bounce rate. Cannabis operators report 2-3x higher conversion rates on AI-assisted landing pages, higher AOV through smarter product recommendations, 40-50% reduction in bounce rate, and valuable first-party customer data for retargeting.
Traditional cannabis SEO focuses on ranking in Google’s organic results and local Maps pack through keyword optimization, backlinks, and reviews. AI SEO is designed for AI systems like Google’s AI Overview and ChatGPT citations. Traditional cannabis SEO addresses keyword rankings, local pack visibility, and technical SEO. AI SEO addresses content optimized for AI extraction, compliance-safe messaging, authority signals, structured data, and competitor tracking in AI surfaces. For cannabis businesses, AI SEO is mission-critical because Google’s AI Overview now appears for high-intent queries like “best CBD products for anxiety” and “THC gummies near me”—if you’re not optimized for AI Overview, you’re losing visibility.
Cannabis operators can reduce CAC while maintaining compliance by combining AI performance marketing (15-25% CAC reduction through better targeting), AI landing page chatbots (lower CAC by reducing bounce rate and improving conversion), AI budtenders on product pages (improve repeat purchase rates and customer lifetime value), AI SEO for AI Overviews (reduce reliance on expensive paid ads by improving organic visibility), and compliance-safe cannabis chatbots (avoid ad disapprovals that spike CAC). The key insight: reduce CAC by improving efficiency, compliance, and customer experience—not by cutting budget.
