How Agentic Marketing Could Change the Cannabis Retail Experience
Mosaic's implementation of the Herby Chat Bot points to a future in which digital storefronts do more than display products.
Online cannabis shopping has followed a familiar pattern for years: browse a menu, apply filters and scroll through products. That works when shoppers know exactly what they want. It gets harder when menus include hundreds of products, changing inventory and unfamiliar formats.
Agentic marketing, or “use of AI agents to autonomously plan, execute and optimize marketing campaigns across channels,” according to CDP.com, could change that experience by replacing passive browsing with conversational guidance. Instead of translating needs into filters, shoppers can ask questions and receive tailored recommendations.
Mosaic's Herby Bot is an early example of this shift. Rather than serving as a searchable menu, it adds a conversational layer that helps customers navigate products and make purchasing decisions.
From Browsing to Guided Discovery
Traditional menu tools organize products, while conversational AI can help shoppers discover them.
A customer might ask which edibles fit a specific budget, what products are available nearby or how two product types differ. Instead of sorting through categories and filters, shoppers get answers in real time and can go straight to relevant options.
This approach is particularly useful in cannabis retail, where inventory changes frequently and consumers often have different levels of product knowledge. A conversational experience can reduce friction without limiting customer choice.
A Storefront That Does More Than Display Inventory
In a traditional online shopping journey, customers do most of the work while the storefront responds to clicks. Conversational storefronts take a more active role by helping shoppers compare products, evaluate alternatives and navigate available inventory.
For consumers, that can mean a faster and more intuitive shopping experience. For dispensaries, it can offer greater insight into the questions customers ask before making a purchase.
As these systems evolve, AI assistants may suggest alternatives when products are out of stock, personalize recommendations and provide more contextual guidance, provided appropriate safeguards remain in place.
Research Highlights Both Opportunity and Risk
Early research suggests that conversational shopping works best when shoppers understand why recommendations are being made.
A 2024 study conducted by Association for Computing Machinery involving 135 participants found that shoppers perceived a conversational shopping assistant as more transparent when it explained how recommendations related to information they had shared. The findings suggest that relevance alone is not enough. Customers also want visibility into how recommendations are generated.
Other research by ARXIV on autonomous shopping agents found that AI systems can favor certain products, exhibit position bias and change behavior after model updates. As AI becomes more involved in product discovery, retailers will need to monitor how recommendations are presented rather than assuming the technology is neutral.
Together, these findings point to a simple principle: conversational tools should reduce effort while preserving transparency, customer choice and retailer oversight.
Better AI Requires Better Data
A conversational shopping experience is only as strong as the information behind it. Product descriptions, pricing, inventory and availability must be accurate and up to date. Poor data leads to poor recommendations.
Retailers also need clear guardrails. AI assistants should not make unsupported medical claims, hide the reasoning behind recommendations or use customer information without appropriate consent. As cannabis regulations vary by market, compliance must remain part of the experience.
The Future Is Guided Shopping
The greatest opportunity for AI in cannabis retail is not automating purchases. It is helping shoppers understand their options and make decisions with greater confidence.
Herby Bot reflects that direction. By combining conversational guidance with real-time shopping data, Mosaic is moving beyond static menus toward a more responsive digital retail experience.
The goal is not to remove people from the process. It's to remove unnecessary effort.
