Ottawa based cannabis retailer, Stash & Co, has unveiled a virtual AI budtender that will offer customers personal product recommendations based on their preferred taste, effects, and potency.

The StrainBrain software is informed by millions of data points from a bank of hundreds of thousands of cannabis reviews. The technology, which is viewable on the Stash & Co homepage, allows customers to select two desired effects and flavours, and a potency level, before recommending three cannabis strains.

The recommendation engine is the first product from Hamilton’s StrainBrain software company, led by Andrew Leber, who founded the McMaster Univeristy AI Society, and Graham Bohm, a software engineer.

“We are very excited to be the first retailer in Canada to offer A.I. budtending as a part of our retail operations,” Joe Glynn, the general manager of Stash & Co, said in a statement. “With the increase in demand for online orders we are currently experiencing due to the recent spike in COVID cases in Canada, it is our aim to provide the same top-notch service online that we do in-store.”

Stash & Co currently has one retail store in Ottawa, serving more than a thousand customers daily. According to a company statement, the brand is built around the ‘human factor’ and aims to “disarm and destigmatize the retail cannabis experience through education and human connection.”

A second store is slated to open in Nepean next week and the company is hoping to have 10 stores operating across the province by the end of next year.

According to Leber, Stash & Co is the ideal partner for Strainbrain.

“They have the largest selection of high-quality products, forward-thinking leadership, a robust and loyal customer base, and are ready to use the best available technology to improve the customer experience,” Leber said. “Stash & Co are among the leading cannabis retailers in the country, and we are thrilled to continue working with them on crafting the best possible cannabis experience.”