Treez Unveils AI Operations Platform for Cannabis Retailers
Software seeks to bridge operational gaps
Cannabis technology company Treez Inc. has launched early access to Winston, a new artificial intelligence platform designed to help operators in cannabis and other regulated retail industries manage operational tasks across multiple business systems.
Announced Wednesday, Winston is being introduced as a standalone AI teammate platform that connects with a variety of retail software systems and is intended to address operational bottlenecks created by siloed departments and disconnected technology platforms.
According to Treez, Winston differs from traditional AI productivity tools by integrating with systems commonly used across retail operations, including point-of-sale platforms, e-commerce software, compliance systems, payroll, human resources, accounting, loyalty programs, supply chain tools and messaging platforms. The company said all actions initiated by the platform pass through an approval queue and include a full audit trail.
“Cannabis retail has spent a decade waiting for software to run the operation, not just report on it,” said John Yang, founder and chief executive officer of Treez. “Treez provided the foundation to build Winston’s operational intelligence layer for retail.”
Treez said the platform is already in use internally and at SPARC, a California cannabis dispensary operator with seven locations across San Francisco, Sonoma County and Napa Valley.
“Running six dispensaries means the work never stops between buyers, GMs, and back-office teams,” said Robbie Rainin, vice president of retail operations at SPARC. “Winston carries the work that used to get stuck between stores and systems.”
The company also highlighted use of the platform by Perfect Union, a California-based cannabis retailer.
“Winston is faster than any AI tool I’ve built or tested, including the ones our team has put together using Codex and Claude,” said Mike Allarea, director of operations at Perfect Union. “Winston can answer key questions in seconds, whereas our homegrown version has taken hours sometimes.”
Treez said Winston integrates with multiple technology providers used throughout the cannabis retail ecosystem. Supported systems include Treez, Dutchie and Cova point-of-sale platforms; compliance systems METRC and BioTrack; customer relationship tools including Alpine IQ, Salesforce and HubSpot; workforce management platforms such as Deputy, ADP and Gusto; and operational tools including Distru, OnFleet and Google Workspace.
The company is opening early access to cannabis dispensary operators across the United States regardless of which point-of-sale system they use. Participating operators will receive onboarding support directly from the Winston team.
Treez is also launching a partner program aimed at consultants, agencies, fractional operators and technology providers serving cannabis retail businesses.
Treez, founded in 2016, provides point-of-sale, payments, e-commerce, loyalty and analytics technology to cannabis retailers in more than a dozen states. The company said it currently serves hundreds of dispensaries across the United States.
Winston is initially focused on cannabis but is being positioned as an AI teammate platform for regulated industries more broadly, connecting systems across retail operations and assisting teams with cross-functional workflows.
