Square has announced significant enhancements to its conversational AI assistant, Square AI, alongside the introduction of new AI-powered ordering and procurement tools designed to provide deeper business intelligence and streamline operations for local businesses.
The announcement was made during Square Releases, the company’s biannual event for launching new products and features for sellers. Square AI, initially introduced in open beta earlier this year, aims to simplify operations, save time, and facilitate smarter decision-making for business growth. The company emphasizes its focus on developing AI tools in collaboration with local, brick-and-mortar-first businesses.
Willem Ave, Global Head of Product for Square, stated, “Local businesses are the heartbeat of our neighborhoods, and we continuously hear about the questions that keep them up at night and the insights they need to become more resilient.” He added that while Square Dashboard contains rich data, extracting valuable insights often consumes time that many sellers lack. “With Square AI, we’re making it far easier for sellers to follow their curiosity and make data-driven decisions – and at the same time, equipping them with the ability to react in real-time to information, like weather forecasts or holiday patterns,” Ave explained, emphasizing Square’s goal to ensure sellers and their communities access sophisticated, embedded tools.
The enhanced Square AI includes several new functionalities. It now offers deeper, local data insights by accessing web information related to weather, events, news, and reviews, providing neighborhood-specific recommendations for inventory and staffing. Sellers can pose questions such as, “What items are trending locally?” or “Will this Fourth of July be warmer or cooler than last year?”
Additionally, sellers can now pin and save Square AI-generated data visualizations directly to their Square Dashboard, creating customizable widgets for real-time insight monitoring—a new feature for dashboard customization. The assistant also incorporates conversation history, allowing it to recall prior context and enable sellers to revisit and explore past questions and insights. Furthermore, Square AI is now accessible on the Square Dashboard App for mobile devices, expanding insights and decision-making capabilities to on-the-go sellers, complete with voice control.
For food and beverage businesses, Square AI aims to optimize staffing insights, menu offerings, and customer engagement, potentially increasing profitability. This includes identifying opportunities like adjusting opening hours or refining marketing strategies for key menu items.
Retailers, particularly heading into the holiday season, can utilize Square AI for strategic planning and operations. The tool leverages local market data and historical insights to help optimize staffing during peak shopping hours and align inventory levels with anticipated demand. It also offers clearer visibility into top-selling products, excess inventory, and effective promotional offers.
Gary Thomas, CEO of Keva Juice, a smoothie bar headquartered in Reno, Nevada, with over 20 locations, commented on their use of Square AI for menu optimization. “It helped us quickly analyze our top 10 menu items, which we then featured across our website and third-party ordering platforms. Giving online customers quick access to our most popular options has already resulted in increased profitability and customer satisfaction, and is helping us build a returning local fanbase,” Thomas stated.
Ryan Hester, co-owner of Comfortably Chic, a retailer with five locations in Chester, New Jersey, shared his experience: “We’ve used Square AI to project sales for our handmade items, make better inventory ordering decisions, improve engagement with loyal customers, and more.” He estimated Square AI would save him approximately 100 hours this year, having previously spent hours manipulating large datasets in Excel.
Beyond the conversational assistant, Square also introduced new AI functionalities. AI-Powered Voice Ordering handles 100% of incoming calls using conversational AI, allowing customers to place orders and customize items by phone, with confirmed orders sent directly to the kitchen or POS. This automation aims to reduce labor costs, free up staff, and ensure consistent customer experiences.
The Order Guide is a new AI-powered centralized procurement tool for restaurants. It consolidates vendor data, enabling sellers to compare offerings, track trends, and identify gaps across suppliers. Menus can be uploaded and automatically converted into ingredient lists, streamlining procurement with SKU-level and category-level insights to give operators more control over their margins.
Sellers submitted nearly 200,000 questions during Square AI’s ongoing open beta, contributing to the development of the announced features and future platform improvements.
