Six months after fully revising its point-of-sale app and added modes to enable merchants to tailor it to their needs, the acquirer is out now with what it says is its largest update to its food and beverage platform. Square, a unit of Block Inc., also released updates to Square AI and launched Square Bitcoin.
As part of its biannual update, Square says the food and beverage component, which is available now, included artificial intelligence-enabled voice ordering, the ability to manage third-party delivery services within the Square app, a redesigned interface for Square Kiosk, and the ability to create, edit, and sync a menu across online ordering, kiosks, and third-party delivery apps.
The AI-enabled voice ordering complements Square AI, a free service that debuted in June as an open beta. The updated Square AI has new tools to provide more in-depth data, pin data and save Square AI-generated data images, search prior Square AI conversations, and the ability to access via mobile devices.
Square rounds out its autumn release with the launch of Square Bitcoin. This enables merchants to accept bitcoin payments, with no processing fees through 2026 that go to 1% on Jan. 1, 2027. Sellers, as Square calls its merchants, also can automatically convert card sales into bitcoin and manage their bitcoin with their other finances within the Square POS system.
“We are going all in on restaurants with this release,” Willem Avé, Square head of product, tells Digital Transactions News. This follows the April feature update that introduced modes, such as for bookings, retail, or hospitality operations. Square first launched dedicated POS system hardware in 2017, Square Register.
That could be paramount as the restaurant space is hypercompetitive and merchants in it typically have lower profit margins than their counterparts and e-commerce, Avé says. They also have to contend with inflation, food costs, and staffing issues.
Square is adding an Order Guide service, a procurement tool to help restaurants brings all of their vendor data into one location. It will standardize prices by unit, like dollar per ounce or point, which should help them better compare offers, track trends, and spot gaps across suppliers, Square says.
The components are for operators of all sizes, but could be especially helpful to smaller ones. Updates to Square AI, for example, might provide insights that otherwise might difficult to visualize, Avé says. It uses natural language so technical terms need to be learned. It could help merchants with choosing optimal staffing plans or get more insight into excess inventory. Square AI can help merchants choose products and answer any question about their businesses, he says. Square AI was built in-house using a third party foundation model, which are deep learning neural networks.
Closely related is Square’s AI-voice ordering. That service can answer all incoming calls with a conversational tone. It can handle orders placed with everyday language, Square says, and accommodate inquiries about the ingredients in a salad, customizing a burger, or making an entrée spicy. Confirmed orders are sent to the kitchen or POS app, which can eliminate double entries. “We have built AI voice ordering to feel more natural, to be more correct,” Avé says. “The goal with AI voice ordering is to give sellers an edge.” One way to do that is by opening the phone channel again, he says. Phone orders can be time consuming and have required staffing.
Bitcoin acceptance is another new element, though it’s not new on the wallet side of Square, which now goes by Cash App, having been adopted there in 2018.
Merchant acceptance of cryptocurrency has had periodic surges, but largely has been fairly steady. Adding bitcoin acceptance for Square seller is appropriate now as adoption and utility of digital currency increases, Square says.
Avé says Square wants to help its merchants accept any form of payment they may across their counters. “We want to give sellers that choice so they can save on fees and diversify their savings,” he says. Even with Square’s bitcoin processing fee goes to 1% in 2027, it will still be less than Square’s current least costly card transaction of 2.6% plus 15 cents. Sellers can opt to receive settlements from crypto transactions in bitcoin or fiat currency, Avé says.