Square AI Gains New Intelligence Capabilities, Providing Deeper Business and Neighborhood Insights to Square Sellers
Square AI adds external weather, events, news, and reviews data, letting sellers merge their business metrics with real-world and local neighborhood insights to make more informed menu, staffing, and inventory decisions – now, even when on the go
Voice AI ordering keeps sales flowing and delivers accurate, delightful hospitality to customers, even during the busiest times
Square today announced significant enhancements to Square AI, its conversational AI assistant that democratizes access to deeper business intelligence and makes Square the always-on partner for local businesses of all sizes – right from the Square Dashboard. The announcement comes as part of the second Square Releases event, its biannual launch of new products and features for sellers, after Square AI was first introduced in open beta earlier this year.
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Square AI adds external weather, events, news, and reviews data, letting sellers merge their business metrics with real-world and local neighborhood insights to make more informed menu, staffing, and inventory decisions – now, even when on the go (Photo: Square)
"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," said Willem Ave, Global Head of Product for Square. "Square Dashboard has always been rich with data, but the reality is that digging through reports and extracting valuable insights takes time that many sellers just don't have. 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. We want our sellers and their communities to thrive, and a key component of that is making sure they have access to sophisticated tools, embedded within the platform they use every day."
New functionality in Square AI includes:
- Deeper, local data insights: Square AI can now access the web for local information and data related to weather, events, news, and reviews, providing neighborhood-specific insights. Sellers can ask practical questions like, "What items are trending locally?" or "Will this Fourth of July be warmer or cooler than last year?" and immediately receive recommendations for inventory and staffing.
- Pinned data on Dashboard: Sellers can pin and save Square AI-generated data visualizations to their Square Dashboard, creating fast-reference widgets and letting them easily monitor fresh insights in real-time. This marks the first time sellers have been able to customize their dashboard, and helps Square AI drive compounding value over time.
- Conversation history: Sellers can now access past conversations with Square AI, making the tool more valuable over time as it recalls prior context and enables sellers to easily refer back to and dig deeper on questions and insights.
- Mobile access on the Square Dashboard App: Previously only available on Square Dashboard on desktop, Square AI now comes to mobile to enable insights and decision making anywhere, plus unlocking voice control capabilities for busy sellers on the go.
For food and beverage businesses, Square AI transforms everything from staffing insights to menu optimization to customer engagement – all of which can bring increased profitability in an industry where every margin point matters. Whether it's unearthing the opportunity to make a small shift in opening hours or determining how to market key menu items more effectively, Square AI brings actionable insights out of hiding and into daily operations.
"We're a multi-location smoothie business, and building a loyal customer base is a top priority," said Gary Thomas, CEO at Keva Juice, a smoothie bar headquartered in Reno, Nevada with over 20 locations across the Western U.S. "We've used Square AI to dial in 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."
For retailers, with the holiday season fast approaching, Square AI can enable smarter planning and operations. Using local market data and historical insights, retailers can optimize their staffing during peak shopping hours and ensure inventory levels match anticipated demand – demystifying customer patterns during peak holiday shopping windows. Sellers can also unlock better visibility into their top-sellers, excess inventory, or best-performing promotional offers. Square AI turns the complexity of holiday retail into actionable insights that drive business growth.
"We've used Square AI to project sales for our handmade items, make better inventory ordering decisions, improve engagement with loyal customers, and more," said Ryan Hester, co-owner of Comfortably Chic, a local Main Street icon in Chester, New Jersey. "As a retailer with five locations and thousands of items, I used to spend hours manipulating huge datasets in Excel. I'd estimate Square AI will save me about 100 hours this year."
Square is one of the only technology companies building AI tools in tandem with local, brick-and-mortar-first businesses, designing Square AI to simplify operations by saving time, and helping businesses make smarter decisions that fuel their growth. Sellers have asked nearly 200,000 questions in Square AI's ongoing open beta, informing and shaping the new features and platform improvements announced today and still to come.
Additionally, Square has branched beyond the conversational Dashboard assistant to introduce new AI functionality with deep utility, efficiency, and cost-savings for sellers:
- AI-Powered Voice Ordering answers 100% of incoming calls with conversational AI, even at peak hours. Customers place orders by phone just as they would with a staff member, and can ask deep questions and customize items, while confirmed orders are sent directly to the kitchen or POS, eliminating double entry and reducing errors. By automating phone orders, sellers save on labor, free up staff to focus on hospitality, and deliver faster, more consistent customer experiences.
- Order Guide is Square's new AI-powered centralized procurement tool that helps restaurants bring all their vendor data into one place. It gives sellers instant clarity to compare offerings, track trends, and spot gaps across suppliers. Menus can be uploaded and automatically converted into complete ingredient lists, saving hours of manual work. With SKU-level and category-level insights, Order Guide streamlines procurement end-to-end, reducing manual effort and giving operators more control over their margins.
To learn more about Square AI and how it's helping local businesses thrive, visit square.com/ai-for-business. To learn more about all the new features included in the latest Square Releases, visit squareup.com/releases.
About Square
Square helps businesses turn transactions into connections and businesses into neighborhood favorites.
In 2009, Square started with a simple invention – the first mobile card reader, which changed how the entire financial system thinks about small businesses. Square has since grown into a global business platform helping millions of sellers of all sizes participate and thrive in their communities.
Whether independently run or a global chain, Square understands that sellers succeed when they have the freedom to focus on the experiences that keep customers coming back. From point of sale and payments to online commerce, staff management, banking, and more, Square brings together the tools sellers need to run and grow on one intelligent platform. For more information, visit squareup.com.
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