Square unveils AI voice ordering and integrated Bitcoin for merchants
▼ Summary
– Square has launched AI-powered voice ordering for restaurants to handle calls, order taking, and menu questions, especially benefiting delivery-focused establishments.
– The company introduced an integrated Bitcoin solution allowing merchants to accept and hold the cryptocurrency with no processing fees for the first year.
– Square enhanced its AI assistant with local insights like weather and events and added features such as saved auto-updating widgets and conversation history.
– New integrations include Grubhub for third-party delivery, a redesigned kiosk interface, and an AI inventory management tool to optimize supplies.
– Square’s Bitcoin wallet enables merchants to buy, sell, hold, and withdraw cryptocurrency, with the option to convert up to 50% of daily revenue into Bitcoin.
Square, the merchant payments platform from Block, has rolled out a suite of new capabilities for businesses, featuring AI-powered voice ordering for restaurants, upgraded AI assistants with local insights, and a fully integrated Bitcoin solution for accepting and storing the cryptocurrency. These innovations are designed to streamline operations and expand financial flexibility for merchants.
Restaurants and cafes using Square can now deploy artificial intelligence to manage incoming phone calls. This is especially beneficial for cloud kitchens and delivery-focused eateries, where the AI handles order-taking, customizations, and menu inquiries. The system responds to spoken requests such as asking about daily specials or modifying dishes to be spicy and dairy-free. While other firms like Yelp and Kea are developing similar voice AI tools, Square emphasizes that its offering is deeply embedded within its payment and kiosk ecosystem, simplifying order management for restaurant owners.
Additional enhancements include integration with Grubhub to better coordinate third-party delivery orders, a redesigned kiosk interface for quicker access to popular menu items, and an AI-driven inventory management tool to help optimize supply levels. The Square AI assistant, initially released in open beta earlier this year, now provides local insights covering weather, nearby events, and industry trends. Merchants can also save data visualizations as auto-updating widgets on their dashboards and access conversation history with the AI through a new mobile app dashboard.
In a significant move for digital currency adoption, Square is introducing an integrated Bitcoin solution for sellers. This includes a new Square Bitcoin wallet that enables businesses to buy, sell, hold, and withdraw cryptocurrency directly from their dashboard. To encourage usage, the company will allow merchants to accept Bitcoin payments directly at the point of sale with no processing fees for the first year, after which a 1% fee will apply starting in 2027. Previously, merchants could convert between 1% and 10% of daily earnings into Bitcoin, but this limit has now been raised to up to 50% of daily revenue. Since the program’s inception, users have collectively accumulated 142 Bitcoins, valued at over $17 million at current rates.
Miles Suter, Head of Bitcoin Product at Block, stated that these Bitcoin tools address two essential needs: ensuring sellers never miss a transaction and providing access to sophisticated financial management resources previously available only to large corporations. He emphasized that Square’s unique position serving both merchants and consumers through Square and Cash App allows it to help make Bitcoin an everyday payment method, not just a store of value, while future-proofing business operations.
Although many online merchants already accept Bitcoin, a large percentage of transactions remain speculative. According to an eMarketer survey, the number of U.S. consumers using cryptocurrency for payments is projected to reach 7.1 million by 2026. Block, a longtime advocate for Bitcoin, aims to leverage this growing adoption through its latest merchant-focused offerings.
(Source: TechCrunch)
