Square and Google Partner to Transform Food Ordering with Conversational AI in Maps

Square and Google Let Restaurants Offer Conversational AI Ordering | PYMNTS.com

This offering brings food and beverage sellers into Ask Maps, part of Google Maps, letting customers find restaurants and place orders by asking questions, Square said in a news release provided to PYMNTS. Thursday (Aug. 6) "The way people find a restaurant to book, a cafe to visit, or take-out to order is evolving," said Morgan Kuntze, global partnerships lead at Block, Square's parent. "Our expanded work with Google means Square sellers show up in those conversations, without having to manually update their details across the many channels their business is present." According to the release, Square food and beverage sellers who create a Google Business Profile can surface in Ask Maps results and have new order flows activated. Their menus, hours, and location details will automatically sync from Square Dashboard, with no added setup, contracts, or fees necessary, the release said. "For the millions of businesses who utilize Square to run their operations, being found by the right customer at the right moment is critical to growth," the company added. "Ask Maps can give Square customers an intuitive way to find and order from local favorites, with prompts like: 'Order spicy pad kee mao with seafood for me to pick up on my way home.'" Aside from discovery, customers in the U.S. can use Ask Maps to browse Square sellers' menus, customize orders, and checkout with Order by Cash App, the release said. In other conversational AI news, recent PYMNTS Intelligence research shows that the technology is shifting from "a customer service enhancement into a primary interface layer between consumers and financial institutions," as covered here in June. Customers who have already switched financial institutions (FIs) were 122% more likely than average to want AI chat support, suggesting its new role as a key determiner of FI choice. With traditional banking interfaces, customers must navigate systems created around products and workflows, searching menus, choosing services and learning app structures. "Conversational AI reverses that model. When the interaction becomes conversational rather than procedural, a consumer no longer needs to know where to locate a dispute form or how to calculate mortgage affordability," the report added. "A customer may ask an AI assistant how to optimize monthly cash flow, refinance debt, compare savings yields or select the best rewards card for an upcoming purchase. The conversation itself becomes the gateway to financial activity."

Square, Inc. And Google LLC Deepen Collaboration To Support The Future Of Food Ordering

Square, Inc. announced an expansion of its relationship with Google LLC, bringing U.S. food and beverage sellers into Ask Maps, a conversational AI experience within Google Maps where customers discover restaurants and place orders simply by asking questions. Square F&B sellers who activate a Google Business Profile can surface in Ask Maps results and have new order flows enabled. Their menus, hours, and location details will automatically sync from Square Dashboard, with no added setup, contracts, or fees required. Building on the existing Square Dashboard capabilities that sync with Google Maps, Square sellers can now appear directly in Ask Maps answers ? showing up accurately in the conversation with no additional lift required. The partnership goes beyond discovery: customers in the U.S. can also use Ask Maps to browse Square sellers? menus, customize orders, and complete checkout using Order by Cash App. For sellers, these orders flow directly into their existing Square setup, including POS and Kitchen Display System, requiring no additional operational lift. The announcement marks the first step in a broader partnership between Square and Google, as both companies continue building new ways for sellers to be discovered and transact across Google's ecosystem. As part of that collaboration, Square, Google, and others are expanding the Universal Commerce Protocol, an open standard for agentic commerce, to the food industry. Through Universal Commerce Protocol, food ordering journeys will become more seamless and intuitive in AI experiences.