Square Revolutionizes Merchant Services with AI and Bitcoin Integration

Square launches AI voice ordering and an integrated Bitcoin solution for merchants | TechCrunch

Square, Block's merchant payments platform, has launched new features for merchants, including AI-powered voice ordering for restaurants, enhancements to its AI assistants -- such as providing local insights -- and an integrated Bitcoin solution to accept and hold the digital currency. The company now lets restaurants and cafes using Square leverage AI to handle incoming calls. This is particularly useful for cloud kitchens (delivery-only restaurants) and other delivery-focused establishments, as they can hand off order taking, customization, and other menu-related questions to AI. The bot can handle requests like, "What is special in your menu today?" or "Make my food spicy, but don't use any dairy." Other companies, such as Yelp and Kea, are building voice AI solutions for restaurants. Square said its solution stands out because it's integrated with its payment and kiosk ecosystem, making it easier for restaurants to manage orders. Square is also adding Grubhub integration to streamline third-party delivery orders, a redesigned kiosk interface for easier access to frequently used menus, and an AI-powered inventory management tool to help restaurants manage and optimize supplies. The point-of-sale company is also adding new features to its Square AI assistant, which was launched earlier this year in open beta. The bot can now provide local insights, such as weather, nearby events, and industry trends. While the assistant could already create visualizations for merchants based on their data and queries, Square now allows them to save these as auto-updating widgets on their dashboards. What's more, Square is bringing new features such as access to conversation history with Square AI and a dashboard on its mobile app for merchants. Block co-founder Jack Dorsey's affinity for Bitcoin is well-known. Square began allowing merchants to convert part of their daily earnings into Bitcoin last year. The company is now introducing an integrated Bitcoin solution for sellers, including a wallet. In encourage Bitcoin adoption, the company will allow businesses to accept the digital currency directly from their point-of-sale machines with no processing fee for one year. In 2027, the company will start charging a 1% processing fee. The company is also introducing an integrated Square Bitcoin wallet with the ability to buy, sell, hold, and withdraw the cryptocurrency directly from the dashboard. Last year, Square allowed retailers to convert 1% to -10% of their daily earnings to Bitcoin. With the introduction of Square Bitcoin, merchants can choose to convert up to 50% of their daily revenue. The company noted that since the start of the program, users have accumulated 142 Bitcoins, which amounts to over $17 million at the time of writing. "The Bitcoin tools we're building at Square deliver on two critical needs: ensuring sellers never miss a sale, and giving them access to powerful financial tools that help them more easily manage and grow their finances," Miles Suter, Head of Bitcoin Product at Block, said in a statement. "We're making Bitcoin payments as seamless as card payments while giving small businesses access to financial management tools that, until now, have been exclusive to the largest corporations. Through Square and Cash App, we serve both sides of the counter, meaning Square is uniquely positioned to make Bitcoin everyday money, not just a store of value - while also helping sellers future-proof their operations," he added. While hundreds of online merchants accept Bitcoin as a payment method, a large portion of Bitcoin transactions are still related to speculative trading. A survey from eMarketer suggests that the number of U.S. users who use cryptocurrency as a payment method will jump to 7.1 million in 2026. Block, which has been bullish on Bitcoin, aims to capitalize on increased currency adoption with the new merchant offerings.

Square is letting business owners get more AI insight into their neighborhoods - and even accept Bitcoin

Square has revealed a host of AI upgrades designed to give businesses access to even more intelligence and insights in a bid to show unlocking additional context can bring huge value to SMBs. Square AI will now support local data integration, including weather, events, news and reviews, helping companies to adapt with forecast-driven staffing, inventory and menu adjustments. The company is also enhancing conversation history so that companies can check back on past insights and adapt them for the future. With resources already spread thinly across multiple operations and many hospitality businesses struggling to barely stay afloat, let alone focus on their customers, new AI-powered voice ordering will answer every call with conversational AI to handle orders, sending them straight to the kitchen or POS and logging details within Square Messages. "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," Global Head of Product Willem Ave explained. With that in mind, an updated dashboard allows sellers to pin and save AI-generated data visualizations and widgets for easily glanceable insights. Square's AI will also extend to the mobile app. The handy AI improvements came hand-in-hand with newly launched support for Bitcoin payments and conversions for sellers, with zero processing fees for the first year for bitcoin payments at POS systems. From January 1, 2027, each transaction will cost a 1% processing fee. It includes support to manage, buy, sell, hold and withdraw bitcoin all within Square's ecosystem. This comes as US cryptocurrency payment users are expected to grow by 82% between 2024 and 2026. For now, Bitcoin support is only available for US businesses, excluding those located within New York State.