Square is rolling out a slate of updates designed to help restaurants and retailers move faster, serve customers better, and future‑proof their operations. The highlights: AI-powered voice ordering that takes calls for restaurants, smarter AI assistance with local insights, deeper integrations across ordering and kiosks, and a built-in Bitcoin solution that lets sellers accept, hold, and manage the cryptocurrency directly from their dashboard.
For restaurants and cafes, the new AI voice ordering feature can pick up the phone, take orders, handle customization, and answer menu questions in natural language. It’s especially handy for delivery-first businesses and cloud kitchens that juggle high call volumes. Think questions like “What’s special today?” or precise requests such as “Make it spicy and hold the dairy.” Because the system is tied into Square’s point of sale and kiosk tools, orders flow straight into the existing workflow without extra manual steps.
Square is also tightening the loop on delivery and in-store ordering. New integrations and interface updates include:
– Grubhub integration to bring third-party delivery orders into one place
– A redesigned kiosk interface that prioritizes the most-used menus and actions
– An AI-powered inventory management tool to forecast, track, and optimize stock
The Square AI assistant, which launched in open beta earlier this year, is getting smarter too. It can now bring in local insights like weather, nearby events, and industry trends to help merchants plan staffing, inventory, and promotions. Visualizations created from a seller’s own data can be saved as auto-updating widgets on dashboards, and merchants get access to conversation history with the assistant. There’s also a refreshed mobile app dashboard so owners can check performance and insights on the go.
On the payments front, Square is introducing a native Bitcoin experience aimed at making crypto transactions as seamless as card payments. Sellers can accept Bitcoin directly at the point of sale with no processing fee for one year; beginning in 2027, a 1% processing fee will apply. The new Square Bitcoin wallet lets businesses buy, sell, hold, and withdraw Bitcoin from the same dashboard they already use for daily operations.
Square previously allowed retailers to automatically convert 1% to 10% of daily earnings into Bitcoin. With the new tools, merchants can choose to convert up to 50% of their revenue. Since the program began, sellers have accumulated 142 Bitcoins, valued at more than $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,” said Miles Suter, Head of Bitcoin Product at Block. “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.”
While hundreds of online merchants already accept Bitcoin, much of the transaction volume today is tied to trading rather than everyday spending. That may be changing. Research indicates the number of U.S. consumers using cryptocurrency to pay for goods and services could reach 7.1 million in 2026. With voice AI for restaurants, smarter analytics, and frictionless crypto acceptance bundled into its platform, Square is positioning sellers to capitalize on that shift while streamlining operations right now.
