New Generative AI Features from Square Give Powerful Technology to All Businesses

Rhea-AI Summary

Square announces 10 new generative AI features to help businesses automate operations and save time

Positive

• Restaurants can create a full menu on Square in minutes, saving time and providing momentum for launching operations
• E-commerce sellers can add hyperreal AI-generated backgrounds to elevate their websites and attract more customers
• Square Marketing now offers integrated AI to generate personalized email copy, making email marketing easier
• Square Messages now has more sophisticated AI responses to enhance direct messaging with buyers
• Square Point of Sale's new AI-powered starter library suggests items for sellers to adopt based on insights about their business, saving start-up time
• Square KDS can auto-assign menu items to kitchen categories and station screens to optimize kitchen operations in restaurants
• Sellers running Square Point of Sale software can now set up and manage their catalog more efficiently with auto-written product descriptions

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• None.

Nearly a dozen new Square tools seamlessly integrate generative AI to offer an intuitive helping hand to businesses of all sizes

OAKLAND, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)-- Today, Square announced 10 new generative AI features that sellers can use now to automate operations, speed up workflows, and regain time. These tools are directly integrated into Square’s powerful business software and provide the company’s millions of sellers with an extra set of hands to help them juggle the multifaceted demands that come with running a business.

Square Photo Studio Environments

Earlier in 2023, Square made generative AI a key business priority, with the aim of providing sellers with generative AI-powered tools that enable them to benefit from the time and cost savings promised by this new wave of technology. Today’s launch marks a major step toward delivering against that goal, and not only putting real, tangible products into the hands of sellers, but also delivering that value across the Square ecosystem, no matter which product – or combination of products – a seller uses.

Key new generative AI-powered features include:

• Menu Generator: Restaurants can now create a full menu on Square in just a few minutes with just a few clicks, giving them – or any business looking to expand into food and drink offerings – valuable momentum and time-savings when launching operations on Square.
• Photo Environments: E-commerce sellers can now add hyperreal AI-generated backgrounds and choose from more than 50 style prompts with the latest version of the Photo Studio app, helping them elevate their websites and attract more customers. Since July 1, while in beta, sellers have created and saved over 14,000 AI Environment images.

"As a one-woman small business, any tools that can save me time or money are tremendously helpful," said Carissa Smith, owner of small batch candle store Fuddy Duddy Co. in Merriam, Kansas. "Square's Photo Studio app has helped me on both fronts as I've transitioned to selling online. Instead of spending hundreds of dollars on props and backdrops, and hours of time staging my inventory, I was able to use the app's new AI environments to quickly bring my catalog to life with backgrounds that fit the themes of my various products."

More new Square tools help sellers with content creation, providing them AI-generated content for their public sites, item descriptions, and marketing content:

• Personalized email copy: To make email marketing easier, Square Marketing now offers integrated AI to generate personalized email copy, taking the guesswork – and time commitment – out of subject lines and content optimization.
• Team announcements: To inform staff more efficiently, employers using Square Team Communication can now quickly generate and send out team announcements to let employees know about new products, upcoming promotions, and more using AI-generated copy, with a choice of topic, length, and tone.
• Website copy generator: To lend a hand with short- or long-form website copy, Square Online’s AI-assisted copy generator helps sellers save time, level up their websites, and boost SEO – from set-up to refresh, and headlines to blog posts.
• Suggested replies: To enhance direct messaging with buyers, sellers using Square Messages now have even more sophisticated AI responses, with the ability to personalize messages to buyers with suggested replies that prepopulate names to enrich correspondences.

Whether setting up a business from scratch or switching over to Square, AI-enabled tools focused on onboarding & set-up help sellers get their accounts and catalogs activated in a way that gives them time back and lowers the barrier to entry:

• Auto-generated library: Square Point of Sale’s new AI-powered starter library suggests items for sellers to adopt based on insights about their business. In just a few clicks, sellers can get up, running, and selling. By easily setting up their catalogs and configuring items for sale, Square saves sellers valuable start-up time and removes the need to start from scratch.
• Auto-imported services: Square Appointments has made it easier than ever to switch booking platforms. No matter how many services a salon or spa offers, they can now use AI to automatically import service names, descriptions, durations, and prices during onboarding to get up and running faster.

With a focus on operational efficiency, these new features give sellers powerful tools to increase productivity and optimize their workflows, so they can focus on making more sales:

• Kitchen categories: In restaurants, even kitchen operations can be optimized with AI – now, Square KDS can auto-assign menu items to kitchen categories and station screens to create smooth workflows for back-of-house staff. Restaurant managers can keep menus and operations up to date by editing and saving catalogs with just a few clicks, expediting the process of getting orders fired.
• Item descriptions: Sellers running any Square Point of Sale software can now set up and manage their catalog with ease. With compelling, auto-written product descriptions, sellers gain more efficiency in their operations by adding new inventory quicker and getting them ready to sell – allowing them to focus on attracting more buyers, faster – across all their integrated selling channels.

“Square is uniquely positioned to be the technology partner that enables the most seamless, intuitive applications of AI. Our goal is to help businesses of all sizes scale their operations and take advantage of these new innovations,” said Saumil Mehta, Head of Point of Sale and Omnichannel at Square. “We’ve long been differentiated by the depth and breadth of our integrated ecosystem, and bringing generative AI into our products continues to put Square and its sellers at the forefront of technology.”

Today’s newly launched features join longstanding AI-powered solutions including Square Messages, which now sees about 450,000 messages per month generated with AI. All features announced today are currently available to sellers, with some accessed through Square’s beta program. Learn more about Square’s generative AI integrations at squareup.com/ai-for-businesses, and about Square’s full technology ecosystem at squareup.com.

About Square

Square makes commerce and financial services easy and accessible with its integrated ecosystem of solutions. Square offers purpose-built software to run complex restaurant, retail, and professional services operations, versatile e-commerce tools, embedded financial services and banking products, buy now, pay later functionality through Afterpay, staff management and payroll capabilities, and much more – all of which work together to save sellers time and effort. Millions of sellers across the globe trust Square to power their business and help them thrive in the economy. For more information, visit www.squareup.com.

View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20231018675988/en/

press@squareup.com

Source: Block, Inc.

FAQ

What are the new generative AI features announced by Square?

The new generative AI features include a menu generator for restaurants, photo environments for e-commerce sellers, personalized email copy for Square Marketing, team announcements for Square Team Communication, website copy generator for Square Online, suggested replies for Square Messages, auto-generated library for Square Point of Sale, auto-imported services for Square Appointments, kitchen categories for Square KDS, and item descriptions for Square Point of Sale.

How can restaurants benefit from the new generative AI features?

Restaurants can benefit from the new generative AI features by quickly creating a full menu on Square, auto-assigning menu items to kitchen categories, and optimizing kitchen operations with smooth workflows.

How can e-commerce sellers benefit from the new generative AI features?

E-commerce sellers can benefit from the new generative AI features by adding hyperreal AI-generated backgrounds to their websites, attracting more customers.

How can sellers save time with the new generative AI features?

Sellers can save time with the new generative AI features by automating operations, generating personalized email copy, using suggested replies for direct messaging, and setting up their catalogs more efficiently.

Are the new generative AI features available to sellers now?

Yes, all the features announced today are currently available to sellers, with some accessed through Square's beta program.