Square, the financial services platform, is making a significant foray into generative AI with the introduction of ten new AI capabilities centered around customer content creation, onboarding, and setup. These capabilities are available as of today, with some restricted to Square’s beta program.
This push signifies an effort by Square, and its parent company Block, to revitalize the Square platform following a challenging year characterized by declining revenues from Block’s Cash App, significant losses from the acquired buy now, pay later service Afterpay, and a reduction in Bitcoin revenue due to cryptocurrency price fluctuations. Furthermore, Square faces mounting competition from various fronts, including Fiserv’s Clover, Toast, and Stripe. This has led to a decrease in Square’s stock price by approximately 30% in 2023, as Block founder Jack Dorsey prepares to assume leadership after former Square head Alyssa Henry.
One of the new AI-powered features, called Menu Generator, enables restaurants to create a “full menu” on Square in a matter of minutes. This tool is particularly valuable for new restaurant sellers who may not have a menu ready during onboarding. Menu Generator allows restaurants to create a full menu on Square, with the flexibility to make changes or updates later, providing momentum when launching operations on Square.
To address concerns about potential inaccuracies in AI-generated content, Square emphasizes that the process is not fully automated. It relies on various third-party generative AI models, including OpenAI’s GPT-3, GPT-3.5, and GPT-4, and customers have the opportunity to make edits before content goes live. A human review process is integrated into all AI-generated content, allowing sellers to approve or modify the generated copy.
The generative email copy feature uses generative AI to create personalized email messages to customers and involves a human review process. Square’s new website copy generator, which can write headlines and entire blogs based on brief text prompts, also includes human review. However, there is no direct response to concerns about the impact on search engine rankings related to AI-generated content.
Among the other AI features introduced by Square, the point-of-sale system can auto-generate item descriptions for seller catalogs, which the company touts as a significant time saver. The Kitchen Display System for restaurant order management can now auto-assign menu items to kitchen categories and station screens. Square’s scheduling system, Appointments, can automatically import service names, descriptions, durations, and prices during onboarding. The Square point-of-sale platform suggests items for sellers to adopt based on insights about their business, though the specific insights are not detailed in the press release.
Furthermore, Square Team Communication can generate and send out announcements to inform employees about new products and promotions, with adjustable options for topic, length, and tone. Square Messages, the business-customer messaging platform, can now suggest “sophisticated” AI responses, including personalization with customer names.
In the press release, Saumil Mehta, Square’s head of point of sale, claims that these generative AI capabilities position Square at the forefront of technology. However, the breadth of this rollout reflects Square’s ambition in this space.