In an exclusive interview with CanadianSME Small Business Magazine, Liz Samson, Head of Industry Relations and Operations at Square Canada, shares how AI is moving beyond theory and becoming a practical tool for small business owners across the country. At a time when entrepreneurs are overwhelmed with data but short on time, Liz Samson explains how Square AI is simplifying decision-making by turning real-time business data into clear, actionable insights.
Interview By SK Uddin
Liz Samson is Square Canada’s new Head of Industry Relations and Operations.
Liz is among the most senior women leaders at Square Canada, bringing with her a wealth of experience in tech and fintech, including at Wealthsimple and RBC.
What is Square AI, how does it work and what does it offer small and medium-sized business leaders?
Small business owners operate a lot off instinct, relying on their accumulated experience, local knowledge, and natural intuition. At the same time, their businesses generate a lot of data – data that can either support their gut feeling or shine a light on new insights. We built Square AI, an integrated, conversational AI assistant, to help sellers easily make sense of their business data using natural language: they can easily identify trends, quickly analyze performance, and ask questions about their operations to gather actionable intelligence. We see Square AI as a tool that can supercharge our sellers’ business instincts.
How does it work?
Our Square Dashboard has always been packed with useful data, but most business owners just don’t have the time to dig through reports and crunch numbers. Square AI solves this. Ask Square AI real business questions, like whether to launch a new drink – or how a new product is performing. Square AI can answer the question and provide back-up data insights in seconds to help sellers move faster and make daily decisions with confidence.
Square sellers who have tried Square AI so far tell us that it’s given them back hours each week. It helps them ditch time-consuming spreadsheets, monitor data in real time to stay ahead of trends and focus on what matters most: running and growing your businesses.
What benefit does Square offer over other widely available AI tools?
The reality is that, to date, most AI development across the industry has been tailored to office workers, not small business owners. We purposefully built Square AI for the needs of our sellers, with insights from real operators informing our development.
One of the key benefits is that Square AI runs on a business’ real-time transaction data – so data insights are informed by their customers, their neighbourhood, seasonal trends and other inputs and trends that are unique to their business. It even brings in web data so sellers can get guidance tailored to their community, the local weather and news and events in their neighbourhood. And by integrating it directly into Square, sellers don’t have to worry about downloading data from the platform and uploading it into a third-party AI provider’s website – Square AI already has the information it needs. It also means sellers’ sensitive business data stays protected within Square’s security infrastructure, rather than being shared with outside tools.
Is there anything special about Square AI for smaller businesses?
Every business, no matter the size, generates enormous amounts of data every day through payments and commerce. For a long time, turning that data into real insight has been something reserved for larger organizations with analysts and operations teams. Square AI levels the playing field by bringing powerful analytics into the flow of running a business of every size through a simple, conversational AI assistant. For our sellers, the accessibility to innovative AI is saving them time, helping them identify ways to drive down costs, and even unlocking new growth opportunities.
What feedback have you had about Square AI so far in Canada?
It’s been really positive. 10 DEAN, a Toronto multi-location café and bar was in our Square AI beta – and they love the fact that, instead of manually filtering and comparing data, they can ask a simple question and let Square AI build performance tables for them. The manager says Square AI has changed how they review menu item performance and make decisions day-to-day.
How ready do you think Canadian businesses are for AI?
Square recently surveyed 4,000 business owners across eight countries – and that showed that Canadian entrepreneurs are among the most pragmatic and open-minded AI adopters worldwide. In fact, 60% of Canadian entrepreneurs told us they are already using AI tools – and now, with Square AI, they can access a customized and built-in AI assistant, at no additional cost.
What else did the survey highlight about business adoption of AI?
Most Canadian entrepreneurs surveyed agreed AI has the potential to save time that can be reinvested into improving work-life balance (38%), developing new ideas to grow their businesses (37%), improving marketing (31%), and spending more time with customers (26%).
What other tools are new at Square?
In addition to Square AI, Square just launched a suite of new tools for Canadian food and beverage businesses to streamline operations and improve their guest experience.
Highlights include the improved, second generation of our popular Square Register; a new seat management feature that empowers servers to easily handle last-minute guest additions and seat changes; a new inventory management tool by MarketMan; and a house accounts feature that makes it easy for smaller businesses to offer the convenience of pay later options for trusted repeat customers.
Where can we learn more about Square AI?
To learn more about Square AI and how it can help businesses thrive, sellers can visit https://squareup.com/ca/en/ai.
Disclaimer:
The views and opinions expressed in this interview are those of the interviewee and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of CanadianSME Small Business Magazine. Our platform is dedicated to fostering dialogue and sharing insights that inspire and empower small and medium-sized businesses across Canada.
