Square has unveiled Square Kiosk, a new self-service terminal for quick-service restaurants. It has an AI voice assistant that knows the menu, answers questions, suggests dishes and handles changes and substitutions, with the option to switch to a 21.5-inch touchscreen. It includes card payments, a barcode scanner, presence detection and loyalty sign-in. It costs $1,999 plus $99 a month per device in the US.
What it means: Square's move shows that the next generation of ordering kiosks will not just be screens with menus but conversational systems that understand natural speech. For Greek hospitality, where staff shortages are a constant headache, the idea of a kiosk that clears a peak-hour queue is appealing. The transfer is not automatic, though. Greek speech recognition, with regional accents, shop noise and tourists speaking many languages, is harder than English. There is also tax compliance: every order must end in a valid receipt and a myDATA submission, which American products do not cover. For Greek ordering software vendors that is an opening, since they can add voice ordering on top of systems already linked to cash registers and e-invoicing. Square's price also offers a benchmark for what chains will pay for such a feature, and a sign that per-device subscription pricing is becoming the norm in restaurant technology.
Related service: Custom software