“They want something that’s really easy to use and they want something that’s immediately accessible and Square can deliver that,” Block CEO Jack Dorsey said during the earnings call’s analyst Q&A, describing what he heard from smaller sellers about AI.
The new Square Kiosk lets diners ask questions about the menu and order by voice. On the business side, Squaremates already prepares purchase orders for food and beverage sellers. Block plans to add procurement agents that help manage inventory and order from suppliers.
Dorsey said sellers typically start by asking questions about their data before handing tasks to agents. Block is testing how to charge for the AI tools it is making available to other companies through Builder Lab and Buzz.
Square processed $76.4 billion in the third quarter, up 14% year over year, as noted in company materials on Tuesday (Nov. 3) after markets closed. Food and beverage led the major seller categories, while retail volume rose 13% and services rose 8%. Chief Financial Officer Amrita Ahuja said new sellers joining through independent sales organizations increased 90% from the previous quarter, from a still-small share of Square’s business. The volume brought in by sellers who signed up on their own grew at its fastest pace in more than a decade through August.
Cash App’s September transacting base grew 4% year over year, its fastest pace since mid-2024. Block Business Lead Owen Jennings pointed to teens and families and to Neighborhoods, which connects Cash App users with participating Square sellers. Jennings said the customers Neighborhoods brought in skewed toward higher household incomes than Cash App’s core base.
Cash App Builds on Banking and Local Rewards
Primary banking users rose to 9.4 million from 8.3 million a year earlier and held steady from June, as noted in the company’s shareholder letter. About 28 million customers used the Cash App Card monthly. Block said 1 in 5 customers who ordered a Tag, its personalized accessory for the card, was new to the card or had returned to using it.
In lending, Cash App moved its Borrow product primarily from four weeks with a 5% fee to six weeks with a 7.5% fee. Afterpay’s post-purchase originations more than tripled year over year, while pre-purchase originations more than tripled from the previous quarter.
Block enabled Neighborhoods for about 30,000 sellers in late August. By September, participating sellers represented about $5 billion in annualized gross payment volume, nearly five times the June level. Jennings said Block funds the sign-up bonuses and ongoing rewards and sets the rates for both. He sees room for sellers to help fund rewards as they gain more customers to market to directly.
Third-quarter net revenue rose to $6.7 billion, up from $6.1 billion in the third of quarter of last year.
Dorsey said Block sees a market for its AI tools beyond the Square sellers that helped shape them, telling analysts that “what this foundation enables us to do is go from the very smallest of sellers, the smallest of businesses, all the way up to our size and beyond.”
Shares were up 6.8% in after-hours trading on Tuesday.
