Block's Square & MarketMan Aid Restaurants With AI-Driven Insights

Block’s XYZ Square recently announced the launch of Square Restaurant Inventory by MarketMan to aid restaurants with AI-driven insights on their ingredient and recipe management in the Square platform. The innovative solution will provide restaurants with real-time knowledge of ingredient usage across locations. It also equips sellers with advanced purchasing tools to track inventory levels and make smarter order decisions by optimizing prices.

By integrating front-of-house sales with back-of-house purchasing in a single platform, Square will help eliminate frictions across multiple systems and contracts, thereby reducing waste, controlling expenses and identifying loss before they impact margins.

Restaurants can identify how ingredient price changes will impact margin at the item level. They can forecast ingredient requirements based on historical and live demand and can adjust accordingly to avoid waste or stockouts. In case of unusual cost increase, they can replace with appropriate substitutes to avoid margin erosion and protect profitability. They can also avoid the impact on the bottom line by evaluating supplier price fluctuations.

By a single log in using Square credentials, the Square Restaurant Inventory offers inventory management included in one Square bill, centralized support and seamless point of sale integration to maintain accurate inventory, recipes and reporting by automatic syncing of sales data.

Wrapping Up on Block’s Square

Block offers tools and services to both consumers and sellers. The company serves millions of consumers and sellers worldwide across various industries such as food, retail and services, and major geographies, including the United States, Japan, Australia and Canada. Block is building a powerful fintech ecosystem through its dual growth engines, Square and Cash App.

Overall, the launch strengthens Square’s value proposition in the restaurant vertical by deepening its ecosystem and enhancing operational capabilities. The addition of AI-driven inventory and cost management tools is likely to improve customer retention and drive higher platform engagement, positioning Square to better capitalize on the growing demand for integrated, data-driven restaurant solutions.

Over the past month, shares of this Zacks Rank #2 (Buy) company have lost 8.8% compared with the industry's decline of 8.1%.

Image Source: Zacks Investment Research

Other Stocks to Consider

Some other top-ranked stocks from the Zacks Internet-Software industry are Bentley Systems BSY and A10 Networks ATEN, each carrying a Zacks Rank #2 at present. You can see the complete list of today’s Zacks #1 Rank (Strong Buy) stocks here.

The Zacks Consensus Estimate for BSY’s 2026 earnings per share has moved 3.7% upward to $1.40 over the past two months.

The consensus estimate for ATEN’s 2026 earnings per share has moved 5.2% northward to $1.02 over the past two months.

Radical New Technology Could Hand Investors Huge Gains

Quantum Computing is the next technological revolution, and it could be even more advanced than AI.

While some believed the technology was years away, it is already present and moving fast. Large hyperscalers, such as Microsoft, Google, Amazon, Oracle, and even Meta and Tesla, are scrambling to integrate quantum computing into their infrastructure.

Senior Stock Strategist Kevin Cook reveals 7 carefully selected stocks poised to dominate the quantum computing landscape in his report, Beyond AI: The Quantum Leap in Computing Power.

Kevin was among the early experts who recognized NVIDIA's enormous potential back in 2016. Now, he has keyed in on what could be "the next big thing" in quantum computing supremacy. Today, you have a rare chance to position your portfolio at the forefront of this opportunity.

See Top Quantum Stocks Now >>

Want the latest recommendations from Zacks Investment Research? Today, you can download 7 Best Stocks for the Next 30 Days. Click to get this free report

A10 Networks, Inc. (ATEN): Free Stock Analysis Report

This article originally published on Zacks Investment Research (zacks.com).

Zacks Investment Research