Square Brings Managerbot to More Sellers, Giving Main Street an Intelligent Business Agent
Now in open beta, Managerbot is helping sellers focus on customers and craft rather than time intensive tasks
Square today opened Managerbot, an intelligent business agent built into Square Dashboard, to a broader group of sellers in open beta. Managerbot is the next evolution of Square AI: instead of simply answering questions or assisting with single workflows, Managerbot provides sellers with a powerful, proactive tool that monitors operations, surfaces insights, automates routine tasks, and protects the seller's business.
Small business owners didn't start their businesses to pull reports, reconcile staff schedules, or troubleshoot inventory gaps. They started them because of a passion for their craft, their customers, and their communities. Yet running a business today means spending hours each day on operational tasks that pull focus from what drives growth. While AI tools have rapidly proliferated across office workflows, sellers remain buried in the day-to-day realities of brick-and-mortar operations, forced to react to problems as they surface instead of focusing on what inspired them to open their doors in the first place.
That's where Managerbot comes in. Built directly into Square Dashboard, Managerbot acts as an always-on business agent that monitors a business's performance in real time, flags issues before they become problems, and handles the operational tasks that pull owners away from the work they started their business to do. Importantly, it all works on one key principle: Managerbot proposes an action, and sellers approve. Every action requires the seller's approval before it executes, keeping owners in control while giving them time back.
Managerbot will be available to owners and employees with full access permissions. Early data shows that restaurant operators – who face some of the most complex daily operational demands of any business type – are among most active users, and the open beta reflects what Square has learned from them.
"As a multi-location operator, my mornings used to start with catch-up. Pulling reports, chasing down what went wrong yesterday, putting out fires before the doors opened. Now when I head in, Managerbot has already told me how the previous day went across all my cafes, so I know where I stand and what needs my attention," said Donnie McClanahan, who operates four cafes across the Knoxville, Tennessee area and has been using Managerbot since February. "What's making me go 'wow' is the proactivity. It flags inventory risks before we run out, catches catalog issues before a customer sees them, and can even show me the schedule conflicts that could cause me a headache or stress out the team. It's been exciting to see it evolve based on what operators actually need, including the stuff I tell it I need. The best part is that it's giving me back time for what matters most: my customers, my team, and the food."
How Managerbot works
Managerbot works across the Square ecosystem drawing on the real data that underpins a seller's business. In open beta, sellers can use Managerbot in a number of ways:
- Sales and labor monitoring: Managerbot surfaces daily performance breakdowns by location – sales, labor percentage, and trends – without requiring sellers to pull a single report. It is there when the day starts.
- Inventory management: Managerbot tracks sales velocity against stock levels and flags potential shortages before they affect service. Sellers can update item availability across all locations instantly through a single voice or text command, replacing a task that previously required a phone call to a manager, manual register navigation, and the risk of missing an item.
- Staff scheduling: Managerbot drafts optimized schedules based on projected sales volume, team availability, and the seller's own staffing requirements. Every draft is presented for the seller's review and approval before anything is published.
- Marketing campaigns: Managerbot identifies sales patterns and customer behavior to surface targeted campaign opportunities, drafting campaign content for the seller to review, edit, and approve before it goes out.
- Proactive catalog management: Managerbot flags catalog issues before they affect the customer experience – items without photos, duplicate tax rates, missing descriptions – without being asked.
"What I loved about Square AI was that it gave me a way to follow my curiosity about my business's data. Managerbot builds on this by adding proactivity, surfacing insights I should be paying attention to and giving me recommendations on actions I can take with the data I've asked about," said Ryan Prellwitz, owner of Vines & Rushes Winery in Ripon, Wisconsin, who has been using Managerbot since early 2026. "The other day, when I wanted to identify my regulars who hadn't been by this month, Managerbot not only gave me the list but suggested a marketing campaign to bring them back in. My background is in IT, so I appreciate tools that actually work intelligently. It's not replacing my judgment; it's giving me the information I need to make better decisions faster."
"Sellers started their businesses because of something they love – a food, a craft, a community – and our job is to build tools that give them more time for that," said Willem Ave, Square's Global Head of Product. "The best products are built in the open, shaped by the people who use them, and Managerbot is built on that same principle: it proposes, the seller decides. We want every small business owner to have the kind of operational intelligence that used to take an entire back-office team."
Building with sellers, not just for them
For 17 years, Square has built products by listening to sellers — starting with the little white reader that changed how the financial system thinks about small businesses. That same approach shaped Square AI's launch last year, and the countless products the company has shipped in its history.
The feedback that makes Square products impactful doesn't come from a testing environment, but from the lived experiences of sellers handling dinner rushes, busy retail floors, and last minute staffing shortages. Square is taking the same collaborative approach with Managerbot, inviting more sellers to join thousands that have already used it in their operations to share what works, what needs improvement, and what's missing. Sellers can submit feedback directly through the Square Seller Community and through the product itself, and the team will continue refining Managerbot based on what it hears.
Managerbot is available now in open beta to most non-franchise food & beverage, retail, and health & beauty US sellers at no additional cost. Food & beverage sellers can see Managerbot in action and speak directly with the Square team at Square's booth (#6007) at the National Restaurant Association show in Chicago, May 16 to 19, 2026.
About Square
Square helps businesses turn transactions into connections and businesses into neighborhood favorites.
In 2009, Square started with a simple invention -- the first mobile card reader, which changed how the entire financial system thinks about small businesses. Square has since grown into a global business platform helping millions of sellers of all sizes participate and thrive in their communities.
Whether independently run or a global chain, Square understands that sellers succeed when they have the freedom to focus on the experiences that keep customers coming back. From point of sale and payments to online commerce, staff management, cash flow tools, and more, Square brings together the tools sellers need to run and grow on one intelligent platform. For more information, visit squareup.com.
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