Nowadays we just get blog posts about results that were supposedly achieved, an accompanying paper that can’t be reproduced (because of Google’s magical “private datasets”), and some screencaps of a cool application of the tech that is virtually guaranteed to never make it to product.
The calculus is different now.
Remember the Google assistant demo, where it booked a table at a restaurant?
That never materialized. Google assistant is just eating crayons today.
But to your point its not as impressive as it was sold: glorified reverse phone tree. But it is what it was sold as, and it is available.
"Google Assistant just made a dinner reservation for me... I knew this was coming... but mind blown!" https://www.reddit.com/r/googlehome/comments/ezv3us/google_a...
"Now, you can use it on all Pixel phones in 43 U.S. states.
All it takes is a few seconds to tell your Assistant where you'd like to go. Just ask the Assistant on your phone, “Book a table for four people at [restaurant name] tomorrow night.” The Assistant will then call the restaurant to see if it can accommodate your request. Once your reservation is successfully made, you’ll receive a notification on your phone, an email update and a calendar invite so you don’t forget."
https://blog.google/products/assistant/book-table-google-ass...
https://www.reddit.com/r/googlehome/comments/ezv3us/google_a...
Or the comments under https://youtu.be/-RHG5DFAjp8
It's probably hard to trigger these days because most places support OpenTable or similar.