How far away are we from truly intelligent agents on our devices?
How far? Who can say? I would say, we’re not half-way…. ;^) The capabilities you describe are generally attributable to strong AI, or so-called artificial general intelligence. However, in increments these “intelligent agents” are getting better and better. There are a number of more sophisticated plays lately in the travel space, the financial space, as well as meeting planning. The problem is that announcements are usually accompanied by copious hype, exceeding the current capabilities, which in many cases may be likened to “pipe dreams”. In most cases, such agents are built on top of APIs; so, it could be said that “intelligent agents” are no better than available APIs. Semi-automation, or cyborg like mechanical turks, is another trend. This is where people are inserted into the pipeline or workflow in the place of more complex automation, for instance so-called human powered APIs. It is getting increasingly difficult to tell whether or not there are “turks” in the box.