Siri – Number One Job Is To Make Things Easy

Yesterday, I finally had it with AT&T for my phone and Internet service.  So I switched to my local cable provider.  Good riddance to those arrogant bastards.  On the day when my new cable Internet service, phone service, and TV shows are on, I get to call AT&T and say good-bye.

However, I used Siri to remind me in 11 months what I have to do:  call my cable company to make sure they’re not the ones who’ll end up screwing me over after their one-year special is up.  See, I’ll be paying $105 for faster Internet service, TV, and phone for a little over $100 after tax and everything.  In a year, that’ll go up another $25 and another $25 after that.

So, while as much as I hate AT&T, I want to pad my wallet so with Siri’s help, I’ll be shopping around a bit to see if my cable company will keep my rates the same or will I be going back to AT&T or someone else.

But this post isn’t about how I hate AT&T. I’ve written plenty on that and I’m sure you have come across others on your own.  This is about Siri and the ease of use.

So far, people have been discussing how Siri is intelligent and it’s constantly being compared to Google Now and many other voice-centric services.  However, like humans, you can be intelligent but sorely stupid as well if you don’t get the context.  I know a lot of humans like that.

And while setting up a reminder about a year away is child’s play, it goes to show that future development of AI like Siri or Google Now has to be first about being easy to use and useful.

Specifically with Siri, Apple has to see what other services its iPhone and iPad users perform that Siri can help out with.  And when Siri does become available on OS X for the Macs, the needs of PC users may be different or require additional services for Siri to perform.