Old Apple Newton had a feature, I don't remember how they called it, but on any screen you could write "please", and then describe what to do, e. g. using one of their examples: "please fax this to Bob". And it worked. Internally it was a rather simple keyword match plus access to data, such as the system address book. New applications could register their own names for actions and relevant dictionaries.

Yes, this! esp the last one. Finding coffee shop / restaurant options ALONG THE WAY seems like it should've been solved years ago. Scenario: while driving, "want to eat in about an hour, must have vegetarian options, don't add more than 10m extra drive time" and get a shortlist to pick from.

Yeah that one is surprisingly difficult even with a Human Intelligence in the passenger seat.