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I spoke to a colleague who was at the Pixel launch just now. He reckons the hardware is great but unremarkable but the AI is much superior to siri or old Google now. He thinks it's an important step forward in terms of software but ultimately pretty useless to the average user. Maybe it's a little too far ahead of the times. I don't think many people want to have a conversation with their phone. Then again, he only got to play with one for 20 mins.
Stonehedge-
Yeah, they made a big point about the AI improvements with regards to accuracy. I'm just not convinced about the talking part, with the phone... Sure, it's useful at home etc for ordering Ubers and booking stuff and whatnot but the Home speaker is probably a better vehicle for it as it's the only way of interacting with it.
Most people seem to just use voice interaction for setting timers for pasta.
Well_is_it
None of the AI functionality they showed off is new. It's just got a new interface. All the "Ok Google" stuff is already available and they were showing it off like it's the first time we've seen it.
Also, when the dude told the phone to text someone, it didn't use Allo, which will probably be gone in a year.
Also no text input to Google Assistant... WTF.