As the examples demonstrate, this is trying to solve an invented problem with a far more complicated solution (conversational agentic AI) that itself is prone to its own failures and weaknesses.

My boomer-ish quibble, therefore, is that the old way of "endless menus" actually -worked-. Was it a pain in the butt? Sure. But it wasn't really "endless". There was a light at the end of the tunnel.

The designer's quest for everything to be "clean" led to the mess that we have now. Form over function.

Now it's a world of "Not that icon. This one. Nope. Just kidding. THIS one. What do you mean you can't see it? Those are absolutely two different shades of green-brown and you should be able to." And a world of "You just have to go in the settings menu. No, not THAT settings menu. The OTHER settings menu."

Needing AI for this says less about the capabilities of AI and more about how broken the world of UI has become, IMHO.