In his speech, Dertouzos pointed out that, for all the advantages computer technology has brought us during the past 40 years, automation is still not simple, intuitive, and efficient. Anyone who has called a toll-free number recently understands the problem. In other words, Dertouzos claims, the computer revolution isn't finished, because humans are still forced to do a lot of work that can and should be automated. Already, speech recognition technology is advanced enough to make this fairly practical. But companies currently doing business online don't have to wait for widespread speech recognition to start improving the way their computers relate to their customers.
Simple solutions can go a long way, starting with the corporate website.
Design webpages for easy navigation so that visitors can find what they want. Simplify order forms as much as possible, and record customer data so that returning customers can buy products without having to fill out the same forms all over again. And fine-tune your site's search engine, so that the most common queries bring up the most relevant pages, wherever possible. But surprisingly few sites follow such customer-centric principles. Read the interview .