IMO NPC dialogue being AI might be good for some background NPCs, but it's still a bit off from being consistent with main story NPCs.
It seems a lot of the suggestions people have - the "artificial DM" I suggested, physics systems and destructible environments, more usable items, etc, focus around trying to make a leap forward and bring more of the flexibility of tabletop systems to cRPGs. I *do* think they've stagnated in this regard for quite a while.
