I'm not the type to want to physically speak to a computer. However, ever since we stopped paying for Spotify, we quickly realized that Alexa is a device that does 2 other tasks:
- Setting timers
- Controlling smart home
First off, setting timers is an obvious one. When you want to set a timer, you usually want it done right away, but you don't have a timer prepared in advance. So using your voice to ask a device to set one, especially for cooking, is really convenient.
I don't really have many smart home devices. The closest thing you can call to a smart home device that I have is a smart plug, and I hardly use it. However, to use smart home devices you need to have a "hub". For me this is an Apple TV, and so my phone starts freaking out if I unplug it. For the rest of the family, the hub is the Alexa.
The thing is that although Alexa can do more than just said functions, it isn't that good at doing them. For example, half of the time it either gives you the incorrect answer to a question or just answers a completely different, slightly related one. Think about how much worse this would be if they added AI to this thing.
Amazon isn't exactly known for making products with a good user experience. Every tech product Amazon makes is cheap by design. The main way they make money back is because the product is supposed to better integrate you with Amazon services. The way this is supposed to work with Alexa is by getting you to make Amazon purchases, as its hard to slip ads in when most Alexa devices don't have a screen.
The thing is that nobody is making purchases with their voice. If someone suddenly wants something, they're going to want an interface and do research. And if it's an item that someone regularly purchases, they're going to purchase said item when going grocery shopping.