A caution:
"Be not the first by whom the new are tried, Nor yet the last to lay the old aside." - Alexander Pope
My son presented me with my new Echo Dot... along with a summary of his experiences and knowledge learned over the past three months.
I am now convinced that this is not a passing fancy, but perhaps the front edge of an evolving technology that will go far, far beyond turning lights on and off. With more than 15,000 Alexa "Skills" now available, we can only guess at the future possibilities.
Imagine... infinite, immediate language translation. Imagine, a sea change in education... Instead of group learning, geared to the lowest common denominator, to personalized individual learning, paced by ability and positive reinforcement. Imagine immediate person to person communication both at work and at play. Imagine the many thousands of "help" courses, from dieting to exercise, to training of all kinds, geared to a central process for proven results... immediately available to everyone.
Let me suggest this article which is limited to using Alexa for free voice/video communication between app users. While a cursory reading seems not far removed from what we can do today, my sons stay connected using Alexa, and one son, who is involved in a IT in a commercial food business, is beginning to use the current technology to connect and work with his employees.
https://www.cnbc.com/2017/05/11/how-to-make-calls-with-amazons-alexa-for-free.html
Will be interesting to follow this technology, in whatever form, over the next ten years.