There’s a lot of talk right now about the Amazon Echo, or Alexa, as you would refer to the voice assistant that the Echo enables you to converse with. To a lot of people this is something very novel: you say, “Alexa, could you buy some toilet paper?” and a slightly robotic woman’s voice chirps out a recommendation and asks you if she should order it for you.

I’ve had an Amazon Echo for about a year now, and I often use Siri to replace otherwise mundane tapping on my iPhone. Voice assistants really augment my everyday life. Nothing major — just small touches like turning on music while my hands are full, checking the weather while putting on my shoes, setting alarms, timers, and reminders. …