Amazon is winning the virtual assistant race: With Apple, Google, Microsoft, and Samsung too busy competing over phones, computers, smart watches, Amazon is emerging as the winner of developing the most sophisticated virtual assistant, writes Lisa Eadicicco for Time magazine. The device, called an Amazon Echo, provides a virtual assistant named Alexa. Despite Amazon not officially attending the 2017 Consumer Electronics Show, Alexa attended in the form of Ford’s car infotainment systems, Huawei’s new smartphone the Mate 9, a Ubtech yoga robot, lamps, and even laundry machines. Despite earlier attempts, voice recognition software never really reached its full potential, but is slowly beginning to mature. “You don’t have to pull your phone out or have it relatively close by, that actually makes a difference,” says professor at the Language Institute in Carnegie Mellon’ School of Computer Science Alan Black. “Because it’s in the environment, it changes the way you interact with it. People will expect that it will just be there.”

Google is now playing catch-up with the Google Home, while Apple only opened up Siri to working with other apps in September and is working on its own competitor to the Echo. Microsoft is bringing its voice agent Cortana to Harman Kardon speakers, and Samsung agreed to acquire Viv Labs in late 2016, a startup founded by Siri’s original creator that is now developing an advanced personal assistant expected to debut on the next Galaxy smartphone. By 2019, 20% of all smartphone interactions will take place through personal assistants, and by 2020 most gadgets will be designed to work with “zero or minimal touch,” research firm Gartner predicts.