What is Amazon Alexa? Alexa is Amazon's virtual assistant that competes with the likes of Google Assistant and Apple Siri. Its underlying technology was acquired in 2013 from Ivona, a Polish startup.

Their respective help-bots — Apple’s Siri, Google’s Assistant, Amazon’s Alexa and Microsoft’s Cortana — promise consumers one of the most valuable commodities in the world: free time.

Amazon just released its latest lineup of connected hardware — and also took the opportunity to address ongoing privacy concerns about its Alexa virtual assistant.

The Amazon Alexa platform dominated CES this year. The virtual assistant is shaping up to be the most important new operating system.