Alexa will soon gain a memory, converse more naturally, and automatically launch skills

Alexa will soon be able to recall information you've directed her to remember, as well as have more natural conversations that don't require every command to begin with "Alexa." She'll also be able to launch skills in response to questions you ask, without explicit instructions to do so. The features are the first of what Amazon says are many launches this year that will make its virtual assistant more personalized, smarter, and more engaging. The news was announced this morning in a keynote presentation from the head of the Alexa Brain group, Ruhi Sarikaya, speaking at the World Wide Web Conference in Lyon, France. He explained that the Alexa Brain initiative is focused on improving Alexa's ability to track context and memory within and across dialog sessions, as well as make it easier for users to discover and interact with Alexa's now over 40,000 third-party skills.