Amazon Gave Alexa a Game-Changing New Ability

Amazon just made a smart play in the virtual assistant war. To complement the wealth of Alexa's built-in functions and third-party skills made by developers, Echo device owners can now build their own skills. Amazon calls the new capability "Alexa Blueprints." One of the hallmarks of good personal assistants--and failing points of lesser ones--is their level of personalization and customizability. We use our digital assistants in different ways, and while some features and responses are useful for most, the ability for such an assistant to learn and adapt to the way you do things is paramount for it to be useful in your life.