How to explain natural language processing (NLP) in plain English

"Alexa, what is natural language processing?" Pose that question to Alexa – or Siri, Cortana, Google Assistant, or any other voice-activated digital assistant – and it will use natural language processing (NLP) to try to answer your question about, um, natural language processing. That makes Alexa and its ilk a natural example of NLP in action: NLP is a core technology that enables virtual assistants to process your verbal queries and respond with some degree of accuracy. But that doesn't necessarily define NLP; it just points to a popular real-world application of NLP. Plus, the voice assistant example is actually too narrow: Natural language processing isn't just about speech but also written text. Moreover, NLP is already ubiquitous, and your smartphone assistant is only one common example of its everyday use.