Even Amazon is surprised by how much people love Alexa

It's no longer surprising when Amazon does something well. Amazon does all of this, and does it very well. Yet even Amazon is surprised by the success of Alexa, its voice-enabled personal assistant. "We are very happy with the results of Alexa," Amazon chief financial officer Brian Olsavsky told investors Feb. 1, after the company reported 2017 fourth-quarter and full-year results. Alexa, Olsavsky continued, has had "record device sales with very high levels of customer engagement."