At CES 2019, Alexa and Google Assistant will howl. The rest will whimper

The world's largest tech show has become center stage for the digital assistant wars. Amazon Alexa was the belle of the CES ball two years ago when the e-commerce giant unveiled a long list of product integrations that included Ford vehicles and Whirlpool appliances. Not to be overshadowed, Google the following year constructed a large, eye-catching stage and announced four new Google Assistant-powered smart displays. Which brings us to CES 2019, kicking off next week. There, Amazon and Google are expected to make big splashes designed to show the rest of the tech industry that they -- not the other guy -- have the best platform for operating our smart homes, connected cars and voice-powered offices.