Ben Davis: The dream of voice commerce is fading

There is something incredibly elegant about smart speakers. The concept is tantalising.
Voice interfaces just make sense – we naturally assume they will be frictionless. Intuitive interfaces in computing have been regarded by some people as somewhat of a fallacy but smart speakers seem like they might change that. When Amazon’s Echo came along, many people were excited about its potential to improve the lives of people who were not yet computer-literate, such as some elderly users.