Number of Amazon Alexa compatible smart home devices 2017-2019

In 2019, the number of smart home devices compatible with Amazon's virtual assistant, Alexa, rose to around 60,000 devices. The number of Alexa-compatible smart home devices increased exponentially since 2017, where it was at four thousand.

The role of the voice assistant

Voice-driven Alexa capabilities, also known as skills, are a crucial aspect to using a virtual assistant as skills are how a virtual assistant can play music, provide weather forecasts, and control other smart devices. In just one year, the number of Alexa skills doubled from 50,000 in 2018 to 100,000 as of September 2019. More than half of all consumers polled in 2019 thought that voice assistants are revolutionary, with consumers and business buyers preferring to talk to their device rather than type in it.

Voice assistants and smart speakers

Speakers including built-in smart features and virtual assistants powered by artificial intelligence command the smart home market. Amazon’s smart speakers are routinely the most frequently bought, with 12.2 million units being shipped in the first two quarters of 2019. Looking at Alexa’s capabilities to respond to verbal prompts, Amazon’s smart speaker Echo can answer information requests 91 percent of the time. This could be considered promising, as Alexa is most frequently used to answer questions and check the weather.