Echo devices continually rank among Amazon.com’s best sellers, but the Alexa business is reportedly bleeding money and management is facing questions about the initiative’s viability. Do you eventually see voice shopping taking off, or do see other ways to drive incremental revenue from Alexa-enabled devices?

Alexa will now notify Prime customers up to 24 hours in advance of upcoming deals as Amazon.com seeks to pack more value as a shopping tool into its nearly eight-year-old voice assistant. Are early notifications on deals the type of feature that will encourage consumers to use voice assistants more frequently as a shopping device?

When users of Amazon’s Echo Show smart display device want to order a meal kit from Blue Apron, the task is simple enough. And now, if they need instruction preparing the meal, they can ask Alexa for help. Will the recipe guidance and one-off ordering via Alexa benefit Blue Apron’s business?

Walmart has announced a planned acquisition that the retailer believes will play an important role in its strategy to expand its “conversational” platform across voice, chat and AI-driven assistant technologies. What do you see as the potential for conversational technologies for both consumers and associate use?

Amazon reportedly plans to market its own branded TVs in the U.S., possibly as soon as October. How important is the introduction of Amazon-branded TVs to the company’s efforts to accelerate the use of Alexa-voice technology as a purchasing tool?

Amazon is investing in the development of a new service that will let customers experience live concerts and other audio events through its popular voice-activated devices. Do you see a live concert/live audio service increasing Amazon’s voice-assistant adoption?

Visitors to the McDonald’s drive-thru might soon be talking to a robot instead of a person when they place their orders. Do you see voice-ordering drive-thru technology, once the kinks are out, being widely used in drive-thru operations?

People are still thinking twice before interacting with public touch screens and throughout retail, some are seeing voice-driven technology as a perfect solution. Will the desire to avoid the touching surfaces drive mass use of voice-assisted kiosks, and might they replace touch screens altogether?

Cost, complexity, perceived value and interoperability may be among the reasons purchases of connected home products have been slower than expected, yet enhanced post-purchase service could lessen barriers. What do you think are the obvious and less obvious factors holding back purchases of smart home products?

eMarketer last week lowered its outlook for smart speaker buyers (consumers making a purchase via a smart speaker) and smart speaker users (consumers using smart speakers for any purpose). What do you see holding back the overall adoption of smart speakers as well as their use as a purchasing tool?

Almost half of 5,000 consumers in Europe and North America say they use voice assistants in a recent survey. Yet with increased use, concerns are growing. Is there a way for voice commerce to overcome privacy concerns raised by consumers?

At its hardware event in Seattle last week, Amazon.com introduced a whopping 15 new products linked to its Alexa platform with the apparent goal of being a voice-command away from consumers at any time. What do you think Amazon’s goal is with the Alexa platform?

McDonald’s last week began enabling job seekers to start an application by using voice commands with Amazon’s Alexa or Google’s Assistant. Do you see voice assistants emerging as a major hiring and recruiting tool?

Based on the increased adoption of the devices, eMarketer has raised its forecast for shopping activity on smart speakers. Have you become more or less confident that smart speakers will become a major driver of shopping activity?

Walmart is going all-in on its online grocery business with store pickup options and delivery. Yesterday, Walmart announced that it was enabling its customers to place their orders by voice on any device that uses Google Assistant. Do you see adoption of voice-ordering picking up in any substantial way in the next year or two?

Brands are viewing consumers’ increased comfort with voice assistants as less of a threat than an opportunity, per a survey of more than 500 U.S. brands from Feedvisor. Is voice ordering more of an opportunity or threat for brands?

Voice shopping will hit $40 billion by 2022, according to OC&C Strategy Consultants’ data cited by Mastercard. Do you see sonic branding growing in importance over the next several years?

Voice-activated digital assistants are again in the spotlight at CES. The jury is still out, however, on whether they’ll become key to connecting smart homes. How important will smart speakers become to the daily lives of consumers over the next five years when compared to mobile phones?

Nine in 10 market research decision-makers believe that artificial intelligence (AI) will have a significant impact on the industry within five years, but most don’t know what that impact will look like, according to a report from Qualtrics. Which tasks and activities are likely to be “outsourced” to machine learning in the coming years?

The term “brand voice” has come to represent a company’s look, feel and attitude, but with voice-based commerce, CPG brands find they may need a literal voice.  How seriously should CPGs take the idea of creating distinct voice presences to help them stand out on Alexa and other voice assistants?

Shopping via voice assistant has become one of the most discussed trends in the world of retail technology. But recently-released numbers indicate that, at least for now, predictions of the ascendency of Alexa voice commerce could be all talk. What would have to change to get people to shop via Alexa and other voice assistants?

Amazon.com has teamed up with homebuilder Lennar to open model smart homes across the country that are driven by its Alexa technology. How do you see the Amazon/Lennar collaboration affecting the retail market for smart home devices in the U.S.?

Google recently introduced Shopping Actions, a program that enables retailers to list products across Google Search, the Google Express shopping service and the Google Assistant app for smartphones and smart speakers like Google Home. Will Google’s Shopping Actions help retailers significantly reduce Amazon’s competitive advantage in product search?

According to a survey from Capgemini, 40 percent of consumers predict that three years from now, they will be more likely to use a voice assistant rather than engage with a retailer’s mobile app or website. Where do you see voice commerce making the biggest difference in the shopping journey?