Amazon has announced a new version of its digital assistant, Alexa, will become more chatty and more proactive in response to criticism that the Echo has stagnated since its launch in 2016. The company claims that 52% of the UK has already tried the Echo and there have been 114 billion "interactions" with the device since 2023, roughly 1,500 interactions per person. The update could help Amazon identify more data about its users and potentially help them target ads.