I could buy one just for fun, not to depend on it like your friends. The idea of having a machine answering my questions is very sci fi and I would like that hahahaha.
At first I thought it was cool but then it dawned on me that it wasn't really saving my friend any time, in many instances the things that Alexa could do for him it actually took longer than to just stand up and flip the lightswitch that was directly behind where my friend was sitting.The thing with the time it takes to do things as you mentioned makes me think in old people. Maybe old people can benefit from this technology, for them is easier to wait for alexa that stand up and do a thing by themselves.