Disclosure: Work at Amazon but am mostly just an Alexa fan.
Potentially you could make it do anything you can code on your PC.
I particularly like being able to do the voice note when I'm trying to go to sleep but think of something I need to do. I can just say it outloud and not have to look at my blinding phone.
Edit: I also have a plan to add a command to schedule commands. So I could say something like "schedule March 6 message cliff Dude pancake day is coming soon!"
The Dot is easily one of my top 5 kitchen gadgets, it handles multiple concurrent timers, it's hands free so you don't get schmoo from your hands all over it, it can do unit conversions (e.g. How many teaspoons in a cup?), and math (e.g. What is 5 times 1/3?).
These are all things you can do yourself but just as you might ask someone "what's 54.32 * 3?" to save yourself some mental gymnastics, you can ask Alexa those same types of questions.
Funny thought: isn't this how the plot for the movie "Her" goes? <spoiler>All of the AIs join together.</spoiler>
Hey Siri, do this works well enough and is a little more practical since I always have my phone. She can do a lot of the same basic stuff like turn on lights, etc.
Bonus she can play songs from apple music.
This can't end well...
