By the end of this year, almost half of the country will own a smart speaker

There's been a bit of conventional wisdom out there up to this point that most people who own smart speakers -- which isn't a majority of consumers, by any means -- are mainly using them for somewhat frivolous activities. Like, Hey Alexa, tell me the weather. Play me a song. Tell me what's on my schedule today. Somewhat helpful tasks that, okay, make your day slightly better, but your life wouldn't be meaningfully worse if you didn't have a smart speaker to help with those things, right? New res...