Businesses are preparing for the voice-control revolution, but many users are already finding Alexa and Echo too chatty by half

Voice control promises to change the way we interact with technology in much the same way the touch-screen smartphone or tablet interface has over the past decade. For starters, if services such as Amazon’s digital assistant Alexa and Google Home really take off, they may well begin the arguably overdue process of weaning us away from those screens.

Penetration of devices such as Amazon’s Echo speaker, featuring its Alexa assistant, isn’t near the ...