Alexa used to answer questions asked, which was a cute novelty, but now she tries to sell something or rambles on at length about related topics instead of answering the question and shutting up.

My wife still uses Alexa to play music on a smart speaker we have. Sometimes, I’ll ask it to play music from an artist, then she’ll come back with “you need the upgraded plan”, blah, blah, blah. I ask again to play music from the exact same artist, and there’s no problem…

When tech gets in the way of the task, it’s failed technology, IMO.