First came the computer. Then the network emerged, allowing multiple devices in the same location to share information. From there the internet evolved, giving humanity the ability to store, sort, and find information with nothing but a typed request.

All signs point to digital assistants being the next revolution in computing. iPhones have Siri, Google has Assistant, Microsoft has Cortana, and Amazon has Alexa, and all of them can get you results with nothing but a voice command.

Alexa has dominated the digital assistant space in the past few years, quickly becoming a household name. Amazon has established an early foothold in the war for digital assistant supremacy, but for those that don’t use Alexa or one of its competitors, there’s still the question of what exactly they are.

TechRepublic’s cheat sheet about Amazon Alexa is an introduction to this digital assistant, as well as a “living” guide that will be updated periodically. There is also a free PDF version of this article: Amazon Alexa: An insider’s guide.