Yeah, I have cortana on my computer and don't use it. I have google thingie on my phone and use it occasionally. I use the Echo all the time, several times a day as its hands free. I don't have to turn anything on, its always ready.
I can have my hands in a bowl of ground beef and ask the weather, add something to my shopping list, re-order something from Amazon, do a conversion from a german cookbook to a english measure, find out what time it is in Dubai so I don't miss a Tennis match, set a timer, and another timer, continue reading the book with TTS, get some headlines news, play a german radio statio, all while I knead my beef.
And lots more. Music of course.
And I don't even use it for any automation as I don't have anything like that in the house hooked up.