Alexa has enabled the disabled community, especially those paralyzed or with diseases such as ALS, to enjoy a level of freedom at a relatively low technical entry point. Out of the box, with very little configuration, these people can now reassume a level of control over relatively simple things in their lives which were not possible before. Something as simple as lights, music, television, temperature control or opening and closing doors. It has been an absolute life changer for my family.

The one drawback here is that if the internet goes down, Alexa is unable to fulfill requests. For something like lights or music, that might not be a big deal... but for something like opening a door in an emergency it could be a literal life saver. If I could set something up like having an Echo on a UPS system and in the case where my router could not reach the internet, it forwards requests to a raspberry pi running something like GreenGrass which allows for Alexa to route messages to devices connected to my network that would make Alexa far more powerful device.

For my particular use case this would be a very targeted skill for my setup, but I'm sure there are other great use cases for this as well.