At this week’s Consumer Electronics Show (CES), digital assistants – voice-activated and AI-driven – were in the spotlight. These devices have the potential to be the new smartphone for digital services providers, creating a powerful opportunity for Google, Amazon, Apple and others to control the user experience across mobile, smart home and media usage, and to place their content and apps center-stage. Google and Apple succeeded in doing that in the smartphone, but now need additional platforms to drive uptake of their services and their access to customer data. Amazon and other web players failed to break the Apple/Android duopoly in handsets, but see digital assistants as their new chance to shine. So Amazon was trying to keep up the…