In many homes today, scenes from futuristic movies are playing out: A child enters a room and asks it for a weather update, to turn on the TV or to call Mom. Like magic, it happens.

But that “magic” is actually made possible by voice assistant software and conversational artificial intelligence, which are at the core of virtual assistants.

In the U.S., voice assistants include Apple’s Siri, Amazon’s Alexa, Microsoft’s Cortana, Samsung’s Bixby and the Google Assistant. According to Statista, 31 percent of U.S. broadband households own smart speakers with these voice assistants.

Today, they’re also being used for at-home learning. Families are turning their smart speakers into virtual school bells to recreate familiar routines for students and help them stay on schedule with their online learning.

While current voice assistant solutions were not built for education, schools should still keep an eye on this technology. Here’s why.