It won't likely include Alexa, since you have Cortana. Alexa doesn't include Siri or Cortana and Siri doesn't include Alexa. Cortana is highly integrated with Bing and not sure how those other assistants would integrate to Bing or even get into the innards of them since Microsoft might not have access to their source code to make that tight integration.
Getting Cortana to work even better would be a start and as far as how many functional apps available, that is something that they would have to market in some way and over time as the user base using those apps increases, so will the users that want to purchase the phone.
I have a feeling that consumers see that their bank app is available so they get that phone. The app becomes the determining factor. Whether they can text quickly or have a great phone connection, etc., are not the primary things I believe users look to in making a determination whether to purchase a phone brand or not. Once they select one, they continue to repurchase the same brand, as long as that app or apps they have downloaded works the way they expect. The phone from the consumer point of view has become a $800 commodity in the Apple world and slightly less in Android. This market (consumer market) is saturated at this level. That's why Apple is trying to go after the Indian and Chinese market to grow more, because in the US market they have peaked. that's also why Microsoft knows that they need to find another niche cause they will never become even #2 the way the consume market is today. The finalist are in and they are likely not gong to slip in position from what they are now in.
