How Buddy.ai Became the Leading AI Tutors for Kids Worldwide with Co‑Founder Ivan Crewkov

Sep 15, 2025

Ivan Crewkov, CEO and Co-Founder of Buddy.ai, shares his journey from creating smart speakers to developing a unique AI tutor for kids. He discusses how Buddy.ai gamifies language learning and its widespread adoption in classrooms globally. Crewkov highlights the innovative speech recognition technology tailored for children and Buddy's unexpected role in aiding speech therapy for kids with special needs. The conversation also touches on using generative AI to enhance educational content, blending entertainment with immersive learning experiences.

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ANECDOTE

From Smart Speakers To A Child's Tutor

Ivan moved to the US and used his voice-AI experience to solve his daughter's English-speaking struggles.
He recorded live teacher sessions and realized a virtual talking character could replace scripted tutors affordably.

INSIGHT

Magic Of Voice Drives Engagement

Buddy is designed as a talking animated character with gamified rewards that respond to a child's voice.
The app ties curriculum progress to in-game actions to make speaking feel like casting spells.

INSIGHT

Kids Find And Promote Buddy

Around 70% of Buddy downloads are initiated by children, especially outside the U.S.
Kids create user-generated content and champion Buddy organically, boosting adoption.

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Ivan Crewkov is the CEO and Co-Founder of Buddy.ai, the leading AI tutor for kids under 12, reaching over 20 million students annually from all over the world. Buddy is not just a chatbot. It’s an AI-powered talking animated character in a mobile app teaching English as a foreign language to students all over the world. Buddy is unique because it operates in a highly regulated environment where most off-the-shelf AIs like Chat GPT can't be used.

💡 5 Things You’ll Learn in This Episode:

From voice AI experiment to global learning companion
Building child-focused speech recognition in a regulated space
Blending gaming, storytelling, and education to engage kids
Buddy.ai’s growing adoption in classrooms worldwide
The future of Buddy.ai as a personalized, adaptive tutor

✨ Episode Highlights:
[00:02:11] Ivan Crewkov’s journey from building smart speakers to founding Buddy.ai.
[00:04:24] Designing Buddy.ai as more than a chatbot—a gamified, lovable learning companion.
[00:07:27] How kids around the world discover and champion Buddy.ai themselves.
[00:11:02] Expanding Buddy.ai into classrooms in Latin America and beyond.
[00:16:41] Building proprietary speech recognition for children where others struggled.
[00:20:56] Buddy.ai’s unexpected role in speech therapy for kids with special needs.
[00:25:50] Why Buddy is designed as a study buddy, not an authority figure.
[00:33:37] Using generative AI to accelerate content creation and storytelling.
[00:39:00] Guardrails for safe, child-centered AI companions.
[00:42:01] Lessons EdTech can learn from the entertainment and gaming industries.

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