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

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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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Chapters

1. How Buddy.ai Became the Leading AI Tutors for Kids Worldwide with Co‑Founder Ivan Crewkov (00:00:00)

2. Ivan Crewkov’s journey from building smart speakers to founding Buddy.ai. (00:02:27)

3. Designing Buddy.ai as more than a chatbot—a gamified, lovable learning companion. (00:04:40)

4. How kids around the world discover and champion Buddy.ai themselves. (00:07:43)

5. Expanding Buddy.ai into classrooms in Latin America and beyond. (00:11:18)

6. Building proprietary speech recognition for children where others struggled. (00:16:57)

7. Buddy.ai’s unexpected role in speech therapy for kids with special needs. (00:22:08)

8. Why Buddy is designed as a study buddy, not an authority figure. (00:27:02)

9. Using generative AI to accelerate content creation and storytelling. (00:34:49)

10. Guardrails for safe, child-centered AI companions. (00:40:12)

11. Lessons EdTech can learn from the entertainment and gaming industries. (00:43:13)

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