iFlytek’s AI tutor doubled revenue in six months
Inside the strategy that turned Spark X1 into a commercial win, blending advanced reasoning models, education-focused AI, and 2,000 retail centers to capture China’s tutoring market.
Reports 104% revenue surge: iFlytek’s AI Learning Machine revenue jumped 104% year-on-year in 1H25, with gross profit up 116%, making it a rare scaled success in China’s crowded AI hardware market.
Delivers deep-reasoning advantage: The Spark X1 large model achieved 2.39% hallucination rates versus 6.8% for peers, using 70B parameters to rival OpenAI’s o3 and DeepSeek’s R1 with lower compute costs.
Builds trust through education focus: Strategic partnerships with the Chinese Academy of Education Sciences and joint labs with the National Education Examination Authority enable higher accuracy in Gaokao grading pilots.
Strengthens brand-led growth: iFlytek shifted its marketing model toward brand advertising, boosting C-end hardware marketing by ¥340 million in 1H25 while expanding to nearly 2,000 retail experience centers.
China's AI hardware market in 2025 presents a striking contrast. Dozens of devices debut each quarter, but very few achieve scaled consumer adoption. Among the rare successes, iFlytek’s AI Learning Machine leads the way, translating advanced reasoning models into tangible household value and rapid sales growth.
Scaled Consumer AI Arrives Where Schooling Meets Software
iFlytek reported that its AI Learning Machine revenue surged 104% year-on-year in the first half of 2025, with gross profit climbing 116%.
Unlike many AI wearables still stuck in concept stages, this product has turned policy alignment, software innovation, and retail distribution into measurable gains.
Recognition came from the World Artificial Intelligence Conference (WAIC) 2025, where the AI Learning Machine was named a Treasure of the Pavilion, the only education-focused AI hardware to receive the distinction.
Spark X1 Powers Reasoning Breakthroughs
The success of iFlytek’s Learning Machine relies heavily on its proprietary Spark X1 model.
In July 2025, internal benchmarks showed the Spark-X1-0720 model achieving a 2.39% hallucination rate on factuality tasks, compared with 6.8% for peer systems.