Vlad Bondarenko, ReferOn: “The affiliate AI era hasn’t arrived, but it’s time to lay the foundation”

Ahead of SBC Summit Lisbon, Vlad Bondarenko, Head of Product at ReferOn, spoke to Focus Gaming News about the use of AI in the industry, and how he believes it will change the sector in the coming years.

Exclusive interview.- On September 16, a new edition of SBC Summit will begin at the Feira Internacional de Lisboa. There, on September 18, Vladyslav Bondarenko, head of product at ReferOn, will participate in a panel titled “AI Agents vs. Affiliates – Adapting to a Changing Landscape”.

Prior to his participation there, Vlad spoke with Focus Gaming News and shared his vision on the use of artificial intelligence in the industry, and, more specifically, in the area of affiliate marketing. He also shared his opinion on the role that AI will play in the coming years, and explained how ReferOn is preparing its platform to effectively integrate AI in the future while continuing to offer value to affiliates in the present.

You’ve said the Affiliate AI era hasn’t arrived yet — what’s the main gap between the industry’s current use of AI and its full potential?

Today, affiliate marketing is mostly cosmetic. Dashboards with “smart” labels, chatbots, or fraud alerts that still need manual confirmation. The real gap is that workflows and data structures weren’t built with AI in mind. AI can’t deliver beyond surface-level automation without clean, standardised inputs and logical business rules. 

Right now, there’s more hype than value. Everyone wants to stick the “AI” label on their product so it looks good in a pitch deck. However, most of it is smoke and mirrors. You end up with tools that rebrand old automation as “AI” or bolt on a chatbot without fixing real-life pain points. The problem is fragmentation: each vendor adds isolated “AI features,” but there’s no ecosystem-level standard. If reporting formats differ, KPIs are inconsistent, and reward logic is buried in mundane spreadsheets, then AI is just painting over cracks. For AI to be meaningful, the entire stack, from track to payments, has to speak a common language. Until then, the industry will keep mistaking cosmetic tools for real transformation.

When you talk about “laying the foundation,” what specific changes in workflows, interfaces, or business logic do affiliates and operators need to start making today?

They need to redesign around three things:

• Data hygiene: consistent, structured, and transparent reporting.
• Workflows: repetitive manual tasks (tracking link generation, campaign setup, reward-plan edits, invoice chasing) should be automated by default.
• Interfaces: tools should expose decisions, not just numbers, so AI can plug in without rewriting the whole logic later.

In practice, this means eliminating manual CSV exports, aligning KPIs across departments, and structuring reward plans like modular blocks rather than hard-coded formulas. Interfaces must evolve from passive dashboards into decision layers, where insights are explained and options suggested. The goal is to make the system executable by machines without losing human oversight.

What role do you see AI playing in affiliate marketing once these foundations are in place? Will it be more about automation, decision-making, or even creative optimisation?

• First wave: automation of repetitive tasks.
• Second: decision support — spotting anomalies, suggesting deal optimisations, risk scoring.
• Third: creative optimisation — tailoring campaigns, personalising offers, and even predicting partner performance. But the sequence matters; skipping straight to “AI creativity” without fixing the basics will only amplify chaos.

AI will evolve from “assistant” to “co-manager.” First, it will remove the grunt work that burns human time. Next, it will detect patterns invisible to managers, like predicting an affiliate’s lifetime value or spotting risk before it materialises. Finally, once workflows are clean, AI can safely move into campaign design: testing creatives, optimising funnels, and tailoring offers dynamically. The danger is trying to jump to this last step too early. Without clean logic and trustworthy data, “AI creativity” becomes noise, not value.

Some industries are rushing into AI adoption without a strong infrastructure behind it. What risks does the affiliate sector face if it tries to skip the foundation stage?

The biggest risk is trust erosion. Affiliates already worry about “shaving” or opaque reporting. If AI decisions are built on inconsistent or incomplete data, the output will look biased or manipulated. Without transparent logic and validated datasets, AI will make platforms less credible, not more efficient.

The industry’s credibility is fragile. If operators introduce black-box AI that affiliates don’t trust, the narrative shifts from “innovation” to “manipulation.” Another risk is dependency: giving away critical workflows to AI tools without owning the rules behind them. That makes platforms vulnerable not just to errors, but to accusations of fraud. For an industry built on partnership and transparency, that’s a dangerous path.

“If operators introduce black-box AI that affiliates don’t trust, the narrative shifts from ‘innovation’ to ‘manipulation’.”

Vladyslav Bondarenko, head of product at ReferOn.

From ReferOn’s perspective, how are you preparing your platform to integrate AI effectively in the future while still delivering value to affiliates right now?

We’re building the groundwork:

• Structuring workflows so tasks like link generation or campaign setup can be automated.
• Standardising data pipelines so AI can run on consistent inputs.
• Designing interfaces that make room for recommendations, not just static stats.

Today, affiliates already benefit from automation and transparency. Tomorrow, those same structures will let AI handle the heavy lifting without breaking trust.

For us, “AI readiness” isn’t a feature; it’s architecture. Every function we design, from payments to cohort analysis, is API-first and modular so that AI agents can plug in without hacks. Every workflow includes an audit trail, so recommendations can be traced back and verified. The value today is efficiency and clarity. Tomorrow’s value is a seamless handover to AI without changing the rules mid-game.

Looking ahead 2–3 years, what concrete signs should the industry watch for that will indicate the “true AI era” for affiliates has finally begun?

AI agents reliably handling portfolios of 1,000+ affiliates without daily micromanagement:

• Fraud detection shifting from flagging “suspicious” to auto-resolving low-risk cases.
• Campaign and reward-plan creation becoming one-click, with AI suggesting the best fit.
• Operators measuring affiliate managers by strategic outcomes, not by how many spreadsheets they survive each day.

That’s when we’ll know AI isn’t just a buzzword, it’s infrastructure.

The clear milestone will be when affiliate managers no longer spend 80 per cent of their time firefighting. Instead, AI will handle the operational load — tracking accuracy, fraud resolution, routine optimisations — leaving humans to focus on negotiation, strategy, and relationship-building. 

Another sign will be when “trust” flips, like when affiliates see AI-driven reporting as more reliable than manual processes. That shift, from scepticism to confidence, will mark the true arrival of the AI era.