Trust gaps, AI hype and an AI affiliate manager, with ReferOn Head of Product Vlad Bondarenko

Vlad Bondarenko is Head of Product at ReferOn, an affiliate tracking platform. Interviewed by AffPapa at a conference, he describes the gaps he sees between platforms, operators and affiliates, why he thinks AI in the industry is more hype than value, and how ReferOn approaches payments, reporting and its rebuilt reward engine.

In this episode

• Bondarenko sees a gap between affiliate tracking platforms and affiliates. He says platforms know what operators need but not what affiliates want, which is easy access to real-time data (0:33, 1:00).

• Borrowing a line heard at the conference, he says operators and affiliates are "a big Tinder": close but distrustful. Back after about two years away from events, he likes the shift toward fairness and trust (2:00, 2:30, 3:02).

• He says AI is more hype than value because foundations such as proper reports are missing. Affiliates still juggle many logins to manage traffic splits, so the basics come first (3:02, 3:30, 4:01).

• He is exploring an AI-powered junior affiliate manager. One manager may have 2,000 accounts, and an assistant could handle KPIs, tracking links and reports and show which decision to make (4:32, 5:01).

• He says ReferOn released a new payments module with approvals, affiliate balances, invoice upload and automated payouts. Affiliates will later request payments and create invoices in the system (6:30, 7:01, 7:32).

• He says reports are dynamic, with split and breakdown down to player level. Independent deal calculation stops one brand's negative revenue share cutting another's earnings, and the reward engine was rebuilt from scratch (8:02, 8:32, 9:01, 9:31).

Interview from AffPapa Exclusive Interviews by AffPapa Media, published on YouTube.