"The exciting role of AI in affiliate marketing isn't content or chatbots but how it can quietly transform the backbone of operations"

At this year’s SBC Summit, few topics are set to spark as much curiosity — and debate — as the role of AI in the sector, including its use in affiliate marketing. On the panel "AI Agents vs. Affiliates – Adapting to a Changing Landscape", Vlad Bondarenko, Head of Product at ReferOn, will cut through the buzz to talk about where automation is truly delivering value and where the human touch remains irreplaceable.

In this conversation with Yogonet, Bondarenko offers a grounded, product-focused view on AI’s current impact, the “plumbing” innovations that matter more than the headlines, and why, in an era of machine-generated everything, authenticity might be the ultimate competitive edge.

As Head of Product at ReferOn, how are you seeing AI most actively reshape the affiliate marketing space today, from a product and performance perspective?

Truthfully, AI isn’t reshaping much yet, not at scale. We’re mostly seeing early experiments: copy generation, smart alerts, maybe a dashboard assistant here and there.

But the real shift isn’t about tools, it's about logic. When AI starts replacing spreadsheets, if/else flows, and manual reporting, that’s when the architecture of affiliate platforms will change. Until then, we’re just scratching the surface. The balance is this: AI handles process, humans handle priorities. Strategy is still very human.

Why do you think this debate (AI Agents vs. Affiliates) has become such a hot topic in the current landscape? Where do you see the most exciting or underrated use cases of AI in affiliate marketing today?

Because automation always creates tension in human-driven industries. Affiliates rely on personal judgment, negotiation, and creative hustle. So when AI enters the room, it feels like a threat. But the irony is that most of the affiliate workflow today is incredibly automatable.

The exciting part isn’t content or chatbots — it’s boring stuff like campaign management and tracking links, payouts, KPI tracking, and anomaly detection. That’s where AI can quietly transform the backbone of operations, not the headlines, but the plumbing.

Which affiliate functions do you believe are best handled by AI right now, and which still require human judgment or creative nuance? Where do human affiliates still hold the edge in terms of value creation?

AI should already be doing things like:

• auto-generating performance reports (why are people still exporting to Excel?)
• flagging suspicious traffic patterns in real time (e.g., sudden spike from Tier-3 GEOs)
• automating offer matching based on the affiliate's past performance
• suggesting optimal CTAs or landing pages by segment.

That’s not innovation — that’s just cleaning up the mess we’ve accepted as "normal."

But AI should not be:

• negotiating exclusivity deals with top affiliates,
• deciding how much goodwill credit to extend after a conversion dispute,
• or writing personal messages that retain your top 5 partners.

You can’t outsource intuition, tact, or context. And that’s what keeps people in the loop — where it matters.

How should affiliates think about preserving authenticity, voice, and trust in a landscape where AI might produce similar content at scale?

By leaning into what AI can’t replicate:

• personality,
• lived experience,
• and true audience connection.

If everyone is using the same AI tools to write, design, or optimize — the differentiator becomes voice. The affiliate who builds a brand and a community will always outperform the one who just scales output.

So ironically, the more AI there is, the more human authenticity matters.

What would your advice be to a mid-level affiliate today, feeling overwhelmed by AI adoption but unsure how to integrate it meaningfully into their workflow?

Don’t chase the hype. Start with the bottleneck. If something’s eating up your time automating reports, cleaning data, repurposing content, experiment with a simple AI tool there. Mastering one use case is better than half-baking ten. AI is leverage. Use it to reduce friction, not replace your core value.

Looking ahead, how do you envision the affiliate ecosystem evolving over the next few years? Are we heading toward hybrid models or a complete shift in roles?

It’ll be hybrid, not because AI can’t do more, but because the industry still runs on context, negotiation, and nuance. The real evolution won’t come from gimmicks; it’ll come from platforms that rethink their architecture to make intelligent automation native:

• trigger-based workflows,
• agent-powered interfaces,
• and deeply integrated data systems.

The future isn’t about “more dashboards.” It’s about less friction and more actionable insight, delivered where it matters.

Join us for an exclusive 1-on-1 with ReferOn at SBC Summit — book your meeting here: https://www.referon.com/events/sbc-lisbon