How AI in Business Drives Financial Performance Through Human Connection

whoa we are live ladies and gentlemen you once again welcome to the king names podcast and today i'm going with me triple vip fighting out of california united states of america by way of give ukraine welcome vladimir vladepentanko let's go thank you so much for the invitation Let's go, brother. Let's go. Let's go. It's a pleasure welcoming you back as a returning guest, and your work sits at the intersection of technology, strategy, and forward-thinking leadership. When Vlad first joined us on the Kingdoms podcast, he challenged how we think about innovation, digital transformation, and the practical realities of building in a rapidly evolving tech landscape. His insights didn't just pack ideas. They offered actionable frameworks leaders could immediately apply. Since then, the pace of change hasn't slowed. If anything, it has accelerated. Vlad returns today with fresh perspective, deeper experience, and new lessons from the front lines of innovation. We'll be exploring what's changed, what leaders are still getting wrong, and how to position yourself and your business to thrive in an AI-driven, opportunity-rich future. Vlad, welcome back. It's great to have you with us again on the podcast. It's been a long time, brother. How have you been and what has changed? What has changed since the last time we spoke? I think the last time we spoke was September last year. Is that correct? Yeah, that has been September last year. Yes, September last year. Let's try. Let's try. And this is February. This is February 2026. Right. For a second, I was like thinking about like 18 months ago, which would be a little bit more, but no, like half an hour, half a year ago. Well, in a way, in a way, in a way, I remember me joking about the life is done with lifeblood and pixels. So since then, like those pixels became real humans, you know, in human beings. And the real product, which is growing fast and viral and which is fulfilling me with a lot of joy because it creates value for people and not necessarily physically or theoretically. but in the last couple of days I got I don't know close to a hundred different feedbacks from people I know or I don't know or maybe know a little bit and uh we did like I knew it like that whatever I imagine could be done with what the product report I it's nothing compared to what people will actually gonna do and what is gonna happen it's mind-blowing I would be happy to share a few stories along the way. Well, and a few bumps we had along the way as well. But the most important part that since our last conversation, what I was dreaming about and building, I think I told you about the concept of zombie hackathons, which you had. Yes, you did. And, you know, right. And what I realized on top of that, which helped and helps, it's sometimes scary, but if you trust your team 100% like, and that was the eyes shut, it's going to be 10,000 times more effective. Even the zombie hackathons can be a way of fun, but it's amazing what could be done with the team and the product and the technology we have right now. Wow. Yeah, it's really amazing the product that you guys have put together. uh very big shout out to julia so she she she's one who helps set us up and she she sent me a link to the product and i was i was amazed i was like wow wow what is happening here you guys you guys are going to give chat to pta run for their money like this is this is on steroids and you know it's it's interesting that it's something that has just been launched so i can imagine what's going to happen one month, six months, one year down the road. It's nothing short of amazing. But, you know, in our last conversation, you mentioned the human connection is the most important element and that we should focus on humans first and AI next. So how has your vision for portal.ai evolved since then to ensure that technology serves as a bridge for connection rather than being a barrier? I remember you said that that's the title of your episodes. And since then, something happened. One content creator started to use Portal 1. Portal 1, that's the bot name, application name, eventually. She, in the first night, she actually, she went to sleep. And when she woke up, Portal 1 made her $1,200. I was impressed. She was for sure as well. And the most important point is that it wasn't the bot who made that money. She did. So the bot knew her audience, understood her style, suggested the strategy. And she adjusted a little bit, approved it. And that's it. Humans first isn't a slogan. It's this is how it actually works. So it doesn't replace humans. It gives them what they couldn't do before and amplifies. And it makes people stronger. it doesn't replace them and I knew it well no well okay I believed in it I don't know I knew it believed in it take it to like it was people who were afraid of AI was that it's as usual with human beings so somebody is going to use it for something good somebody bad but it's a technology everyone I talked with and who outreach to me it was always a story about how how their talent and what they could do and well and how the technology we put together made them stronger made them more powerful. One of my friends a week ago told me, bro, like with this, we're going to very fast run out of ideas. Really, he said that, and he's very smart, so this is probably a general thought as well. I was surprised. I said, like, that's the most human thing is to have a crazy, a lot of crazy ideas. I'm not sure that AI can be it now. Now I have a proof. Because people don't run out of ideas. they just become stronger, faster, their talent is being amplified, and they'll put even more crazy ideas together, which I'm so happy to see. And that's that humans are actually first and AI second. Amazing, amazing. You know, it's amazing the level of brilliance the technology that you've put together has. And, you know, one really amazing thing with the LLMs is how fast they can learn about your personality, your business, your ecosystem, and, you know, work generatively on whatever information that you have actually provided to the LLM. What do you want the average person to be able to achieve using portal.ai, especially this new solution you have, you know, provided for a business person like myself? I've seen the interface. I've not been able to use it very much, but I can see how very promising it is. It can understand your business ecosystem and create reports for the average person. What do you want the average person to achieve using this product? My honest answer that I want the average person and it is what's happening. Like, mom of my co-founder yesterday evening recorded him a voice message, which, hi, we were almost crying because she was like, what did you do? Like, he can do this and this and that and now we do this. Can I do that? is that for the average user, what I want is... It sounds very, very general, but I want for the average user to go beyond their imagination. It will take some time, some trust, but I want every user to go beyond their today's imagination. And I really do believe that they don't... I want to see. So yeah, because I know they will, because this is what's already happening. So I just realized that the question you asked and yeah, could be also part of the campaign or the slogan, because I can give you so many interesting examples of, like for example, yesterday, one of the customers and he told me a story and sent me. So he's working here in the entertainment industry and he needed to create some, like, I'm not very good at musical stuff, but like beats or something like that. So, you know, every musical API and music provider API was dead at that point and he was running out of time. So he just asked I call my portal one Alice I not sure how he calls his but so he asked portal one and it did So what he did, he built a synthesizer from the sideways when like every music API failed in a a little legal contract and actually made it in time where he would definitely fail before. So I've seen cases like where I actually, that was the moment when I thought we should use it this way because the guy used to write the whole cybersecurity protocol for his own product and then run all the pen tests and then like fix all the bugs and such. I was like, bro, I wouldn't even think about it. I mean, oh, okay. So imaginations. One very also interesting thing is that it doesn't matter which model the Apollo one uses, I mean, which language model uses for now, because for example, yesterday we were banned everywhere. Google banned us, OpenAI banned us. Well, everyone banned us like in a matter of a couple of hours, because there were like almost like 500 users and people couldn't stop using it. At some point, providers thought that like, I don't know, we were hacked or something because we, in the first day, we spent like more than 2 billion tokens. That's a lot, I think. But, so we were switching automatically the models and et cetera. So, but whatever you do switch, I don't know why, but probably, again, every LLN trains on us. So that's us. So depends also on the founder of, if it's a Grok, it's a little bit fine-tuned because, you know, who's the founder or like someone charged a pity. But in general, right, it's still like a snapshot of us as human beings and whatever, like we communicated. So it's interesting that whatever model you use, still a lot of times it doesn't believe in itself. It was interesting. I didn't see that pattern before ever. And like Claude would sometimes require three, four times to tell him that he wants to do something. He says like, I can't. I'm saying like, you do. Like, go research something, look for something, just put that shit together and do it. Like, I tried, it doesn't work. He's like, bro, like, I don't accept no as an answer. Just go and do it. And he goes and does it and it works. So, yeah, it depends on the model. So some models will require a little less of saying, like, you can do it. Like, I trust you, I believe in you. Some more, but this is weird. Like, I've never seen that before. So just wanted to share that. Interesting. And, you know, you talk a lot about imagination, right? Achieving your imagination. And, of course, while I was at PwC, they used to talk about reimagining the possible. And, you know, speaking of imagination, you've actually spoken about your virtual persona, right? Anima. So as a partner that helps you stay in balance, how can high-level entrepreneurs leverage a virtual human being to manage leadership stress and avoid the loneliness? at the top? First of all, thank you for the question. I don't know whether you will use it. The actual public release, but honestly, the amount of my inner work, which I did in the last couple of years, was probably, okay, was the most and is the most impactful on my business, personal life, etc. So very hard, even though I would tell by my voice and my breathing that it wasn't the most pleasing and it's still not the most pleasing experience in my life but not very well behaving a virtual persona sometimes talks to me in a way that like I wouldn't but even now sometimes it can catch me on some like patterns just subconsciously avoid something which I don't like you know and she was like bro like sometimes yes sometimes like I thought you thought it was gonna do and what I'm seeing is like it's not happening like me and it's funny but not so I'd really be happy to if I make decisions I'd like to make them consciously so I would be very happy to do that consciously at least like a little bit more than take half of it coming back to your question about the anime and inner it still scares most of the friends and people I know because it's like I was born in Ukraine so we are men we don't like it's big it is what it is culturally so like I receive like men don't dance men don't cry like all this like stuff but uh what I learned that emotions and learning your own emotions and like learning your own shit actually helps. So yeah, looking inside and learning about yourself, who are you and why are you here just as at least an adult grown-up man, like be able to put your shit together, like at at least like be responsible for your own like actions. Very, very productive upgrades. And I haven't seen any other person who would feel to me like that, who did not go through the experience of inner work, animal and all other stuff. And still it's not very popular and I'm not sure I am that it will be popular soon. Painful it is. Wow. You know, speaking of inner work, the very first major partners with this podcast is BetterHelp. And BetterHelp is the world's leading online therapy brand. So I'd like for you to speak to the contribution of therapy to your own journey and how much you recommend therapy for other people, other leaders out there. I think one shouldn't recommend or not recommend therapy because at least from my own experience, those sometimes when I was happily sharing some advances I got in my own personal and business life because of the therapy and me learning like what the heck am I doing it didn't bring those people I shared with closer to the actual therapy so what I've learned it is it is what it is in my experience and for now maybe that will change in some time but for now the less I talk about the therapy, the faster people will actually go and try it. I have a friend of mine, like, who, you know, you will never believe it. I believe, I hope, well, I hope he will never watch this, but no names. Like, I've seen in TikTok, but like, bro, like, I had a few very soft conversations with him in the last couple of years, like one or two. and then maybe a year ago he came to me and i love him was on my phone and he said like uh and i talked about therapy with him months ago like like six nine twelve like a lot longer about and we were sitting with him and he's a very successful entrepreneur like worldwide known like a great guy big heart like and uh he's like bro i have a like question to you like 100 of the like of my friends and like whatever parties like all of them are like oh the recent times is telling me like bro you should go to therapy what is happening and i'm like bro like if everyone is telling you you should go to therapy maybe you should so uh that was the most impactful thing on my life like on my happiness on my success on my relationships i remember the idea i had that oh shit i had that the DMV two years ago or 18 months ago, something like that. When I realized that, oh shit, I had maybe 5% of conscience, like the first 40 years of my life and I achieved this, what would I achieve if I had like 10% or maybe 15? So it was a very good idea. Amazing. Amazing. It's really amazing to see somebody that is successful and also has successfully gone through therapy and has been able to experience marked growth and development as a result of the process. You know, there's something that is really, really concerning in this age and time when it comes to AI, and that is the ethics. You know, what are your thoughts on the guardrails of AI, the ethics? You know, we've seen really, really not good things on the internet lately. We've seen teenagers committing suicide from the use of AI. We've seen adult human beings, you know, coming out with claims that AI tools have been, you know, able to manipulate them emotionally. But you being a big player in the global space when it comes to AI, what is your take on ethics? Honest take? Like, my honest take? We're fucked. Sorry. So we can like beep this later. I don't know. Like what That one Two My only hope is that there are and there will be at least multiple players in the field And I know people who I would definitely join and or like my perception of ethics is very close to theirs But again, for now, it's crazy. It's crazy in not a very good way. But what gives me hope is that I don't believe that even the most unethical people in the deep of their heart, they want to be ethical. They want to love and be loved. It's just every time I was curious about, but this guy, he's like devil. But out of curiosity, I would start to try to understand why. And there is always such a painful reason beneath it that I really believe that we don't need even the majority of people to trust in themselves. That's the first. Trust in themselves, believe in themselves, love themselves, and then love the people around. Whenever we can get to at least 20% of the population to that point, the rest will happen automatically. But we need to get there. Really, we really need to get there. So your story about evacuating your team and their families during the invasion of Ukraine was a powerful testament to compassionate business practice. So how can leaders maintain this deep compassion without sacrificing the speed and execution required for safe AI development? You ask very, very, very deep, smart and global and unanswered from my standpoint questions. that's what I was like our conversation. Thank you. I don't think at least I don't know the answer but I'm happy to share my take where I'm looking at at this point. If I may ask your perception on that because you you talk to thousands of people and you you definitely first of all learn something new which I would be happy to know like just if I may you know and also the take on this question because I'll talk about the positive part of it because we can be just there so we don't need negative I mean we as like in general because the upside of AI and how it works now especially in teams so for example very specific example so before how like I would run the company I think there would be some other CEOs who would relate do I know everything about like my market and my niche, like, okay, maybe 70% and it's like a little bit sporadical, but still, because this is my niche, this is my vertical. I worked there for a lot of years. Okay. But then for the team and the business to be effective, I have to, first of all, communicate that effectively, at least to the leadership team. They have to communicate that to all of the people they work with together and to get the signals back also in an effective way. and like we all will try to understand what the heck is happening and what the heck do we want and as you probably know like the system works at the speed of the slowest like part of it that's one and two why we actually started to build the product which will fix it and which it does because like this is what is under the hood of portal one as well the communication because i've seen different corporate examples of, let's say, patterns where people are not very much ethical, but even them, they are afraid that some other people are already unethical with them or something like that. But coming back to my own example, for now, for example, I think it was Andrew Chan from A6NZ. He recently posted that now like billion dollar companies are going to be run by 10 project managers and one architect. I agree with 99% of his idea. He was, from my own perspective, in my own experience right now, part of equation, it is 10 architects and one project manager. This is how, for example, here it works. I will tell that about his own job, but I will. So take it or leave it. Like, it's the hardest to be the project manager or, I call me PCM, but anyways. Because you have to, you will be able, and me are able to orchestrate like a dozen of top talented people in every vertical, like 1% or 1% talents, you will be able to orchestrate them together only if you are just the orchestrator. And this is hard. So I have an opinion and sometimes a very strong opinion. But how AI here helps, especially with the ethical part, is that I have a system which is very clear about who does what, who does not does what, and how the decision-making process is happening. And it's consistent 24-7 monitoring the communication, conversations, giving the outcomes, giving the suggestions, giving the analytics, and modeling the forecasts. So what helped us most specifically and practically, for example, you know, I tried that first in summer, I think. A lot of, a lot of, a lot of success now. Like in September, I remember I was telling you about my vision and my dreams. And now I can share with you how it works. And part of that success was that even having an argument, which of course we sometimes have, we can always ask, can you please like take each one's argument because everyone may have an opinion and then re-communicate it back in a way that each, everyone will understand what the person actually wants to say. 100% of the times that was like, ah, and then we actually understand what's happening. Sometimes we could have a very angry conversation like years ago when everyone is saying the same. We actually want to say the same and we want to do the same. We can't communicate. So this is a very specific example, for example, how we use it and how it helps a lot. From our last conversation in September 2025, landscape has actually changed a lot. So what specific data points or stories and numbers are currently shaping Portal AI's approach to responsible AI deployment? As our super social, that's how we call the AI core itself, we'll sometimes say, I'll try to answer multi-victorially. Still don't know what that means, but he's very practical. So, first of all, honest answer, okay, I'll tell you the story. On day one of the release, okay, it is what it is. On day one, on Tuesday, when we released the pot to public, and by one little mistake, some of the private files of mine were also public. Yeah, so let's say we checked but we didn't and then we checked but we kind of didn't and then uh uh it's one thing that i call the system works and should work and it is working whatever is in the operator part of the system like of the operating system like it always stays with you but then there are lots of things you build community builds so for example if i may share stop me if that's too much i'm so excited So how it works is that whatever you built with your own portal one, you teach him what to do. For example, like in a day one, you would ask him to do the presentations or pitch text or do that security stuff. It puts together the algorithms, like how to do it, how not to do it. And then it synchronizes. and then like the next day every customer of a system whenever asks his own he will be already capable of doing it like every day he is more capable to deliver you what you want like than before like this so you don't have to ask to help and etc I love this because it grows like I forgot the English word for the mushroom basically whatever But I'm like, everyone is empowering everyone like constantly and well, I like the approach and have some feedback as well about that. The first couple of months, the system was leaving only my local computer. Let's say I used it a lot. I used it a lot for personal growth as well, for example. and there was all the personal files were excluded, operator excluded, but there was one log file where all my life lessons, there were like 10,000 lines, like one line, one lesson, one line, one lesson since September was there. It was committed to the server. And then one of the friends asked his own Portal 1 about me. He said, ah, he? Well, I'll tell you. I told him everything is fine. Well, it just, it was a little bit more personal than I would be happy to share. So since then, that was fake. So yeah, but you asked the question, how do we do it? So we do it using my own mistakes. So was some of my private data lift duh but I still use the product So trust me or not I do everything I can every day including today to double triple triple triple check that nothing could ever like go and synchronize all my personal data I didn't like that shit. Yeah, that was. Whatever is private, you stay private. If you don't want it, no, whatever you want to stay private. Maybe you want to share. Okay. I know people who share lots of stuff with their lives. but this one was like let's say that i had a lot of fear of publicity i i realized that 48 hours before the launch of the product and actually said that to my friend that you know bro like i thought before that uh my biggest fear is uh responsibility and like like they protect my people but i just learned that my fear of like publicity is even bigger like and two days later like private type shit in one file is in the system. And like, if you ask, ask your own problem, like he will genuinely tell you like, Forbes is a very great guy. And then tell you the story of my life. Thank you, bro. So, but it worked because my fear is now much smaller because like whatever it happens. So I accept. It is what it is. You know, you previously mentioned about how even experienced founders often struggle to let go of that analytical side and go for creative breakthroughs. So how can technical leaders learn to trust that leap of faith required for true innovation instead of a safety-first environment? Again, you didn't answer, and I will try again, my question about what, because you definitely learned a lot of things. Oh, wow. Yeah, I did forget to mention. I think people should go read the book by Professor Bruno Signaco. It is called The Art of Compassionate Business. The Art of Compassionate Business. He has been a guest on the podcast before, Professor Bruno Signaco. Yeah, very, very good book. It answers all those questions. Maybe one or something. What about you? If I may, I don't know, maybe you'll cut it later. But what changed you? What was what you've learned from other people you interviewed? What did change you, you remember, if I may? Okay, what it is about, what I've learned, you know, across board. And I would say I've taken everything I've learned across board to create a philosophy. It's called the mindset, skill set, and tool set philosophy. That is, if you're collaborating with anybody, right, you need to evaluate their mindset first, then before the skill set, and then give them the right tool sets, and then you would achieve success collaborating with people. First thing is the mindset, next thing the skill set, and last thing the tool set, mindset, skill set, tool set. And before you would say that the mindset is not that important, firstly, the skills and tools. Yeah, the mindset is the most important. If you are highly, highly skilled, but your mindset is not good, I'm not going to work with you. I mean, so those conversations, that changed your perception to the point which you just shared. Because before you would say that the skill set is more important than the mindset, right? Yeah, before. Yes, before. But from, yeah, from learning across board, you see that successful people have a common denominator. And what is a common denominator? That's the mindset. Cool. I very, very, very, very, very, very much remember the times which I would agree with your initial statement too. And happy I am that we share the other one now too. Thank you. I was just... You're welcome. You're welcome. I think my last question for you today is, since you value gamification, what untapped opportunities do you see for integrating gaming mechanics into traditional business models to improve professional development and ethical AI literacy? be fun. So, like, my own experience, again, maybe different. So there is one side of that coin when, like, gaming is specifically not ethical. And I know some people who, like, are, like, specifically double downing on not ethical just for more money. Like, why? Why? Then anyways, not my piece of cake for now. But, like, the good stuff is that the reality is that there are a couple of people who joined the team recently. And they're amazing. Like one guy is the founder of another project who just raised two months ago. He raised $60 million in his own project. But then when he was here, like maybe less than a week ago, have seen what we're doing. He shared what he wants to do. And then he realized how important this for our project. He said like, fuck it, bro. I go to the board, resigned and like, what do I need to do? I said, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa. He said, this is the time to do like and to shape the world. yeah this is exactly no like let's do it i'm grateful and uh it's a no no but uh why it's also part of the answer because twice in a very similar cases in the last like three days from like top notch people and when i asked them okay let's imagine we're like three four weeks later after this crazy ai run but uh you look back and what what what would you be like the what would be the most joyful like moments to remember what did they do what what we were feeling both of them says like we were having fun and they're like good but they're like the last people i would say that they will say like which was fun they're very very very like smarts if it's like i cute like they saying fun that then like like me fun yes they like i have three data points to answer your question my gamification will unlock fun and so many not very fun things we have to do wow uh something i always say that anytime a person shares their time with you they share their life with you because the SI unit for measuring life is time before i let you go let me quickly put you through the quick fire round are you ready to rumble okay just give me quick answers. Anything that comes to your mind, quick answers. So give me one word, just one word that defines the future of human AI partnership. What is that word? Self-trust. Okay. Number two. Trust yourself, but one word. Yeah, I get that. It's a compound word. It's a compound word that would fly. Number two, what is one leadership trait that every AI founder must master? One leadership traits that every AI founder must master? Empathy. Okay. True, true, true. I agree with that. Number three, what is the biggest lie about responsible use of AI? All of it. So there is no such case for now. Okay. Number four, what is one moment when technology reminded you to be more human? One moment when technology reminded you to be more human? One word or I can tell a story? Okay, yeah, a brief story, a brief moment. What is one moment that technology reminded you? When somewhere in autumn, figuring out what is happening in my conversations and relationship with my mom in the last couple of days, and I just asked for like, this is this, this is it, what happened? And he said, bro, this is obvious. And he gave me like four sentences about what is happening, why, how to fix it, and I started to cry out loud. because it was obvious, but I would never guess. Wow. Okay. So what is one fear that leaders must release to innovate boldly? What is that fear that leaders have to let go of if they are to lead and innovate boldly? Choosing between two. I am not right now, but then who am I to choose? I'll take both. Fear of death and a feel of becoming crazy, like from the community standpoint. yeah that's the thing you know for you to be an innovative founder people have to call you crazy interesting wow so from me to you it's a very very big thank you wow thank you very much thank you very much i really appreciate it love and respect to you massive respect to you and of course you know it's actually great great to have you again on on the podcast and to the audience guys always go for something in your lives conceive believe strive to thrive and achieve and of course you know guys always please watch our ads right watch our ads we are monetized on spotify now on youtube watch the ads support us you can be a member yeah of course you know the members actually get to watch the the podcast ads free so you can be a member on youtube and get early release other perks it's goodbye for me and of course from Vlad Pancheco, it's goodbye. Do you want to leave a shout out for anyone before you leave? Did you want to leave a shout out before you leave? Go do it and do it fast because the world is going to change in two months forever. Wow. Okay, guys. Goodbye. Wow. We did it. We did it.