Webit 2026: Money and people management for global companies in the AI era

In this talk, Angelina Borisova discusses the evolving role of leadership in the age of AI and its impact on global organizational structures. She addresses the common misconception that AI will simply replace human roles, emphasizing instead the importance of collaboration between AI and human talent to enhance productivity. Angelina highlights the complexities of managing international operations and the common pitfalls that founders encounter during expansion. She stresses the necessity of cultural leadership and the human touch in maintaining business integrity as companies grow across different jurisdictions. By sharing insights from her experience at Anagami, she offers valuable advice on preparing for global expansion, stressing the importance of understanding local markets and building structured methodologies.

In every era of transformation, technology changes the rules, but leadership determines who wins. As AI reshapes decision-making, operations, and execution, organizations face a question that is far bigger than technology. How do we build companies that can grow globally while remaining financially resilient, culturally strong, and people-centered? Our next speaker has dedicated her career to helping leaders answer exactly that question. As founder and CEO of Anagami, Angelina Borisova

works with companies navigating growth, complexity, and transformation, helping them build organizations capable not only of moving faster, but of leading better. Because the future belongs not simply to companies with better technology, but to companies with better leadership. Please welcome Angelina Borisova in conversation with Aniela Rusova. Money and people management for global companies in the AI era. >> Angelina, I'm so happy that you are here with me

again on this stage. And I'm curious to know many things that happened during the last year. So, you started building digital accounting and remote operations long before AI became mainstream as it is today. Today, everyone talks about AI replacing accountants and back office teams. How do you see this future? Is AI replacing someone or how it happens? How do you see the future? >> Hi Aniela, thank

you for having me. It's a pleasure for me to be here. Well, nowadays everybody wants to replace everybody. In this industry, there was a transformation years years ago. So, it's just now happening a bit of acceleration of this transformation, but this is actually not the new process. Um according to me, maybe sometimes we are asking the wrong question. The question is not whether the financial people, the

accountants, the back offices will be replaced. Uh the question is how we're going to combine these people to work with the AI and to ensure a better processes, better productivity, uh better outcomes for the companies. So, according to me, uh yes, we have the AI, but we still have uh another uh qualities like um uh leadership, uh trust between people, building teams. Um And uh And all

the the emotional uh history uh and relation uh between people, between teams, uh between clients. So, uh after all, emotions and decision-making are to the people. >> But Anagram specializes helping companies establish and manage global operations across different jurisdictions. So, it's a tough process. What is the biggest mistake founders make when preparing for international expansion? >> Yes, this is really interesting from my perspective and from our

experience with a lot of clients all over the Europe and abroad, uh most of the companies they think that the most difficult thing is the sales process. So, they think that uh the barrier, the difficulty is the sales. Uh more often, the difficulty is the complexity of the growth, how you define processes, how you manage to execute the processes the way the company can actually have the

growth, and um be stable. So, the management of this process is a is a tough one. >> And you manage that for your for your clients. You support them on the way, right? >> Yes, we may say that's one of the of the core products that we do for our clients. Yes. >> International expansion. >> Yes, the management of the growth and the operations. >> Now, let's

talk about a little bit for Outsourca, which you help companies build teams and operation structures. Back office functions are being transformed by AI, definitely. How do you keep up with that? >> Oh, yeah. Well, back office um uh maybe that was the one thing that everybody who who wants to terminate now, the back office. Um according to me, uh there is another transfor- transformation here. It's just

uh the people with capabilities of working with the AI, combining their knowledge to achieve productivity, company goals, better outcomes. So, uh it's how you combine the talented people with the AI. And after all, the company is very important for a company, things like strategy, things like leadership, things like being capable to to grow on the market and overcome all the difficulties on this market. >> But your

human part of the team grows as well, right? Even though there is AI in your process. >> Uh yes, and actually I may say the human part of the team is getting more and more important. But what are What is the difference between the people that you needed, let's say, 2 years ago and what are the people now that you need? >> Yes, now what's happening here

actually needs smarter people. You need smarter people that can um >> Does smarter mean more adaptable? >> Yes, means more adaptable. Means capable of making a decisions. Makes of taking responsibility for these decisions because after all, it's not the AI to take the responsibility. It's the humans. >> And you need to trust them. So, how do you maintain culture and leadership across global teams? I mean, from

so many different countries and when there is plan for expansion to a completely new market, how do you manage this? How do you maintain the culture and leadership? >> Yes, this is also, yeah, I must say, hot topic. And and I like it because it's a very human com- It's a very human topic. It's not possible to to to automate culture. It's not possible to automate, yeah,

um feelings of the people and how you feel as a part of a team. So, culture is maintained by good leadership, by a strategy, by goals, and by human touch. So, you need to be there and you need to be more focused on your people than on your processes. And according to me, that's that means the transformation this transformation happening with the AI, this means that leadership

must be much more focused on the human part than on processes because for the processes, you have the AI. >> All right, tell me then personally because you are expert, what do you personally do to stay ahead in such a rapidly changing environment? >> Me personally, I talk talk much with a lot of people. Um this is very important to me. I talk with clients, investors, uh

business makers, policy makers. I talk with everybody and I try to get not only information, but the sense of how these people are doing their daily operations, their strategy, how they're thinking. Um and it this is very helpful for me to evaluate what's happening because uh when you have something happening around you, it's um takes some time, but much before that this is already happening in the

heads of the people in their minds. >> all the technologies, human interaction is what really gives you the competitive advantage of all that you do and to stay focused on >> Completely, yes. And actually, uh the human advantage is uh getting much much im- >> Final question, what advice would you give to founders building operations in Bulgaria? And then what advice would you give to founders that

want to expand internationally? Is there big difference? If you have to give advice to the first group and then to the other or it's one and the same? >> Well, um doing business in Bulgaria it's a bit different than doing business on another, yeah, geographical locations. Um if you want to expand, I can advise all the founders uh to be really careful with the structure and to

do some planning because um Um, most of the founders, according to me, they just uh uh tend to find someone to to sell their product. Of course, this is really important, but actually sales doesn't guarantee success. Sales doesn't guarantee profit. Sales actually doesn't guarantee anything. So, it's uh it's really important for them to plan, to structure, to organize, to define processes, um and uh to be aligned

with And in some way to try to build this new new creature, let's say like that, because uh maybe sometimes founders think that uh when they try to grow, it's just like an extension to their existing company. This is not an extension. This is completely new business. So, they don't need to repeat >> the same model they have here in order to expand. Is that what you

>> Some part of the model they may repeat, but uh if you have succeeded in your own country with a one kind of model, this doesn't mean that you're going to succeed the same way on another geographical location. It It really depends on your product. So, it's better to think as um it's better to think about the growth as a completely new business and to build it

from zero, let's say like that. Uh because other way you're going to make a lot of mistake assuming that it's the same as it was in your own country. And uh the same is for Bulgaria. Some founders, for example, they have been living abroad or they have been studying abroad, and they think that some businesses that uh have been really successful on another locations on in in

the US, for example, can be successful in Bulgaria, also, but uh >> the case. >> Yes, this is not actually I don't think there's any relation. So, you have to be very careful and to about your growth as a completely new business. The same is with the money. When you plan and structure the money, think think about them as a completely new unit. And and it's always

better to use professionals, of course. It will save you a lot of mistakes and a lot of money, really a lot of money, especially about the expansion process. >> For the expansion, if you have to give an advice, which need to be the first step? Is it Europe or US or Middle East? Or is it I mean, the main the main thing is what is the product?

So, is there What is the easiest when you need to expand? First, choose the market or you will advise the clients which needs to be the market based on the product / service, etc. >> Yeah, that's an interesting question. I've seen different types of making the One kind of thinking is that you choose some geographical location that you think it's very promising, for example. >> Because it's

a big market, so >> Or yeah, because it's a big market, profitable market, or there are a lot of rich people there, for example. But um it's really hard to do something out of nowhere. Um it's um According to me, it's much more better if you try to test your product or your service. And um follow your clients. For example, what we have done during the years,

we have always been following our clients. For um some of our clients go to Dubai, we go to Dubai. Some of our clients go to Germany, Austria, USA, we go Germany, go Austria, USA. Um Uh, was my logic? Every time when uh, my work went >> You follow them and then you make >> make business somewhere. Yes, we follow them. So, um, it's it's really obvious that

going on that location, we have already been having clients. Yeah. Collecting money and um, you can have some experience that can help you to to evaluate that process. On the other hand, you decide to go on a location with actually no experience. It's just some assumptions, which is uh, according to me, too big risk, especially if you're going to invest money or if you're going to to

uh, to collect the money of if of investors >> You are with numbers, yeah. It's not >> But, um, yeah, of course, that's my personal logic. Um, uh, if you uh, uh, this is because we are now in Bulgaria, for example, in the USA, when you gather money and you have a lot of VCs, if you have the biggest VCs on the planet with you, I uh,

don't think uh, you have to think about this. Yeah, because they will tell the direction. >> And you lead the clients like hand by hand for all those, right? From the first step when they starting about the So, you're supporting them on the way. >> Yeah, what we do is that we are supporting in the client in all the operations. For example, uh, we are helping them

uh, make companies on new geographical locations, uh, find accounting, manage accounting, do accounting oversight, do financial oversight, um, set up operations, find people, set up the team, uh, do the payroll process. So, all these operations we have uh, been able to, yeah. to make with our clients, yeah, about their teams. And it's really successful. Uh what I can say is that we can help the clients to

be really faster. >> That's how we help them to expand. >> Going to the next one. >> much, Angelina, for being with us. If there are some questions from the audience, I think still we have 30 seconds. Maybe we were clear enough. Thank you so much. >> was a pleasure for me to be here.