Leadership Training in the AI Era: Rise II
- David Hajdu
- Nov 17
- 9 min read
Updated: Nov 17
A Founder Friendly Breakdown Of What Happened And What To Do Next
On November 12, seventy entrepreneurs and business leaders packed into the Hilton Saigon for RISE II: The Era of AI in Business. The room felt more like a private founder forum than a public event. Everyone was there for one reason: to figure out how to actually use AI to win in the next three to five years, not someday in the distant future.
What followed was three hours of high energy learning, real talk, and very practical advice from people who are already deep in the game.
TK Nguyen and GAM: Building Championship Teams With Psychology And AI
TK Nguyen, CEO of GAM Entertainment, came in hot. If you have followed GAM at all, you know they are not just another esports team. They are the standard. GAM has become the most decorated League of Legends team in Vietnam, with a record number of VCS titles and repeated appearances on the international stage at events like Worlds, MSI, SEA Games, and the Asian Games.
TK brought that same competitive intensity to the stage. His talk felt like a locker room speech before a final, but aimed at founders and executives instead of pro players.
He showed that GAM’s success is not just about individual talent. It is about how they architect the team. They use MBTI, DISC, and StrengthsFinder to understand every player in depth. How they think. How they handle pressure. How they communicate. What motivates them and what triggers them.
Then they layer AI supported analysis on top of that data to make smarter decisions about roles, communication patterns, and leadership structure. Visionaries go into high pressure, high impact roles. Integrators and stabilizers support consistency and structure. The team is designed, not guessed.
The most powerful part for the room was how directly this translates to business. The same approach can be used on executive teams, management teams, and even cross functional squads in any company.
TK did not just inspire. He equipped. He shared a full handout with the exact prompts they use so that attendees could run similar analysis on their own teams. Get them here and his slides here.
His core message was simple and very hard to unhear.
Talent wins games. Teamwork wins championships. If you want championship level performance in your company, you need to understand your people deeply, use data and AI to see them clearly, and then put them in the right seats.
Esther Nguyen and POPS: Virtual Influencers On The World Stage
If TK brought the fire, Esther Nguyen, Founder and CEO of POPS, brought the shock and awe.
POPS is one of Southeast Asia’s leading digital entertainment companies. The company runs a large multi platform network across YouTube, TikTok, Facebook and more, and works with thousands of content partners globally. At RISE II, Esther shared that POPS now touches a global ecosystem of roughly 50,000 influencers and creators. She is not just talking about Vietnam. She is operating on the world stage.
Her focus was the virtual influencer market. Multiple reports now project this market reaching well over 150 billion dollars by 2032, driven by AI generated characters that engage audiences at scale.
Esther explained why brands are taking this seriously.
Virtual influencers often generate three to four times higher click rates than traditional ads. They sit at the intersection of content, commerce, and data.
Her example of Zoe, POPS virtual influencer with more than 300,000 followers, made it very real. Zoe posts outfit videos where viewers can click and buy directly. TikTok sends her products daily to review.
For the audience, it is entertainment. For brands, it is a performance machine.
She then walked leaders through how to build a virtual influencer the right way:
Start with your brand persona and core values. Treat your brand like a person.
Design a personality, even down to an MBTI type, so the voice and behavior stay consistent.
Align that character with your target audience and market positioning.
Launch a minimum viable version, get feedback, analyze the data, and then scale what works.
The big human question came up quickly. Can people really connect with something that is not real. Her answer was grounded and relatable. There is always a human creative team behind the character. And people already form emotional bonds with anime characters, cartoons, and fictional heroes. Virtual influencers are simply a new format for something audiences already understand.
For brands, the advantages are hard to ignore. Higher profit margins. Complete narrative control. Always on availability with no overtime. No risk of a human influencer suddenly trashing the brand with one bad decision.
Esther also went tactical. Capture attention in the first ten seconds. Keep videos in the 30 second to 3 minute range. Protect your virtual IP just like any other digital asset. Expect disclosure rules for AI influencers in the future, but do not use that as an excuse to sit on the sidelines now.
She connected it back to gaming and esports as well. Team mascots can become AI influencers. Players who are too busy training can be represented by digital twins built with tools like HeyGen. Master prompts act like brand guidelines that keep the AI personality on track.
Her message to founders was very clear.
If you are building a brand for 2026 and beyond and you do not have an AI powered personality strategy, you are leaving serious upside on the table.
The Panel: Three Concrete Moves For Monday Morning
After two heavy hitting keynotes, the panel took everything down to the level of Monday morning action.
Harley Trung from CoderPush.com, Joe Huynh from Zoi.tech, and Simon Trac Do from VinCSS.net joined moderator Dave Hajdu from AI-Officer.com for a session that answered the question every founder has.
What do I actually do next?
The Panel: What To Focus On In The Next 6 to 12 Months
By the time the panel started, the question in the room was simple. Out of everything we heard, what should leaders actually focus on in the next year.
Joe walked through what he calls the “scissor” approach. On one side, you consolidate into a governed AI platform so usage moves out of random tools and into one stack you control. On the other side, you empower end users with no code tools like AppSheet so domain teams can build their own workflows inside clear guardrails.
Job, Pain, Gain is the engine that feeds it.
You ask people what they do, where the pain is, and what gains they want, then use AI to surface automations and ship real workflows fast. It hits ROI and reduces shadow AI at the same time.
Harley focused on treating AI as a teammate instead of a shiny tool. That requires building “instruction skill” across the company. People need to get good at talking to AI, using voice, giving rich context, and iterating quickly instead of waiting for the perfect prompt.
Combine that with centralized data and you start building an organizational capability that compounds.
The more people practice, the better the whole company gets at using AI to think, plan, and execute.
Simon brought in the security and risk perspective.
He reminded the room that cyber security crime is estimated at about $850bn dollars in loss, bigger than the cocaine industry.
In a world where employees are constantly pasting information into AI tools, that number is not going down. His push was to move toward secure by design and what he calls velocity cybersecurity. Security needs to be embedded across the full delivery lifecycle and move at the speed of AI, not after the fact and not as a blocker.
From a founder point of view, the most actionable moves that came out of the panel looked like this:
Joe: Consolidate into a governed AI platform, run Job, Pain, Gain to source automations, and give domain teams tools like AppSheet so they can build under guardrails instead of waiting on a central team.
Simon: Name an AI and security champion, embed security into every delivery phase, and train people for human targeted, AI enabled attacks while keeping pace through velocity cybersecurity.
Harley: Build instruction as a core skill by getting people to talk to AI with richer context and voice, centralize data so AI has something to work with, and push teams to iterate quickly instead of chasing perfection.
The panel also surfaced a few blind spots leaders need to watch.
Joe's platform play can get stuck if change management and data readiness are not handled properly.
Simon’s approach can be perceived as a brake if security is not tightly aligned with product velocity and developer experience.
Harley’s skill building can stall out if governance and data quality are weak, because even great prompts cannot rescue bad inputs or chaotic systems.
Dave closed the session by pointing to a sobering finding from MIT Sloan: roughly 95 percent of organizations are getting zero measurable return from their generative AI programs. The message to the room was clear. The problem is rarely the technology. It is leadership, data alignment, and execution.
Leadership In The AI Era: Turning Insight Into Capability
That insight set up the final call to action. AI will not fix weak leadership. It will expose it even more.
If you take the ideas from RISE II seriously, the next logical step is to invest in leadership training that is built for this moment.
Leadership in the AI Era is EO Vietnam’s answer. It is a six month leadership training program designed specifically for senior leaders and high potential team members. Each session combines one hour of focused leadership and AI learning with one hour of sharing and accountability so people actually implement what they learn.
The goal is not to turn your managers into coders. The goal is to build leaders who can think clearly, communicate with impact, design human plus AI workflows, and guide teams through real transformation. Participants leave with stronger leadership skills, a practical understanding of both Generative and Agentic AI, and real business improvements already completed inside their company.
If you are serious about leadership training that fits the AI era instead of ignoring it, this is the program to look at next:https://www.eovietnam.org/training
Applications close January 10, and the next cohort starts January 14.
Picture Gallery
Scroll through the photo gallery from RISE II to feel the energy in the room. You will see TK in full flow, Esther unveiling the world of virtual influencers, founders leaning in during the panel, and the post event networking where new partnerships and ideas started forming. It is a snapshot of what happens when ambitious leaders in Vietnam come together to learn, share, and build the future of business in the AI era.
Check out the full gallery here 👉 https://photos.app.goo.gl/A1nz7BA3hmnMenpw8
FAQ About RISE II, AI In Business, And Leadership Training
What was RISE II: The Era of AI in Business about
RISE II was a half day learning event at the Hilton Saigon where seventy founders and senior leaders came together to learn how AI is being used right now in esports, digital entertainment, cybersecurity, and leadership. The focus was on real world use cases and practical next steps, not theory.
Who spoke at RISE II
Keynotes were delivered by TK Nguyen, CEO of GAM Entertainment, and Esther Nguyen, Founder and CEO of POPS. The panel featured Harley Trung from CoderPush.com, Joe Huynh from Zoi.tech, and Simon Trac Do from VinCSS.net, moderated by Dave Hajdu from AI-Officer.com.
What is GAM and why was TK’s talk important for leaders
GAM Esports is the most successful League of Legends team in Vietnam, with a record number of VCS titles and repeated international appearances. TK showed how they use tools like MBTI, DISC, StrengthsFinder, and AI to build championship level teams. His frameworks can be applied directly to executive and leadership teams in any company. vnexpress.net+1
Who is POPS and why do virtual influencers matter
POPS is a leading digital entertainment company in Southeast Asia with thousands of content partners and a global creator network. POPS Esther’s talk showed how virtual influencers like Zoe are already driving commerce, engagement, and brand control at scale, with the virtual influencer market projected to reach more than 150 billion dollars by 2032. SNS Insider+1
What were the top three Monday morning actions from the panel
First, run a Job, Pain, Gain exercise with your team to identify quick AI wins. Second, appoint an AI champion and add a 30 minute AI review to your weekly leadership or board meeting. Third, as a leader, practice using AI in voice sessions on real problems to build your own AI thinking skills.
Why did cybercrime and the number 850bn come up in the discussion
Simon highlighted that cybercrime caused an estimated 850bn dollars in loss last year, greater than the cocaine industry. The point was to show how serious digital risk has become, especially when employees move data into free AI tools without any policy or oversight.
What is Leadership in the AI Era leadership trainingLeadership in the AI Era is a six month leadership training program for senior leaders and high potential team members. It blends modern leadership development with practical AI capability so participants can lead teams, make better decisions, and design AI powered workflows.
Who should join the Leadership in the AI Era program
The program is ideal for department heads, senior managers, and rising stars who are responsible for teams and want to be ready for the AI driven future of work.
Do participants need to be technical for this leadership training
No. The program is built for non technical leaders. It focuses on how to think about AI, when to use it, and how to manage humans and AI agents together.
How do we learn more or apply for the leadership training
You can get full details and apply at https://www.eovietnam.org/training. Applications close January 10 and the next cohort begins January 14.
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