The translation industry has long feared that a new technological advancement would upend the status quo and lead to the end of the market. When machine translation was introduced over a decade ago, our anxieties spiked before we learned how to use the technology effectively. The emergence of generative AI in 2023 produced a similar uncertainty about our future. The industry survived the introduction of machine translation, but would generative AI take us to the grave?
Many believe that AI will replace human translators entirely, shifting industry practices from skilled linguists converting content from one language to another to technology simply generating content to meet multilingual demands. Translation technology vendors and language service providers (LSPs) fear for their future, as this automation threatens to disrupt their core services. From linguists to LSPs, the industry is concerned that translation as we know it could vanish, overthrown by AI.
The Reality: More Translation Than Ever
At first glance, it does appear that these fears are well-founded — especially when compounded with the overall economic downturn. According to a recent report from market research firm Slator, the global language services industry saw a 3.07% decline in 2023. The firm also predicted that the industry will continue to face challenges.
However, upon further analysis, we found something quite surprising: Companies are actually translating more content than ever before. Rather than erasing the need for translation, AI has made it far more accessible and attractive for companies by dramatically lowering costs and reducing turnaround times.
According to our internal data, the median annual translation volume for companies has grown by 11% between 2021 and 2023, and this volume has accelerated dramatically in 2024. In fact, we’re seeing companies translate nearly 50% more content in 2024. This surge in translation output is driven by AI’s ability to reduce costs and delivery times. What once cost companies around $0.20 per word now costs half of that, thanks to AI-powered platforms that combine machine translation, large language models and expert humans.
The interesting fact is that lower costs mean companies are not just maintaining their translation efforts but expanding them, making more content available to global audiences to increase engagement and competitive advantage. At the same time, increasing regulations around language access and growing customer expectations to receive information in their native language will further drive companies to invest. With AI improving efficiency and translation quality, businesses will be equipped to meet growing global demand at a fraction of the cost.
The Future: Thriving with AI
Looking ahead, those that have the capability and resources to harness AI are poised to thrive. The initial frenzy surrounding AI in translation is beginning to give way to a more measured approach.
But companies need help, not just in translation but in many industries, to determine where it makes sense to use AI. In a recent survey, we asked companies if they felt they had received adequate training and support in using AI tools for translation. Only one-quarter of respondents said “Yes.”
This points to a potential issue in the market overall: Translation teams (and others within organizations) are being asked to adopt AI quickly, but many are not sure where to start and how to implement it effectively or don’t currently have the resources to do so. That’s where the help of a technology partner with experience in the market becomes essential. Guidance and training in this area will be paramount in the coming year as companies look for effective AI-powered solutions to help them reach their goals.
So, where is AI (specifically large language models) working so far? Well, interestingly, we can start with where they are not – raw translation. LLMs are currently less accurate and less reliable than machine translation technology. However, what it is excellent at doing is improving and measuring the quality and fluency of those machine translations.
This is true specifically in the following areas:
- Improving brand compliance
Ensuring consistent brand messaging across languages often presents one of the biggest challenges for global companies. AI helps streamline this process and make it more scalable. AI-powered platforms use glossaries, style guides, and translation memories to maintain a company’s tone, style, and terminology across multiple languages. This ensures every translation aligns with the brand’s voice, reducing the risk of miscommunication or brand dilution as companies expand globally. - Making translators more efficient
AI greatly enhances translator efficiency by automating much of the translation, allowing the translators to focus on localizing content and perfecting translations. AI translation dramatically speeds up the process while helping to improve quality. - Automating quality evaluation
Machine translation, AI and humans have their limitations. LQA, or Language Quality Assessment, is essential to large scale localization. AI helps automate this quality evaluation process by analyzing translations for accuracy, fluency, and adherence to guidelines (like a company’s brand assets and style guides). It detects errors, flags issues for quick correction, and ensures translations feel natural in the target language. AI’s predictive quality scoring streamlines human review by identifying problematic areas, improving efficiency, and reducing costs for large-scale translation projects.
In the coming years, the translation industry will continue to evolve as companies deploy AI solutions more strategically. The focus will shift from simply adopting AI to leveraging it for smarter, more efficient workflows that balance quality, cost, and speed.
That means the translation industry is far from being replaced by AI. Instead, it is in the midst of a transformation, with AI making translation more accessible, efficient, and affordable. As companies move past the initial fear of AI disruption, they are embracing a future where AI is a vital tool that allows them to translate more content than ever before. We stand at the forefront of this shift, helping businesses navigate the evolving landscape and thrive in the age of AI-driven translation.
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