Slator - Language Industry News

  The Reality of Translation Project Management Every project manager in localization knows the feeling: five deadlines converging, three back-to-back client calls, and a translator waiting on a critical term clarification. Most PMs know exactly what good preparation looks like: defining terminology, setting tone and voice guidelines, and assessing document complexity before assigning tasks. They also know these steps prevent downstream issues, yet the pace of daily work leaves little room to do them properly. Urgent tasks always seem to take priority. Over time, that constant pressure turns preparation into an afterthought, and teams end up reacting to problems instead of preventing them. When everything feels urgent, preventive measures get postponed. What should happen first (careful planning) gets squeezed out by what screams loudest (deadline). The Preparation Gap Nobody Discusses Enterprise clients receive thorough upfront preparation: glossaries developed, style guides craft...

  The  Slator Translation as a Feature (TaaF) Report  provides a snapshot of how AI translation is becoming an integral feature in enterprise technology.  The report features 20 one-page case studies that demonstrate how translation is now being built into software applications using large language models (LLMs). Each case study is presented as a visually engaging infographic. Slator’s research shows that translation as a feature is becoming ubiquitous in a range of software applications. Enterprises are leveraging this technology across different industries and case studies instead of or in collaboration with existing translation solutions. The case studies are companies whose primary core activity is not focused on language services and exclude the well-known big tech players. We cover software solutions used in both regulated and non-regulated industries, spanning from content or design authoring tools, to project management productivity solutions or document mana...

  By Georg Ell, CEO of  Phrase For years, localization has been seen as the final “translation” step in a content pipeline. It was the last mile converting words from one language to another, often under tight deadlines and limited budgets. It wasn’t seen as strategic, but as an overhead, a necessary but cumbersome task, a cost centre. But as AI, machine learning, and automation reshape how content is created and delivered, this narrow view has become not just outdated, but counterproductive. It limits the potential of the very teams driving global business forward. It’s time we stop thinking in terms of translation and localization and start talking about multilingual content automation. Multilingual Content Is a Strategy, Not a Step. What used to be a technical task confined to a single department – or outsourced to local team members or professional agencies – has become a strategic capability that spans the entire enterprise. The work of localizing content is no longer abo...

On May 6, 2025, open source technology consulting firm Quansight  announced  that it had acquired Cobalt Speech and Language, a provider of  automatic speech recognition  (ASR),  transcription , natural language understanding, and other voice technologies in multiple languages. The deal closed April 10, 2025.  According to Quansight CEO Travis Oliphant, the purchase was for cash, earn-out, and equity in Quansight portfolio companies.  “Quansight builds  AI  systems and has key developers who know how to build the tools behind AI ( PyTorch ,  JAX ,  Tensorflow , and NumPy),” Oliphant told Slator. “Cobalt builds language systems that use these tools.” Oliphant said that Quansight decided to acquire Cobalt, rather than build its own speech technologies in-house, based on the strength of Cobalt’s team, which could help maintain a certain speed of development. Of course, he acknowledged that the prospect of acquiring Cobalt’s customers w...

In a February 20, 2025   paper , researchers Danni Liu and Jan Niehues from the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology proposed a way to improve how large language models (LLMs) perform across different languages. New Research Explores How to Boost Large Language Models’ Multilingual Performance They explained that LLMs like Llama 3 and Qwen 2.5, show strong performance in tasks like machine translation (MT) but often struggle with low-resource languages due to limited available data. Current fine-tuning processes do not effectively bridge the performance gaps across diverse languages, making it difficult for models to generalize effectively beyond high-resource settings. The researchers focus on leveraging the middle layers of LLMs to enable better cross-lingual transfer across multiple tasks, including MT. LLMs consist of multiple layers . The early (or bottom) layers handle basic patterns like individual words, while the final (or top) layers focus on producing a response. The midd...

In response to President Trump’s executive order designating   English as the official language of the US , SlatorPod gathered Dipak Patel , CEO of   GLOBO , and Peter Argondizzo, CEO of   Argo Translation , to discuss its implications for the US language industry. The discussion highlighted that  language access  has long been a key part of US policy, particularly in healthcare, education, and legal services. Dipak pointed out that eliminating language services would create inefficiencies, making it harder for medical professionals to provide accurate care. CEOs React as Trump Declares English the Sole Official Language of the US Peter emphasized the broader uncertainty the order creates as many organizations rely on federal funding for language services, and a lack of clear guidance could lead to reduced support in schools, courts, and public services. Both CEOs acknowledged that while this order presents challenges, the language services industry has historic...

In an December 29, 2024 paper by Sony Research India researchers Pratik Rakesh Singh, Mohammadi Zaki, and Pankaj Wasnik comes a framework specifically designed to "improve entertainment content translations" in Indian languages. They "believe it is the first of its kind," using an amalgamation of context awareness along with style adaptation to produce not only accurate translations but also entertaining for the targeted audience. The researchers explained that traditional machine translation MT systems usually struggle to handle entertainment content because they mostly translate sentences in isolation. It leads to "disconnected" translations that can't really capture the emotional depth or cultural references behind the original dialogue. This has a particular pronounced effect in entertainment, where all these interconnected conversations and subtle cues in the narrative are so vital. The challenge, in entertainment translation, lies in preserving ...

Hosted by Florian Faes and Esther Bond, with guest Anna Wyndham, in their SlatorPod year-end 2024 episode, key language industry trends over the course of the past year, including trends, drivers, and predictions, 2025, will be discussed. First, language industry news of the week: LXT acquired clickworker with the goal of doubling revenues by 2025 by expanding its AI data capabilities. Esther also shares how EzDubs, a speech translation startup, raised USD 4.2m in seed funding . Florian comments that RWS published revenues for 2024 that are stable with £180m from AI-powered products and services. Additionally, YouTube announced the rollout of AI dubbing , enabling content creators to reach new language-speaking audiences, but admitted limitations at this point, including poor voice quality. https://youtu.be/CtrVDikK7lE In their discussion, the trio talked about the UK House of Lords inquiry into court interpreting and translation , highlighting pay issues for interpreters, quality i...

Stoquart, an language services provider  based in Belgium, has acquired Brussels-based ETC Europe, which holds the status of being a translation agency accredited by the European Union and other governmental and international organizations. The transaction was closed on 24 October 2024 after Stoquart's takeover of French competitor Version Internationale in 2023 . The founding managing director of Stoquart Translation Services, Dimitri Stoquart, found contact person ETC Europe General Manager Angelina Janssen due to meetings with the Belgian Association of Translation Companies or BQTA. He stated that Janssen suggested Stoquart form a consortium with ETC Europe and another language service provider, VerbiVis, to respond to the European Commission's TRAD23 RFP . This resulted in Stoquart achieving second place for English-French translation. In 2024, he mentioned that Janssen wanted to step back and suggested that Stoquart assume control of ETC Europe. Before the acquisition, ...

Highlights from SlatorCon Silicon Valley 2024 Slator- Language Industry Intelligence On September 5, 2024, more than 150 language industry and technology leaders gathered at Hotel Nia in Menlo Park, Silicon Valley . The event offered a friendly and relaxed environment, encouraging networking and reconnections among participants. Attendees from over a dozen countries and four continents emphasized the importance of in-person Slator events in addition to virtual ones. The expo hall was also buzzing with activity. Esther Bond , Head of Advisory at Slator, kicked off the event with a warm welcome, outlining the day's presentations and panels, and encouraging delegates to network and engage with each other. Key Takeaways from SlatorCon Silicon Valley 2024 Florian Faes , Managing Director of Slator, opened the sessions by presenting key insights from Slator’s latest research on the language industry's current state. He discussed practical applications of large language models (LLMs)...