Insights from CEOs

How did you evolve your business to deliver more value?

Welcome to the 11th edition of CSA Research's CEO Insights, where we present perspectives from CEO members of CSA Research's Leadership Council.

This edition highlights how leaders are shifting from language services to ROI-focused content solutions providers by rethinking models, integrating AI, and aligning talent with technology.

*CEO commentary appears in order of company revenue size.

In 2025, Acolad celebrates its 30th anniversary, 30 years of helping brands develop across borders—and cultures. What an amazing journey full of success, challenges, and most of all human stories.

2025, also marks a pivotal moment: our industry is at a crossroads. 

The coming years (and months, as the speed of change is impressive) won’t just be about scale or speed—it will be about relevance. 

We are no longer in the translation or interpreting business. We are in the human understanding business, and our role is evolving rapidly, embracing the whole content journey.

AI has already commoditized standard translation. It’s fast, scalable, and constantly improving. That’s a fact. It pushes us to redefine our value. Our clients no longer need words translated—they need efficient multilingual experiences that resonate across cultures, channels, and formats.

My belief: The future belongs to “ecosystems”. 

Daily, we experience the fast pace of transformation both in localization and interpreting. 

At Acolad, we believe in Technology, our “Body.”

At Acolad we believe in Human at the core, our “Heart.”

From creating/labelling data, localizing with the right tone in all formats, interpreting with the power of AI and remote capacities while securing high-stakes conversations, ensuring strong linguistic validation in Life Sciences, building marketing campaigns that powerfully resonate and reach the right audiences and secure the right outcomes. etc.

Technology is everywhere. Human is everywhere. 

Trust and service are foundations.

The essence of our future is in building the right ecosystem smartly blending Tech with Human, in a trusted environment.

This is our path - and has been for the past 2 years. Our platform, Lia, reflects this vision merging AI-driven translation, real-time interpreting, linguistic validation, and data services—designed to empower both clients and experts.

Let’s be honest: transition isn’t easy… for anyone. The pace is relentless and impacts are real. The ‘how’ is a shift.

However, we do believe that after 30 years of being forward thinking, open, and staying reliable, Acolad values – drive real progress with our clients, partners, and teams. 

We must be bold enough to say translation alone is no longer enough (and we know it never really was) and brave enough to lead our clients—beyond words, into meaning and measuring impact. The future is Bold and Exciting if we choose to embrace it now!

July 2025

Read the January 2025 Statement

Read the June 2024 Statement

Read the January 2024 Statement

Read the July 2023 Statement

Embracing AI with Integrity: Shaping the Future of Language Services

The rise of generative AI has brought the language services industry to a tipping point—one where trust, quality, and strategic value go hand in hand with innovation. At the Translation Bureau, our approach to AI is both bold and considered: we are embracing the opportunities of intelligent automation while safeguarding the principles that define public sector excellence.

We view AI not as a disruptor to fear but as a powerful means of enhancing human expertise. The Translation Bureau has long leveraged AI-driven tools, notably neural machine translation, to support high-volume, high-efficiency workflows. What’s changing now is the way these technologies are being delivered: recent advances, including the launch of the PSPC Translate prototype, are bringing secure, curated AI capabilities directly into the hands of federal public servants. By clearly communicating the appropriate uses and limits of these tools and by integrating them with the Bureau’s professional services, we are testing how AI can drive efficiencies while continuing to uphold the linguistic accuracy and cultural sensitivity that are essential to government communication.

This transformation isn’t just technical: it’s cultural. We are investing in change management to support our linguists and fostering a “human-in-the-loop” model that affirms their central role. Our goal is not to replace, but to elevate; to provide our teams with the right tools to focus on what humans do best: exercise judgment and nuance.

By strategically integrating AI within a values-driven framework, we are positioning ourselves not only to meet current demands, but to lead in the evolving global ecosystem. This is how language service providers become government content solution partners—leveraging ROI not simply through automation, but by building resilient, future-ready teams that put quality and purpose at the heart of innovation.

  July 2025 

Read January 2025 Statement

Read June 2024 Statement

Read January 2024 Statement

Read July 2023 Statement

Read July 2022 Statement

Read January 2022 Statement

Read July 2021 Statement

AI in localization has moved past the hype stage. We’re no longer discussing what could happen; we’re seeing real deployments driving measurable productivity gains in translation automation and post-editing. But let’s be clear: the goal isn’t replacing linguists. It’s augmenting them. By taking repetitive tasks off their plates, AI frees linguists to focus on what protects brand integrity, ensuring the voice, nuance, and cultural alignment that machines alone cannot deliver.
 
At the same time, the entire language infrastructure is shifting. We’re moving from slow, sequential, segment-based processes to real-time, multimodal, agentic workflows where AI orchestrates each step dynamically. Language is no longer the centerpiece of the process but one component within a broader content supply chain designed to deliver value faster.
 
This isn’t just a technology shift; it’s a business model shift. Clients care about turnaround times, consistency, value and the cost of managing multilingual content, not about how many words you translated. Operationalizing AI effectively means aligning your workflows with those client outcomes while preserving human expertise where it matters most.

  July 2025 

Read January 2025 statement

Read June 2024 statement

Read July 2023 statement

Read January 2023 statement 

Read July 2022 statement

Read January 2022 statement

We are living at a time that demands every language service provider evolve beyond their traditional boundaries. The rise of generative AI and large language models is reshaping buyer expectations and creating new opportunities that go far beyond simple translation. Clients today are not just looking for words in another language — they expect agile, secure, and ROI-driven solutions that help them manage multilingual content as a strategic asset. ROI-driven solutions are the bridge that is making this transformation not only possible but sustainable.

Our role as LSPs must expand into that of trusted language intelligence partners. This means combining our deep linguistic expertise with advanced technology, while guiding our clients on how best to balance automation and human criteria. It also means aligning talent, tech, and workflows to maximize impact while controlling cost and risk.

We see three levers driving ROI for our clients today. First, hybrid delivery models that merge human expertise and AI in smart, fit-for-purpose ways — especially when regulatory or reputational stakes are high. Second, investing in customizable platforms and knowledge frameworks that enhance consistency, security, and speed for the multilingual demands of their businesses, turning what used to be linear workflows into dynamic, adaptive processes. Third, a consultative mindset that positions us not just as a vendor but as a strategic partner — auditing content, defining risk levels, and advising when automation creates value and when human oversight remains a non-negotiable.

This shift redefines the industry itself. ROI is no longer about the lowest per-word price; it is about driving global growth, compliance, and trust. Our commitment is to empower our clients with language solutions that scale safely, deliver faster, and engage more deeply — so that multilingual communication becomes a catalyst for their success in a complex global market.

July 2025

Read January 2025 statement

How ROI-driven solutions — spanning talent, technology, business models, and mindset shifts — are shaping the transformation of LSPs into GCSPs and affecting their future valuation.  
  
Changes and evolution have always been part of our industry, and now it feels like something new is happening every week. But to keep it simple, we are here to support the internationalization of our customers, no matter their needs. Our job is to understand the trends and use the latest tools for our customers to improve their content strategy in the most efficient way possible.  
  
I believe the switch from LSP to GCSP has already happened. This is old news; now is the time to switch our mindset to forget our old LSP habits. AI and technology are a mindset, and need to be integrated internally and externally to enhance human expertise. Powerling has lived multiple cycles of innovation and transformation, always adapting our processes to the needs of our clients. 
  
Top fortune 500 and mid-size companies need us now more than ever. Volume increases, complexity of tools and systems, increases in language pairs, shifting digital habits, and intertwined global supply chains are all affecting the ROI of internationalization. They will need an agile strategic partner to navigate this increase in complexity, more than ever in the future.  
  
As GCSPs, we are becoming co-responsible for the ROI of our clients’ global content. This means co-creating content strategies tailored to each project’s goals — and being bold enough to set KPIs, analyze performance, and pivot when needed. Our value lies not just in delivery, but in impact. That’s how we help our clients grow faster and reach new markets more efficiently. 
  
GCSPs understand these changes better than anyone. We have the opportunity — and the obligation — to lead. We’re not here just to support globalization. We’re here to drive it. That mindset is what will shape our industry’s future and define the next generation of leaders.

July 2025

Read January 2025 Statement

Read June 2024 Statement 

Read January 2024 Statement 

Read July 2023 Statement

Read July 2022 Statement

Read January 2022 Statement

Read July 2021 Statement

Read January 2021 Statement

AI has made headway in scaling low-stakes translation services and, to a much lesser degree, interpreting services. Automated interpreting frequently encounters technology limitations and restrictions of use due to the high-stakes nature of most interpreted scenarios. In pediatric emergencies, human trafficking investigations, mental health encounters, or domestic violence hotlines, AI runs into invisible communication barriers. One of them is the physiology of trauma.   

Trauma can fragment memory, disrupt speech patterns, and distort nonverbal cues. For this reason, a trauma-informed approach to interpreting is increasingly essential in healthcare, legal, and emergency response contexts.  

In response to this demand, we now educate and validate interpreters in trauma-informed protocols which are grounded in foundational principles of trauma-informed care and have launched the CCHI-approved Trauma-Informed Interpreting Certificate Program. Many MasterWord interpreters develop skills such as recognizing signs of trauma, pacing conversations to facilitate grounding, and learning to employ strategies that mitigate their own risk of vicarious trauma. These distinctly human competencies are proving invaluable to clients who depend on interpreters for high-stakes communication affected by trauma.  

Healthcare institutions report improved patient outcomes when trauma-informed care is the norm. We’ve seen a dramatic increase in interest and demand for interpreters with this specialization.  

AI continues to dominate industry conversation and the news. More often we now hear stories of humans having to “clean up after AI”, thus new service lines are emerging for our industry. Highly qualified and specialized interpreters and translators will continue to deliver on the positive real-world outcomes that stakeholders truly value. Moving forward, expertise in human review of AI translation, human at the core processes, and interpreting will drive LSP growth.   

July 2025

Read January 2025 Statement

Read June 2024 Statement

Read January 2024 Statement

Read July 2023 Statement

Read January 2023 Statement 

Read July 2022 Statement 

Read January 2022 Statement

Read July 2021 Statement

Read January 2021 Statement

Read 2020 Statement

It continues to be a fascinating time in language services. We are now firmly in the transition from the era of predominantly human workflows, to the next, of AI-powered possibility. 

That presents huge opportunity, but also uncertainty, impacting clients, agencies, and linguists in different ways. 

In my role at Mother Tongue, I am often asked how I see things evolving in our space, at the more creative end of the industry.

We believe the worlds of transcreation, content, and model training will ultimately merge into one. 
Mother Tongue will deliver creatively intelligent language. 

That means building programmes that integrate LLMs and NMT engines to create, adapt, and localize content at scale. And deploying creative and subject matter experts to optimize these – whether acting programmatically to fine-tune models, or topically, by editing outputs.

Rather than delivering individual services, the focus will be on solutions. Orchestrating these solutions will mean bringing the best third-party tooling to clients and combining platforms around their specific requirements.

Brand guardianship will only grow in importance. Capturing and relaying our clients’ distinct brand voices has always been a huge part of what we do. This will continue to be the case, across strategy, model training, linguistic data management and curation, HITL workflows, and where appropriate, “classic” transcreation.

The exciting thing is that we are already putting this into practice in a lot of engagements. AI is transforming our clients’ ability to communicate at scale and to talk to more audiences, in more languages, in a much more nuanced way. To be able to help drive that change and shape the future is a real privilege – even if it can feel like things are moving at breakneck speed! 

  July 2025

Read January 2025 Statement

Read June 2024 Statement

Read January 2024 Statement

Read July 2023 Statement

Over the past year, the conversation around AI has quickly moved from curiosity to necessity across the language services industry. Many clients are exploring new ways to gain efficiencies and manage costs, which has naturally brought price pressure along with higher expectations around speed and scalability.

At Conversis, we work with clients whose content demands specialist expertise across a wide range of materials and sectors. A one-size-fits-all approach has never been our way of working, and it is even less so today. While tools such as MT and LLMs can offer clear benefits, we also recognise their limitations. The value of these solutions depends entirely on the context in which they are used and the purpose of the content itself. Through careful internal testing and hands-on experience, we continue to learn where these technologies can truly support us and where human expertise remains irreplaceable. 

These shifts have not come without challenges. We are all navigating a period of change that demands careful adaptation and honest reflection. 

Rather than seeing these developments as purely positive or negative, we focus on understanding them deeply and helping our clients do the same. Our approach has become more consultative, supporting clients in choosing the right path forward through open discussion and practical guidance. We consider content type, language combinations and final use to recommend the most appropriate solution, always keeping quality and purpose in mind.

Our linguists, many of whom bring deep subject matter expertise, have seen their roles evolve and will continue to do so. Their insights remain at the core of how we work, not only through translation and review but also in supporting the development of MT and LLM workflows. Their expertise helps us refine these tools while ensuring we remain a people-led organisation, even as we look for further efficiencies across the business.

Looking ahead, we know that balancing technological progress with human insight will be key to supporting our clients and maintaining trust in a rapidly changing landscape.

July 2025