CEOs Reflect on GenAI (July 2023)

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Bertrand Gstalder, CEO of Acolad

As the digital revolution has pushed companies over the last 20 years to adapt their business model and innovate, GenAI will push us into more new directions and at a faster pace. Between the hype of this "new" thing, the "unknown" of potential industry reshaping and expected "regulations" for an Ethical AI, many questions will continue. Questions from Customers, Shareholders and Employees all drive the need for applied innovation.

How do we envision that @Acolad? For sure the traditional way of doing business will be disrupted, and as an innovative organization disruption is not new. But it is faster than ever before. We are acting pragmatically with our Customers to ensure the right value application versus pure noise.

We see LLMs pushing LSPs to provide new tools/usages to support content creation and globalization. This in turn drives supply chain and service evolution.

As a global content provider, we foresee the emergence of new types of content enhanced by GenAI, and for which efficiency will be increasingly important as well as new services. However, we do believe that human in the loop will not disappear. It will just change. The cultural, linguistic, and technological elements of global content release will further merge and it will become about those who can embrace all three to provide client value.

This transformation will need a new set of skills (e.g prompt engineering) raising the question of empowering our people for this new role and challenging organizational structure (e.g Prompt Center of Excellence vs Data team)? Talent and Buyer personas will also evolve.

July 2023

Paul Carr, CEO of Welocalize

While there are many use cases for generative AI across corporations, we expect content supply chains to be disrupted as all the major content platforms integrate generative AI “co-pilots” into their applications.

Consequently, localization workflows are about to change. Some content types will still follow the traditional linear process of translating from a source to a target language. However, other content types will be generated directly by generative AI applications in multiple languages and will likely dramatically increase in volume.

These changes present both risk and opportunity for Localization leaders, who should engage with content departments upstream to have a seat at the table and to shape solutions.

While translation quality between generative AIs and nMTs show that the latter currently perform better, the environment will create pressure to adopt translation automation more aggressively. Localization functions may expand from translation management to global content management, which could involve services such as model training and management, prompt engineering, and curating.
In short, the localization landscape is about to change dramatically. Localization leaders need to be out in front to ensure they are well-positioned to help their corporations take advantage of the opportunities that generative AI presents.

July 2023

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Dominic Laporte, CEO of Translation Bureau of Canada

Although the Translation Bureau is keeping a close eye on the impact of large language models, their advent does not change our human-in-the-loop focus. On the contrary, their demonstrated potential for bias and struggle with contextual elements such as cultural and linguistic specificity strengthen our conviction that language professionals are, and will remain, key players in the linguistic services ecosystem.

The challenge is, on the one hand, to ensure that our clients are aware of the edge that language professionals provide, and on the other hand, to ensure that our language professionals have the knowledge and skills they need to successfully navigate this new reality of machine-generated content. In order to meet these challenges, our client relations officers have been actively liaising with our clients, while our professional development experts have been mapping the programs of study available in Canada and discussing potential enhancements with learning institutions.

Linguistic services providers need to fight the popular belief that artificial intelligence has triggered a downward spiral for language professions. Now more than ever, we must focus on marketing and education with not only our clients, but also the future generations of language professionals we desperately need.

July 2023

Astrid Van Rossum, CEO of Global Talk

In the rapidly changing world of technology and artificial intelligence, GenAI has gained a prominent role. Yet there is a prevailing fear regarding the impact of GenAI on the work of interpreters. The benefits of GenAI are many. It is capable of delivering real-time translations, making communication processes more efficient and faster, independent of time-zone or place. Moreover, GenAI can support languages that may be less common and for which interpreters are harder to find. It can also be a valuable addition in common, everyday situations, where fast but less accurate translation is good enough. There are numerous situations where there is a need for effective communication between different languages, but where interpreters are simply not available or easy to find.

While it is understandable that people are concerned about the potential replacement of interpreters, it is important to recognize that GenAI can actually be a valuable addition in places where interpreters are not yet being used. GenAI can bridge and break down communication barriers in such contexts. However, in high-context cultures, in languages with lots of different dialects, or in situations where accuracy is key (such as in a medical or legal context) the human added value of interpreting will still be necessary. Not only for the spoken word, but for the interpretation of cynicism, sarcasm, body language, and metaphors. Real understanding is more than just translating the spoken word, it is about how to interpret the spoken word to build real understanding and break down barriers between humans. Understanding is everything!

July 2023

Ludmila Golovine, President and CEO of Masterword

It’s the beginning of a new and exciting chapter for our industry. Advances in AI have undeniably become an invaluable tool, but with it comes the necessity for prudence: knowing when to leverage AI and when its shortcomings may present risks is crucial. With the 2023 edition of ASTM F2575 offering guidelines for Translation Grades or Service Levels, we have the opportunity to present unified, responsible AI messaging to clients and ensure smart choices on project approaches.

Yet, AI is more than a tool to improve services: it is an agent of global change. Presently, 40% of the global population has limited access to digital information due to language barriers, disproportionately affecting speakers of marginalized languages. As an industry, we hold the keys to unlock a new era of equitable information access. By harnessing AI advancements, we can help speakers of all languages become part of the global digital economy.

The fusion of responsible AI application guidelines and leveraging AI for improved information accessibility represents the potential for LSPs to shape not only our industry but the world. Our unique ability to balance use of AI and human SMEs, efficiency, and equity will define success in 2023 and beyond.

July 2023

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Véronique Özkaya, CEO of Argos Multilingual

The power of AI has swept the world by storm. Within the language industry, CEOs are actively tackling challenges and opportunities arising from the use of large language models. Amidst this tech revolution, we must recognize that our industry boasts exceptional technical proficiency and resilience. Neural MT is a shining example of AI application.

Yet, despite their efficiency, LLMs cannot replace the touch of human professionals. Our sector’s strength lies in our extensive global network of experts, who will continue to embrace technology advances.

The AI race is underway, and we must support clients in optimizing their investment in global language services. This means shaping new AI products, deploying AI internally and upskilling our resources.

True leaders have an optimistic vision, extending far beyond the present. As an industry, we have an opportunity to change and bring even more value to what we do.

July 2023

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Konstantin Ioseliani, President and CEO of Janus Worldwide

The translation and localization industry is on the precipice of significant transformation, while the world is also changing at an accelerating pace. Enterprises are actively testing the implementation of Generative AI for various tasks, and machine translation (MT) and large language models (LLM) are becoming more and more widely used. The application of artificial intelligence has advantages, but also carries risks that should not be underestimated. Perfect tools do not exist – it is important to learn how to use these tools correctly.

All these interesting changes are happening in the context of the ongoing economic crisis and the related uncertainty. The average lifespan of a company used to be 62 years, but today it is only 15 years. Consequently, time-tested business strategies may no longer be effective. It is crucial to be flexible, respond to change, and develop the ability to anticipate trends. One must not be afraid of change and should be able to identify new opportunities in any transformation.

In this reality, we closely monitor the situation and test new directions and development hypotheses. Janus Worldwide is working not only on operational projects, but also on strategic projects to adapt to the upcoming changes. I'd like to emphasize that quality customer service will always be in demand, so we look to the future with confidence.

July 2023

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Chris Hodgson Castillo, CEO of Mother Tongue

How may generative AI impact our industry? It is already impacting our industry today.

It is generating new kinds of relationships. It is a new field for everyone. This is changing how we collaborate with our clients as we collectively establish new ways of working.

It is generating new workstreams. We are already seeing LLMs integrate it into service offerings, initially in content generation and localization post editing.

It is generating new business. There is a lot of work underway in training up the platforms themselves, and supporting tech firms in ensuring the models are fluent and market appropriate wherever they show up.

And of course, it is generating a lot of questions and uncertainty, as much for writers, as for agencies, and clients. Thing are changing quickly, and it is natural that this should cause some nervousness. I am very optimistic though – not least because dealing with change is nothing new for us all. Our industry has an enviable track record of embracing technology and opportunity. I see no reason why GenAI should not be a springboard for our next growth cycle.

July 2023

Pedro L. Díez Orzas, CEO and Founder of Linguaserve

In 2020, many of us anticipated that there would be changes and a need to reinvent ourselves in our industry once the pandemic was over. Now the future is here, and apart from the rapid pace of digital transformation, another – probably even more significant – change was already in the making long before.
Generative Artificial Intelligence, or “GenAI” is undeniably a new paradigm shift. In our industry, it marks the third shift in less than 30 years, following the advent of the Internet and Neural Machine Translation. These transformative changes not only impact business operations but also for society at large, with profound implications for legal and privacy issues, as well as socioeconomic and cultural aspects.
When such changes occur, they often give rise to alarm, but they also undoubtedly present opportunities. The fear that GenAI could replace humans in creative and intellectual tasks, such as generating texts, images, music or translation, is reminiscent of concerns raised by neural machine translation or specific artificial intelligence. But does this mean that human professional work will be excluded from this evolution? It appears not.
Human intervention ensures accountability. The creation and translation of texts must be approached with responsibility. And for us to assume that responsibility, GenAI, just like NMT, needs to be supervised and validated by human intervention.
Translation will remain indispensable. While GenAI can be employed with human intervention to produce high-quality, multilingual content that caters to diverse language variants and cultures, the act of translating from a source language remains more viable for ensuring communication control, as well as being more cost-effective and efficient.
Moreover, the workload will continue to grow, with increasingly diverse needs. According to reports from just a few years ago, less than 10% of global textual and audiovisual content was translated or localized. One of the effects brought about by NMT, that will be replicated by GenAI, is that this percentage, which is already on the rise, will escalate significantly, unstoppably.
So, it is highly probable that the market for global content creation, translation and localization will undergo a division into new categories of needs. This will necessitate the provision of services such as fully automated global content, responsibly automated services with human intervention, and purely human services that offer exceptional quality and creativity.
So, it’s not about getting worried, it’s about getting busy and taking action.

July 2023

Karl Eastwood, CEO of Global Lingo

A cost-of-living crisis, tightening financial conditions across the globe, Russia's invasion of Ukraine, and the lingering COVID-19 pandemic all weigh heavily on the outlook for 2023 and beyond.

The language service industry often finds itself somewhat insulated from economic shifts (given its central role in facilitating the globalization of business), however caution is justified when faced with the looming cloud of recession. While the forces currently shaping the LSP landscape may seem limiting – they can, if harnessed correctly, be just the opposite: a set of tools for moving into the future confidently and successfully. For example, the effect of inflation on the cost of human talent could be approached as a further squeeze on a sector that is already squeezed financially. Or it could be taken as an opportunity to show your best people how much you value them, and an impetus to further explore how technology such as artificial intelligence tools can help humans to produce their best work.

The seller’s market for business development talent could be yet another obstacle on the path to growth. Or you could welcome the fact that this means anyone you hire is choosing your company over the many others clamoring for their attention, and that being a “Great Place to Work” means something to them. You can view offshoring purely as a means to cut costs. Or you could embrace it as a way to create a genuinely diverse, international team of equals. As the saying goes, necessity is the mother of invention. The future of LSPs will be determined by those of us willing to take the conditions we are presented with, and use them to invent a better, smarter, more human way forward, through 2023 and far beyond.

Finally, GenAI will open up new project opportunities for us. We'll be able to seek out larger, more complex projects, pushing back the boundaries of our translation business. This will enable us to meet the growing demand for large-scale translations, while reducing our costs through automation.

In conclusion, I see the arrival of GenAI as an opportunity for the translation industry. It offers considerable advantages in terms of speed, productivity, and expertise, while enabling human translators to concentrate on more complex and creative aspects of their work. By using AI technologies intelligently and strategically, we can continue to provide high-quality “content” that meet our customers' needs and expectations, while reducing our budget and optimizing our processes. This is real added value that we need to seize now.

July 2023

Read January 2022 statement

Anette Vandeloo, Co-Founder and COO of Powerling

AI and machine translation are definitively changing the future of LSPs. What will make the difference is the ability to find a good balance between technology and humans. Of course, they are complementary; technology helps us to automate time consuming and repetitive tasks so humans can concentrate on what is most important for clients. Listen to their needs, understand their businesses, think globally, manage projects from start to finish … be a strong partner they can rely on for their international and multicultural expansion.

I don’t think AI is the only thing that will change the future of LSPs as we will come to a point when we will all be using the same technology. We are all more or less doing the same thing but how we do it makes a big difference. How we impact the world regarding the environment and society will be essential to build a desirable future for LSP’s. Financial performance would be senseless if we are not able to positively impact humans and the environment. It's an exciting challenge to make business at the service of the common good, let’s do it!

July 2023