Florian and Esther catch up on a few weeks’ worth of language industry news with a surge of developments in speech translation. Apple’s on-device translation debuts in apps like iMessage and FaceTime, and OpenAI enhances ChatGPT‘s Advanced Voice Mode with more human-like interactions and real-time translation.

Florian unpacks YouTube’s broad rollout of AI dubbing for 80 million creators in 20 languages, where he trials German and finds robotic voices, bad translations, and no editing options, leaving much to be desired.

Esther talks about RWS acquiring Papercup’s IP, aiming to embed AI dubbing into Trados and significantly boost RWS’s capabilities and market reach. RWS’s half-year financials also show slight revenue drops but rising AI-driven revenue, alongside a reorganization into three divisions: Generate, Transform, and Protect

The duo analyzes Meta’s USD 14bn investment for a 49% stake in Scale AI, which raises concerns from other tech giants uncomfortable with a major competitor owning a key data-labeling supplier. They note opportunities arising for competitors like Labelbox, RWS’s TrainAI, Welo Data, and many other LSIs as clients reconsider vendor relationships in light of Meta’s involvement.

In Esther's M&A corner, Propio acquires CyraCom to become a half-billion-dollar language solutions integrator, DigitalTolk buys 24translate to expand into the DACH region, and Powerling boosts its life sciences footprint with the acquisition of Idem.

Rounding out the episode are leadership changes, with XTM appointing Rob Finney as CMO and CQ Fluency naming Tameeka Smith as CEO following the long tenure of Elisabete Miranda.

Davit Baghdasaryan, Co-Founder & CEO of Krisp, joins SlatorPod to talk about the platform’s journey from a noise cancellation tool to a comprehensive voice productivity solution.

Originally built to eliminate background noise during calls, Krisp has expanded into real-time accent conversion, speech translation, agent assistance, and note-taking — technologies being rapidly adopted in enterprise environments.

The company’s accent conversion is now deployed by tens of thousands of call center agents, significantly improving metrics like customer satisfaction and call handling time.

Davit details Krisp’s live AI speech translation feature which uses a multi-step pipeline of speech-to-text, text translation, and text-to-speech. The majority of use cases are in high-resource language pairs such as English, Spanish, French, and German, although Davit recognizes the importance of expanding to lower-resource languages.

He shares how Krisp is also seeing increased demand in human-to-AI voice communication. AI voice agents are highly sensitive to background noise, which disrupts turn-taking and response accuracy. Krisp’s noise isolation tech plays a foundational role in enabling smoother voice AI interactions, with billions of minutes processed monthly by major AI labs and startups.

The CEO discusses LLMs' impact, noting how they enable advanced features like note-taking, call summaries, and real-time agent guidance. He sees Krisp as a platform combining proprietary technologies with third-party AI to serve both B2B and B2C markets.

Davit advises startups to explore the vast and still underdeveloped voice AI landscape, noting the current era is ripe for innovation due to AI advancements. He highlights Krisp’s roadmap priorities: expanding accent packs, refining voice translation, and building more AI Agent Assist tools focused on voice workflows.

Stefaan van der Jeught, Professor of EU Constitutional Law at Vrije Universiteit Brussel, and a Press Officer at the Court of Justice of the European Union, joins SlatorPod to talk about the complex relationship between language and law in the EU.

Stefaan outlines the historical evolution of EU language policy, from French-only founding treaties to the gradual inclusion of all member state languages. Despite formal equality, institutions largely define their own internal language regimes, leading to fragmented and often English-centric practices. 

Stefaan’s book EU Language Law, now in its second edition, examines these issues in depth. Updated with new case law, legislation, and developments in AI and governance, it includes a 10-point roadmap for reform. Stefaan advocates for greater transparency, legal protection of linguistic diversity, and a constitutional debate on the role of language in EU integration.

AI, Stefaan believes, is a tool that can enhance multilingual access and consistency across EU communications. However, he cautions against using AI as a cost-cutting measure that replaces linguistic expertise. Instead, AI should serve as a support tool, with human revision, especially in legal contexts.

On regional languages like Catalan, Basque, and Galician, Stefaan notes they face legal hurdles at the EU level because they lack full legislative status in their home countries. He argues for a more transparent and constitutional debate on language policy, drawing inspiration from multilingual countries like Switzerland and Belgium.

Stefaan concludes by advising universities to train future legal linguists by going beyond technical instruction to foster critical thinking, comparative law expertise, and cultural literacy.

Tom Elias Hanna, COO of Hanna Interpreting Services (Hanna), joins SlatorPod to talk about how a family-run interpreting initiative grew into a national language solutions integrator (LSI).

Tom explained that the company was born out of necessity during an influx of Arabic-speaking refugees in San Diego, with his mother providing interpretation and him leveraging his legal background to establish a compliant, scalable business that now serves healthcare, government, education, and social service sectors across California.

Tom described how their inclusion-focused work led to partnerships like one with San Diego FC, where they provide ASL at every home game. He emphasized that while AI holds potential in sign language interpretation, it must evolve with and for the deaf community to be truly effective, due to cultural, emotional, and experiential nuances that current technologies cannot replicate.

On-site language interpretation remains the core service, especially across healthcare, education, and social services. Though remote interpreting and AI are on the rise, Tom emphasizes the irreplaceable value of human interpreters, particularly in high-stakes, emotionally nuanced settings like hospitals.

Tom explained that their recent rebrand emphasizes both human connection — central to their on-site interpreting services — and technological growth.

Initially, without a sales team, Hanna grew through referrals, client satisfaction, and high service quality. Only after COVID did Tom begin to formalize a sales strategy and identify account management as a natural extension of their client-first approach.

Tom expressed that despite considerable internal and industry-wide discussions, the Trump Executive Order designating English as the only official language of the US had no tangible effect on Hanna, so far. He noted that no clients inquired about it or changed their behavior.

Looking ahead, Tom aims to scale geographically, explore strategic acquisitions, and develop proprietary technologies to improve experiences for clients, staff, and linguists alike.

Florian and Esther welcome Slator’s Anna Wyndham and Alex Edwards to SlatorPod to explain the rationale behind the new industry framework introduced in the Slator 2025 Language Industry Market Report.

Drawing from the flagship report and echoing the buzz of SlatorCon London, the team explains why the traditional labels, Language Service Providers (LSPs) and Translation Management Systems (TMSs), no longer capture the scope and complexity of the evolving market. Instead, Slator has introduced two new terms: Language Solutions Integrators (LSIs) and Language Technology Platforms (LTPs).

Anna defines LTPs as pure-play technology providers that develop language tools, applications, orchestration platforms, and AI models. LSIs, she explains, are organizations whose core offering is to deliver fit-for-purpose multilingual content solutions by integrating language technology and AI with human experts as part of a fully managed solution.

Esther confirms early advisory adoption of the terms, noting investor interest in clearer tech-service distinctions. Alex adds that automatic dubbing startups tend to fit LTPs better than LSPs, as they often operate self-serve AI platforms.

Anna clarifies that big tech players like OpenAI and Google are excluded from the market sizing as they are foundational enablers, not language-focused businesses. The team also discusses why the term “AI” was excluded from the new categories as it may become as ubiquitous as “Cloud”.

To close, Anna points out that LSIs currently capture the bigger portion of the total addressable market (TAM). The team sees a strong demand for expert-in-the-loop services and growing LTP–LSI partnerships.

In a SlatorPod first, four guests — Scott Cooper, CEO of Language Services Associates (LSA), Pablo Tercero, COO of LSA, Jerry Song, CEO of Lingolet, and Edward Varela, VP of Business Development at Lingolet — shared their insights into a newly forged partnership.

Scott explained that the decision to partner instead of building an in-house AI solution allowed LSA to stay focused on its core strengths while leveraging Lingolet’s technical edge. The alliance goes beyond a vendor agreement, with LSA taking an equity stake in Lingolet, anchoring the relationship in shared strategy and long-term commitment. 

For Jerry and Edward, the partnership is a natural progression, rooted in their deep knowledge of both software development and the language services market.

In a standout use case, the two companies helped a Major League Soccer team enable multilingual, AI-assisted communication in coaching sessions — bridging language gaps in real time for international players.

On the tech front, Jerry and Edward explained that Lingolet doesn’t build large language models from scratch but instead acts as an orchestrator, offering clients the ability to customize and deploy AI tools within secure, dedicated environments. 

Pablo underscored LSA's HIPAA and PCI compliance, as security, compliance, and privacy are essential pillars, especially in regulated sectors like healthcare.

Looking ahead, LSA and Lingolet are preparing to offer hybrid solutions where AI can bridge the gap during interpreter unavailability, even for brief moments, potentially transforming session wait times. 

Their roadmap includes broader language coverage, deeper integration with healthcare platforms, and innovative pricing models that will reshape how interpretation services are sold and scaled.

Rong Yan, CTO of HeyGen, joins SlatorPod to recount the company’s transformation from a Metaverse-focused startup to leading the emerging field of AI video generation.

Rong recounts HeyGen’s beginnings and the pivot to its current avatar model, which saw ARR go from zero to USD 1m within six months.

Rong attributes HeyGen’s success to its emphasis on three key elements: quality, consistency, and controllability. The company’s newest model, Avatar IV, enables full-body video generation with natural gestures, synchronized audio, and emotion to speech.

While some of the platform’s growth has been viral, Rong believes sustained success comes from building something users truly value, with a focus on pushing video quality from 70% to 95%.

The platform extends beyond avatars, offering translation, voice cloning, and real-time interactivity. Its dynamic duration feature adjusts translated speech to fit original video timing, preserving realism. Rather than build everything from scratch, HeyGen integrates external models with its own orchestration and user data, optimizing output across languages and contexts.

Rong emphasized that HeyGen’s long-term vision is not entertainment or Hollywood, but helping everyday professionals, especially marketers and educators, who lack traditional video production skills.

Looking ahead, Rong sees video agents, tools that generate complete videos from simple prompts, as the next frontier, driving accessibility and transforming storytelling through AI.

Véronique Özkaya, Co-CEO of DATAmundi, returns to SlatorPod for round 2 to talk about the company’s strategic rebrand and how it is positioning itself as a key player in the data-for-AI space.

Véronique details her journey to leading DATAmundi, formerly known as Summa Linguae, where she now drives a strategic shift from traditional language services to AI-focused data enablement.

The Co-CEO explains that their LSP background makes them well-suited to offer fine-tuning services for AI, especially in multilingual and domain-specific contexts. However, she cautions that language expertise alone isn’t enough; deep tech infrastructure, data science capabilities, and the ability to quickly build custom workflows are also essential.

While many companies still rely on crowd-sourced, basic annotation, DATAmundi targets higher-complexity projects requiring domain experts and linguists. Véronique notes the market for data-for-AI is growing significantly faster than traditional LSP work and sees a second wave of demand from enterprises needing to adapt pre-trained models.

Véronique highlights data scarcity, hallucination, and bias as core AI challenges that DATAmundi tackles through technical solutions and expert guidance, helping enterprises as they face pressure to implement AI despite legacy systems and unclear strategies.

Looking ahead, DATAmundi plans to expand its consultative services through further acquisitions, focusing not on tech per se, but on organizations that deepen its expertise in data application and AI deployment.

Florian and Esther discuss the language industry news of the week, with DeepL becoming the first third-party translation app users can set as default on the iPhone, a position gained by navigating Apple’s developer requirements that others like Google Translate have yet to meet.

Florian and Esther examine RWS’s mid-year trading update, which triggered a steep 40% share price drop despite stable revenue, healthy profits, and manageable debt.

On the partnerships front, the duo covers multiple collaborations: Acclaro and Phrase co-funded a new Solutions Architect role, Unbabel entered a strategic partnership with Acclaro, and Phrase partnered with Clearly Local in Shanghai. 

Also, KUDO expanded its network with new partners, while Deepdub was featured in an AWS case study for its work with Paramount. Wistia partnered with HeyGen to launch translation and AI-dubbing features and Synthesia joined forces with DeepL, further cementing the trend of avatar-based multilingual video content.

In Esther’s M&A corner, MotionPoint acquired GetGloby to enhance multilingual marketing capabilities, while OXO and Powerling merged to form a transatlantic LSP leader. TransPerfect deepened its media footprint with two studio acquisitions from Technicolor, and Magna Legal Services continued its acquisition spree with Basye Santiago Reporting.

Meanwhile, in funding, Linguana, an AI dubbing startup targeted at YouTube creators, raised USD 8.5m, and pyannoteAI secured EUR 8m to enhance multilingual voice tech using speaker diarization. The episode concluded with speculation about DeepL’s rumored IPO, which could have broader implications for capital markets.

John Worne, CEO of the Chartered Institute of Linguists (CIOL), joins SlatorPod to discuss CIOL’s mission to support and promote language professionals and the value of languages for the public good through professional standards, advocacy, and intercultural understanding.

John highlights the challenges of applying AI in high-stakes contexts like court interpreting. He references the UK House of Lords inquiry into language services in the legal system, which emphasized the risks of AI, particularly for low-resource languages and nuanced human communication. He warns that casual, unsupervised AI use in public services risks serious harm without proper oversight.

The CEO describes the industry’s current AI experience as mixed. While late 2024 saw falling workloads and experimentation by clients with generative AI, early 2025 brought a more stable picture, with some freelancers regaining lost business. Still, the community remains divided: about half of CIOL’s members embrace AI tools, while the rest resist them, concerned about quality and trust.

John raises questions about AI’s influence on how we use and shape language. He notes how generative AI introduces patterns into the linguistic mainstream, creating an "AI-mediated average" that may dilute cultural identity. He argues that language is a “human meta skill”, encoding not only communication but identity, culture, and belonging. 

Looking ahead, John is cautiously optimistic for the next generation of linguists, as digital natives may be more adept at using AI creatively and multitasking across tools. CIOL plans to expand free resources and community engagement in 2025, ensuring that the future of language work remains inclusive, ethical, and informed by real human insight.

Luke Innes, CEO of Creative Translation, joins SlatorPod to discuss how the global transcreation agency puts “human at the heart of the process” of multilingual branding by combining creativity, cultural insight, and strategic use of AI.

Luke recounts his unconventional entry into the language services industry, charting a path from his roots in design to leading Creative Translation. Despite early skepticism around the term “creative translation,” he built a business model that puts creativity at its core, serving global brands with distinctive voices seeking international reach.

The CEO explains that the company’s talent pool includes not just translators, but copywriters, cultural consultants, subject-matter experts, and art directors, tailored to the unique needs of each project.

While large enterprises were once the primary clients for transcreation, Luke notes that AI is lowering barriers and enabling smaller companies to invest in higher-quality multilingual branding.

Luke emphasizes that AI is a productivity tool — not a creative replacement. It supports tasks like workflow automation and translation memory management but cannot replicate the insight and originality of a human linguist.

To prepare professionals for this evolving landscape, Luke founded the Creative Academy. It supports both new graduates and experienced linguists in mastering creative briefs and adopting AI responsibly.

Florian and Esther discuss the language industry news of the week, breaking down Slator’s 2025 Language Service Provider Index (LSPI), which features nearly 300 LSPs and reports 6.6% combined growth in 2024 revenues, totaling USD 8.4bn.

Florian touches on a surprise USD 10m donation from private equity executive Mario Giannini to launch a new MA translation and interpreting program at California State University, Long Beach. The duo talks about McKinsey’s State of AI report, which continues to classify translators as AI-related roles and shows that hiring them has become slightly easier.

In Esther’s M&A corner, TransPerfect announced two acquisitions, Technicolor Games and Blue Digital Group, further expanding its presence in gaming and media localization. In Israel, BlueLion and GATS merged to form TransNarrative, and Brazilian providers Korn Translations and Zaum Langs joined forces under the Idlewild Burg group.

Meanwhile, in funding, Teleperformance invested USD 13m in Sanas, a startup offering real-time accent translation for call centers to improve global communication. Lingo.dev raised USD 4.2m, while Dubformer secured USD 3.6m to develop the ‘Photoshop of AI dubbing’.

Florian shares insights from Slator’s 2025 Localization Buyer Survey, which found that over half of buyers want strategic AI support from vendors and many cite inefficient automation as a key challenge.

Joe Corkery, MD, CEO and Co-Founder of Jaide Health, joins SlatorPod to discuss how Jaide Health is driving medical interpreting and translation with AI, bridging communication gaps for limited English proficiency (LEP) patients and improving healthcare accessibility.

With a background in computer science, medicine, and AI product leadership at Google, Joe co-founded Jaide Health with Julie Wilner, RN, in 2023 to address a long-standing need for real-time, interactive communication for the LEP patient population.

Unlike older machine translation models, which worked sentence by sentence without context, Joe shares how generative AI can maintain coherence, track gender references, and infer meaning from prior context — crucial in medical settings.

The CEO remains pragmatic about Trump’s executive order designating English as the US's official language and revoking previous language access mandates. He argues that such policies will not change the healthcare industry's commitment to multilingual patient care but may push hospitals to seek more cost-effective solutions — potentially accelerating AI adoption.

Looking ahead, Jaide Health is focusing on expanding into document translation, particularly for discharge instructions and patient portal messaging, areas where current solutions are slow or impractical.

Anna Albinsson, CEO of Gridly, joins SlatorPod to talk about the company’s evolution into a content operations platform, its expansion beyond gaming, and the increasing role of AI in localization.

Anna discusses Gridly’s transition from a niche CMS for gaming companies into a comprehensive content operations platform. Initially built by game developers for game developers, the company is now expanding into fintech and edtech, as demand for streamlined multilingual content management grows.

The CEO also announces the launch of integrated translation management system (TMS) and translation productivity (CAT) functionalities within its platform. This consolidation helps companies streamline workflows, reduce costs, and improve collaboration, particularly for enterprises with complex content pipelines.

Anna sees AI as an opportunity rather than a disruption, emphasizing that accountability remains key. While AI can accelerate translation and localization processes, companies still need governance, workflow management, and quality control to ensure accuracy.

Anna shares her views on sales and marketing, pointing out that Gridly’s lead gen is nearly 100% inbound-driven, with strong brand recognition in gaming. While SEO and digital marketing remain crucial, Anna emphasized the importance of human relationships.

Looking ahead, Gridly plans to further develop AI capabilities to improve contextual accuracy, consistency, and automation in multilingual content.

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.

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 historically adapted to change. Dipak suggested that financial pressures may push the industry to innovate, potentially accelerating AI adoption in interpreting. 

While the long-term impact remains unclear, the consensus is that language access will persist — driven by business needs and market demand.

Peter Reynolds, CEO of memoQ, joins SlatoPod to talk about the impact of AI on translation technology and how memoQ is enhancing its tools to meet the changing needs of enterprises, LSPs, and translators.

Discussing AI, Peter recounts memoQ's response to the rise of generative AI, leading to the launch of memoQ AGT (Adaptive Generative Translation). By providing contextual data to LLMs, they replicated the advantages of custom machine translation without extensive training.

The CEO acknowledges industry concerns about AI replacing human translators but argues that expert linguists remain essential. He compares this shift to software development, where AI tools enhance, rather than replace, skilled professionals.

Peter discusses memoQ’s acquisition of Globalese, explaining how its on-premise AI translation capabilities strengthen memoQ’s offerings for high-security industries like banking and life sciences.

On the product side, Peter teases upcoming developments, including a fully revamped web interface and research into handling larger translation segments beyond the traditional sentence-level approach. 

Florian and Esther, along with Slator Head of Research, Anna Wyndham, discuss the language industry and AI news of the week, with findings from Anthropic’s recent research on Claude’s usage. The analysis of over 4 million conversations revealed a surprising fact about how people use AI for translation.

Turning to YouTube, Florian discussed CEO Neal Mohan’s statement that AI dubbing is among the platform’s "big bets" for 2025.

In a spree of AI announcements, Deepgram unveiled its Nova-3 speech-to-text model for enterprise use and Panjaya launched Pod Pro, an AI-powered multilingual sync tool. Meanwhile, Adobe expanded Firefly to include language capabilities, and Centific launched FLOW, an enterprise-grade AI solution.

In Esther’s M&A and funding corner, Lingopal secured USD 14m in funding to enhance real-time multilingual broadcasting, focusing on sports and live events, and TransPerfect acquired Apostroph Group to solidify its position in the DACH region.

Anna discussed Meta’s Language Technology Partner Program, which aims to improve AI for low-resource languages and preserve linguistic diversity. The episode wrapped with Florian noting Supertext’s rebranding and comparison with DeepL, where it claimed superior results in document-level translation quality.

Florian and Esther discuss the language industry news of the week, where they reviewed ElevenLabs’ AI dubbing, on the back of a USD 3bn+ valuation. While they found the translation quality was strong, minor timing issues and lack of lip-syncing meant the output felt slightly unnatural.

Esther then provided an update on M&A activity, where UK-based XTM International acquired US-based Transifex and DEMAN Übersetzungen expanded its presence in Germany by acquiring life sciences translation specialist German Language Services.

Meanwhile, Sorensen Communications acquired Hand Talk, which uses AI-powered avatars for automated sign language translation, and OmniBridge, which employs computer vision to convert sign language into speech or text.

Florian shared how experts received DeepSeek’s AI translation capabilities, noting its strong Chinese-English performance and cost efficiency but highlighting skepticism over data security, domain-specific accuracy, and potential political bias​.

The duo noted that ZOO Digital has joined Amazon Prime Video’s Preferred Fulfillment Vendor Program, a positive development amid its recent market fluctuations and historically low share prices. 

Florian gave his thoughts on Meta’s Ray-Ban glasses with live translation, noting their inconsistent performance with fast or quiet speech and questioning their usefulness for media consumption compared to traditional subtitles​.

Bryan Forrester, Co-founder and CEO of Boostlingo, returns to SlatorPod for round 2 to talk about the company’s growth, the US interpreting market, and the evolving role of AI.

Bryan shares how the company has tripled in size since he last appeared on the pod, driven by strategic acquisitions, including VoiceBoxer and Interpreter Intelligence, and a rebranding effort to unify its product portfolio.

Bryan explains how Boostlingo balances innovation with practicality, ensuring that new features align with customer needs. He highlights the company’s three-pronged strategy: retaining existing customers, enabling growth, and making long-term bets on emerging trends.

While tools like real-time captions and transcription enhance efficiency, Bryan stresses that AI alone cannot replace human interpreters in complex industries like healthcare. He highlights privacy, compliance, and the nuanced expertise of human interpreters as critical factors, positioning AI as a supportive tool rather than a replacement.

Bryan discusses market dynamics and regulatory changes, including how those under the new US administration could influence language access demand, particularly in areas like healthcare and public services. 

He describes Boostlingo’s strategy of leveraging third-party AI models, optimizing them with proprietary data, and rigorously testing to ensure quality and reliability. Looking ahead, Boostlingo plans to expand internationally and integrate AI ethically and effectively into its offerings, guided by its newly formed AI Advisory Board.

Florian and Esther discuss the language industry news of the week, focusing on Slator’s latest M&A and Funding Report, which highlights over 50 mergers, acquisitions, and financial investments, and nearly 20 funding rounds in 2024.

Florian discusses OpenAI’s ChatGPT o1 model, praising its translation accuracy for complex texts like German legal documents, though he notes slower processing speeds and challenges with low-resource languages.

In Esther’s first M&A and funding corner for 2025, MotionPoint has acquired KeyContent, Synthesia has raised a USD 180m Series D, bringing its valuation to over USD 2bn, and Pocketalk raised USD 15.8m in funding, despite talks of a potential IPO last year.

Florian talks about Acrolinx’s leadership change, with Matt Blumberg becoming CEO and aiming to expand the AI-powered content governance platform’s presence in the US market. DeepL launched its AI-powered speech-to-speech translation product, DeepL Voice, with NEC as its first enterprise client.

Esther notes LinkedIn's ranking of “Interpreter” as the 22nd fastest-growing job in the UK, driven by demand across industries like localization, museums, and even zoos. Florian wraps up with AWS’s latest guide on integrating translation memories with large language models to improve AI-driven translation workflows.

In the 2024 year-end episode of SlatorPod, hosts Florian Faes and Esther Bond, along with guest Anna Wyndham, explore pivotal language industry trends from the past year and predictions for 2025.

First, the language industry news of the week, with LXT’s acquisition of clickworker, which aims to expand its AI data capabilities and potentially double revenues by 2025. Meanwhile, Esther shares how EzDubs, a speech translation startup, secured USD 4.2m in seed funding.

Florian notes that RWS reported stable revenues for 2024, with GBP 180m coming from AI-driven products and services. He also highlights YouTube’s AI dubbing rollout, unlocking new possibilities for multilingual content, though noting current limitations, like robotic voice quality.

The trio discusses the UK House of Lords inquiry into court interpreting and translation, which raised concerns about interpreter pay, quality issues, and AI’s role in quality assurance. 

Reflecting on 2024, Anna outlines three major trends: speech-to-speech translation, “translation as a feature,” where translation capabilities are integrated into everyday software like project management tools, and the evolution of localization roles toward AI-driven skills. 

Looking ahead, Anna predicts rapid AI adoption in the public sector due to cost constraints and scalability needs, while Florian anticipates further breakthroughs in machine translation quality estimation and potential IPOs in the language tech sector. Esther forecasts increased M&A activity as niche providers seek stability and scalability in a competitive environment. 

Katharine Allen, Director of Language Industry Learning at Boostlingo, and Dr. Bill Rivers, Principal at WP Rivers & Associates, join SlatorPod to discuss the challenges and opportunities AI brings to interpreting. Both are founding members of the Interpreting SAFE AI Task Force, which aims to guide the responsible use of AI in language services.

Allen describes AI as a double-edged sword — capable of expanding multilingual access but limited in its ability to handle the nuanced human dialogue essential in fields like healthcare. She emphasizes the ongoing shift toward a hybrid model, where human interpreters collaborate with AI tools. 

Rivers underscores the importance of ensuring AI solutions are “fit for purpose.” Drawing from his background in computational linguistics, he explains how insufficient data, particularly for lesser-diffused languages, limits AI’s reliability. 

The duo express concern over the unregulated use of AI, citing examples where inaccuracies in AI translation led to significant consequences. The SAFE AI Task Force seeks to mitigate such risks by establishing guidelines and fostering collaboration across sectors.

Despite these challenges, Allen is optimistic about AI’s potential to help interpreters’ preparation and productivity, such as generating context-specific glossaries or simulating practice scenarios, saving time, and improving skill development. However, she cautions against over-reliance on AI, particularly in situations requiring deep human judgment.

Through the SAFE AI Task Force, Allen and Rivers advocate for collaboration and education to use AI responsibly, ensuring it serves as a tool to help interpreters rather than diminish the profession.

Florian and Esther discuss the language industry news of the week, where they explore how AI is influencing content creation and translation, noting its progress and limitations. 

A recent study on GPT-4 revealed its ability to match junior translators but lag behind experienced professionals, particularly in nuanced contexts. Florian highlights the public’s heightened perception of the risks of AI, such as OpenAI’s Whisper, in critical sectors such as healthcare, where transcription errors and hallucinations can have severe implications.

Esther delves into leadership transitions in the language industry, with notable appointments including Benjamin Faes, a tech veteran with experience at Google and AOL, as RWS’ new CEO.

Sorenson appointed Pajet Alves as CEO, while BLEND welcomed Yoav Ziv to lead after significant growth and acquisitions. Anna Albinsson took the helm at Gridly, with plans to expand beyond its gaming localization focus into MedTech and EdTech.

In M&A and funding, Esther covers Teleperformance’s acquisition of ZP Better Together for USD 490m, with plans to fold it into LanguageLine Solutions. Meanwhile, Writer.com raised USD 200m in Series C funding, to expand its generative AI capabilities.

Florian discusses big tech developments, such as Microsoft’s Translator Pro app for speech and document translation, while Amazon teased its "any-to-any" AI capabilities during the AWS re:Invent conference, hinting at future innovations in multilingual processing.

Florian unpacks Straker Translations’ financial results, which reflected industry trends of increased volumes but declining revenue, highlighting pricing pressures. Their new Verify.ai tool, designed to validate AI-generated translations, underscores the pivot toward technology.

Charles Campbell, President of tbo., returns to SlatorPod for round 2 to talk about his efforts to unite and professionalize the language services industry in Latin America and the Caribbean through the association Juntos.

Founded just before the pandemic, Juntos aims to raise standards in translation, interpreting, and localization by fostering collaboration, mentoring, and quality benchmarking. Despite challenges posed by the vast geography and diverse cultural landscape, the organization has seen significant growth, hosting conferences in Rio de Janeiro and Lima, with the next planned for Mexico City in 2025.

Campbell sees immense potential in Latin America, noting its rich linguistic diversity and a growing pool of passionate professionals entering the field. While many countries in the region lack the established quality norms and associations found in Europe or North America, Juntos is actively working to close this gap. He also highlights the affordability of hosting events in the region, coupled with its cultural richness, as factors drawing increased international participation.

Campbell addresses the role of AI in the industry, recognizing its strengths in high-resource languages like Spanish and Portuguese. He stresses that while AI is a valuable tool, human expertise remains essential, particularly in nuanced and culturally specific translations.

As Latin America and the Caribbean continue to gain visibility in the language industry, Campbell remains optimistic. Through Juntos, he encourages stakeholders to collaborate, innovate, and embrace the region’s unique opportunities.

Florian and Esther discuss the language industry news of the week, with Slator’s latest Translation as a Feature (TaaF) Report, which explores how AI translation is becoming an integral feature in enterprise technology.

Florian talks about Reddit’s success with machine translation (MT). By localizing content into French, the social media platform quadrupled daily active users in France, demonstrating the high ROI of investing millions in AI-driven localization each quarter.

In an M&A corner, Esther discusses Wolfestone’s acquisition of TauRho Transcribes, beefing up Wolfestone’s offerings in transcription and life sciences. She also covers TransPerfect’s fourth acquisition of 2024 with Plint selling its Netherlands-based media localization studio to the Super Agency.

Esther highlights Panjaya.ai’s USD 9.5m funding for BodyTalk, which perfects multilingual AI translation by synchronizing lip movements and gestures. Meanwhile, Neuphonic, a UK-based voice AI startup focused on ultra-low latency speech technology, has raised GBP 3m in pre-seed funding.

Florian reviews major AI launches: Translated’s Lara, a customizable large-scale AI-powered translation model, DeepL’s "DeepL Voice", offering real-time speech-to-text capabilities, and Unbabel’s Widn.AI, a platform offering advanced MT customization.