The Language Paradox
Over the last year, my journey has involved a deep dive into understanding the impact of AI in the language industry. My focus has been on this particular aspect: the influence of this emergent technology on existing localization ecosystems and infrastructures and the intellectual framework necessary for integrating an organization’s linguistic expertise. No one debates the potential of AI in revolutionizing the language industry and most other industries. Yet, when we adopt a pragmatic approach on the matter, it becomes essential to acknowledge that even though the language industry is well-established, it has consistently faced challenges in clearly demonstrating the vital role of localization and globalization in achieving corporate success. The question then is not just how transformative AI will be for the language industry, but also how can we effectively convey this transformative potential to those at the helm of enterprises and be the agent of change.
Let’s take a look at our industry's approach towards elevating the role of localization in an organization. Up to now, the predominant focus has been on advocating for the necessity of localizing content and tailoring products linguistically to cater to the diverse requirements of customers across global markets. This approach, while valuable, has remained relatively static over time and thevital role of localization has remained under the radar. However, as enterprises continue their digital transformation, including localization – the integration of Language technologies to core enterprise ecosystems has provided a new path for localization to grow in significance within the organization. Accordingly, localization increasingly expanded on a dual path: language proficiency, i.e. translations and transcreation and language capabilities i.e. content enablement at scale through a language technology stack. This transformation is incredibly important for the following reason: as part of the core ecosystem of an enterprise– no matter how many languages are being translated - a failure from the language technology component creates repercussions across the entire ecosystem– therefore, to ensure viability of the entire ecosystem workflows, not only itis now necessary to partner with localization, but it is also an opportunity to gain in visibility.
While the importance of language technologies can no longer be ignored within a global enterprise, the significance oflanguage - an instrument for interlinking human beings and their experiences continues to be overlooked and relegated to mundane roles, perceived merely as routine components of occupational duties. This is with the notable exception of roles such as copywriters and communication specialists. Yet, it is only within the framework of a localization infrastructure that we observe painstakingly the disconnect of language within an enterprise. In a mature Localization Program, there is a strategic effort to interweave content components for a seamless and holistic language experience – hence the localization program must connect every part of the whole. Localization teams invest heavily in quality assurance resources and time, they manage glossaries, create style guides, and ensure that these assets not only cover targeted content, but the entire content ecosystem to leverage terminology across all functions and constantly provide a cost differentiation.
But why is it still so challenging for Localization teams to bring a holistic approach to content and more importantly, why is it so difficult to show the vital role of languages in the company’s success?
Admittedly, rarely did I observe a holistic approach to a source language in a business setting. There is a prevailing approach that harmonization of the source language, typically spoken by the majority of the employees, will happen naturally as a matter of course. Additionally, teams writing content in the source language have an inherent advantage given their alignment with the majority of the market reach, they are not under constant pressure to demonstrate ROI or justify productivity through higher output at lower costs. While there are brand terminology guidelines and glossaries in source languages – different departments within an organization don’t leverage language with process efficiency and cost differentiation as a goal. Language, as an intellectual asset that every human can leverage to do their work – is so obvious for the speakers of the source language that it becomes invisible and intangible.
This is what I call the Language Paradox; while language is everywhere and connects everyone, it is the least valuable experiential asset within a business setting.
Recognizing that language is often undervalued in a business is not a new concept. However, there lies a significant opportunity for language professionals to elevate language as an essential business asset. In solving the language paradox as a whole by integrating all languages into a unified and holistic ecosystem, they can leverage and scale the benefits or emerging technologies faster and set language assets as a competitive advantage. Localization professionals are uniquely positioned to contribute their expertise in implementing structured processes in language business operations. With the growing availability of Language AI tools, it becomes crucial to establish structured workflows for processing all languages; including content expertise review, quality assurance, stakeholders input and more. Language professionals can play a pivotal role in uniting content creators and copywriters, guiding them through the journey of language transformation to ensure a cohesive language presence across diverse platforms.
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