The landscape of translation is evolving rapidly, driven by advances in AI and the ever-growing need for global connectivity. As we look toward 2025, the integration of technology and human expertise is poised to transform how businesses approach localization. From achieving human parity with AI translation tools to redefining the role of linguists, these shifts will unlock new opportunities for efficiency, scalability, and impact.
Smartling’s recent webinar, led by Bryan Murphy, CEO of Smartling, and Olga Beregovaya, Vice President of AI, explored the rapid advancements in AI during 2024 and charted the potential trajectory of translation technology in 2025. Here’s a glimpse of what’s to come and how organizations can stay ahead of the curve.
Amidst the constant buzz about AI, 2024 also saw notable advancements, including multi-modal models enhancing accessibility and the convergence of Neural Machine Translation (NMT) with generative AI. However, key challenges remain—like the need to improve support for long-tail languages and to implement the need for tighter AI regulations. Still, this year’s learnings lay the foundation for what’s next.
Here are the five transformative trends for the year ahead:
Prediction 1: AI will reach human parity translation.
AI is nearing human-level quality for certain languages and content types. By addressing "false fluency," bias, hallucinations, and inaccuracies, AI will become an even more reliable tool in translation.
Business Outcomes:
Achieving human-parity in translation will allow companies to reduce their reliance on post-editing, cutting costs while ensuring faster time-to-market for global content.
Prediction 2: AI will become reliable enough for widespread trust and adoption.
AI is only as good as the trust we place in it. Responsible and ethical AI practices—along with clear performance metrics—will build trust in new technology, paving the way for broader AI adoption across industries in 2025.
Business Outcomes:
Greater trust in AI solutions will enable organizations to scale localization efforts, entering new markets with confidence and reduced operational risk.
Prediction 3: Localization teams will be required to align with business outcomes.
While localization teams often wrestle with being viewed as an expense to the business, we anticipate that loc folks will be asked to align their efforts directly with business goals in 2025. Localization will soon become known as a growth driver, rather than a cost center.
Business Outcomes:
By tying localization efforts to measurable business KPIs, organizations can justify investments in language solutions and demonstrate their value in driving revenue.
Prediction 4: LLMs will evolve into SLMs or LLMs fine-tuned for specific linguistic tasks.
Expect a shift from larger language models to smaller, fine-tuned models that deliver higher quality outputs, use fewer computational resources, and are optimized for specific tasks.
Business Outcomes:
Task-specific models will allow businesses to implement more efficient AI solutions, saving costs on infrastructure while improving translation quality for niche needs.
Prediction 5: Models will be capable of independently creating and improving their own prompts.
Future AI systems will independently create, test, and refine their own prompts. This evolution shifts human roles from engineering prompts to curating foundational datasets.
Business Outcomes:
Autonomous prompt refinement will accelerate the deployment of AI models, reducing time and resource investments in model training and fine-tuning.
Bonus Prediction: Linguists with an understanding of data science will be the most sought-after professionals in the industry.
Olga emphasized the importance of human linguists, especially those who dive into data science, stating that, "Linguists who add prompt engineering and validation of prompt programming to their toolset will really thrive." Bryan also emphasized the need to provide linguists with the necessary tools and training to succeed, stating, "It's our job to make sure that we help provide those tool sets to the linguists so that they can thrive and survive in an environment like this."
Business Outcomes:
Linguists equipped with AI knowledge will bridge the gap between human expertise and machine capabilities, ensuring quality and innovation in localization workflows.
Carving the Path to the Future
While 2024 revealed the potential of AI, 2025 promises to push those boundaries further. As Bryan expressed, "The cat is out of the bag, and AI is absolutely here to stay."
Partnering with trusted advisors and companies who have navigated the path of AI will help you embrace these trends and prepare for the future of language translation.
Want to take a closer look into 2025’s crystal ball? Fill out the form above and watch the webinar.
