Predictions on the Future of Localization Work
Industry Experts Share Thoughts on the Future of Localization Work
The future of business lies in digital transformation and international growth. The pandemic forced companies to pivot to a digital-first model to remain competitive. McKinsey Global Survey found that it sped up the digitization of customer interactions by three to four years. This shift brought localization to the forefront of decision-making, where it remains today.
Localization will play an even more significant role in business growth as more customer journeys begin and end online. That means brands will need to develop ongoing streams of multilingual content faster than ever. It also means brands—and localization providers—must turn to new techniques and technologies to keep up.
That future is nearer than you think. According to a cross-section of industry experts, here’s a glimpse into what localization work will look like.
Multilingual Omnichannel Experiences Are the New Norm
Before we make any predictions, we need to evaluate where the business stands today.
Thanks to digital transformation, customers have come to expect a seamless, integrated shopping experience—both online and off. For example, brands use an omnichannel marketing approach to connect every channel, including websites, apps, email, social media, and in-store experiences. Once a “nice to have,” this strategy now plays a crucial role in engagement and retention as customers move across multiple platforms before making a purchase. For example, someone may view an ad on a mobile device, place the order on a desktop, and then pick up the product at a brick-and-mortar store.
So how does this impact localization? Simply put, it will become a primary component of the multichannel experience. While localizing a website used to be enough to build a presence in a new market, it now takes several touchpoints to keep global customers engaged. Like English speakers, they want more content in their native language. And understandably so. Imagine signing up for a newsletter on an English-language website only to receive emails in German.
This growing need for multilingual omnichannel experiences drives innovation in the localization industry. Below is a look at five future changes we expect to see.
Prediction #1: AI Will Enable Augmented Translation Industry-wide
As the demand for content grows and turnaround times shrink, localization providers will increasingly take a technology-centric approach to translation to meet demands. Soon, most human translators will rely on unified artificial intelligence (AI) platforms that integrate the technologies they need to scale projects. Tools such as type-ahead functions, do-not translate blockers, and inline readability highlights will also increase efficiency and improve accuracy.
Human translation will also shift from translating content to augmenting machine-generated translations for many more projects. As neural network machine learning models improve at producing human-like texts, translators will focus more on refining and adding context to the final translation. This will significantly speed up the translation process and allow brands to localize more content faster.
Prediction #2: “Good Enough” Content Will Dominate Digital Channels
Thanks to AI, brands won’t need to decide which content to localize—they’ll be able to localize 100% for every market. In turn, brands will optimize budgets by the levels of quality and service different types of content requirements. Yet this also means letting go of the belief that a translation must be nearly perfect to be acceptable. Instead, “good enough” content will be measured by end-user acceptance.
What is considered “good enough” may depend on factors such as the following:
Type of content. End-users are typically more forgiving of errors in less formal content such as social media and product reviews.
Product or service. Content for industries such as medical and legal will still need to achieve a higher degree of accuracy to gain reader trust.
Target language. Speakers of world languages such as French may have higher expectations than speakers of less common languages such as Igbo.
Over time, brands can track how well content performs in each market to determine where they can increase (or decrease) the localization budget.
Prediction #3: Brands Will Expand Beyond World Languages
In addition to localizing more content, forward-thinking brands will localize for more languages. While World languages such as French, Chinese, and Arabic open the doors to multiple countries, less-widely spoken regional languages offer unique opportunities in emerging markets. For example, the demand for online shopping is on the rise in Nigeria, but only some foreign brands offer content in Hausa, Igbo, or Yoruba. Those that do are in a unique position to connect with Nigerian customers.
Yet Nigeria isn’t the only African country with a shortage of translated content. When CSA Research studied 2,8000 major brand sites, the organization discovered that just 22 African languages receive support. Of these brands, only social media, search engine companies, and Mozilla target non-colonial languages. Unfortunately, this means most online content is only accessible to people who understand one or more non-African languages.
However, as internet access and the demand for online services continues to rise, more consumers will seek out content in their language. While brands may be slower to expand their language options, it will become increasingly profitable as more of the world’s population goes online. And as more content becomes available, machine translation will become a more viable option for publishing it at scale.
Prediction #4: Marketing Teams Will Lead Localization Efforts
Given the increasing demand for multilingual content, more marketing teams will manage localization projects. While product and development teams have traditionally led localization efforts, marketers now play a much more significant role in digital transformation, onboarding, and customer experience. Each of these requires mastery of the multilingual, multichannel channel customer journeys. That means marketing is uniquely positioned to ensure localization's success from the initial launch to market maturity.
Some leaders in localization have already made the shift, and we expect more companies to do so as new content journeys emerge. Over time, siloed marketing and customer experience teams will merge to form a single global content center that supports a multimarket strategy. This will enable brands to gain deeper insights into international customers’ preferences, allowing them to pivot marketing campaigns to maximize ROI.
Prediction #5: Localization Will Be Viewed as a Profit Center
Due to the initial cost of localization, it’s often perceived as an expense rather than an investment. That’s because a localization project’s success typically wasn’t defined by business outcomes but by linguistic quality and technical compliance. However, modern data collection is changing that.
Today, product and marketing teams can use data to demonstrate the value of investing in localization and shift the conversation from costs to global profits. However, to do so, they must first learn how to capture and measure relevant localization metrics such as:
Customer engagement
User satisfaction
Global growth and sales revenue
By tracking these metrics, teams will be able to prove to upper management that localization has a positive impact on the company’s bottom line. This will enable them to ask for higher budgets and scale localization efforts across each market—which is vital for global growth.
Limitless Opportunities in Localization
As you can see, the future is bright for the localization industry. New techniques, technologies, and a growing list of language options will enable localization providers to do even more to help brands reach their business goals. While some innovations are nearer than others, it’s an exciting time to be part of this dynamic field.
Are you interested in reading more from our industry experts? Sign up for our monthly newsletter to get exclusive insights, perspectives, and tips.