Translation Trends for 2024: Future of Localization Industry

The shifting of localization and translation is inevitable. It is one of many things that will surely happen to the world. This change in translation trends is not merely about technology or the development of translation tools. It also happens to the social and world's demand. Translation and localization is one of the things that is important in business. Through the right translation works, a business could enhance its revenue or flunk out to the ground. That is because a good localization will continue to understand the needs of the target audiences and what matters the most to them.

A relevant two-sentence will work better for business rather than a paragraph that is done improperly. Understanding the translation trends is important for business since it could help to pinpoint what needs to be changed in your localization projects. Especially if there is a change that will impact business in the future. You will regret not reading this article later if you skip this out.

Last Year's Trends on Translation

Changes in translation trends are not done in just a few seconds. There is a process that takes a longer time to cook until you perceive it today. The trends in this industry have been going on for years. Even though changes in many industries are always done in continuity, the past few years have been a whole new experience. Especially with the change in technology and translation tools. This makes the translation process take a shorter time than before. Throughout the past few years, you have noticed some differences in this industry. Here are some of the explanations.

• 2020

Let's start from 2020. In 2020, the industry of translation is going through changes with the use of MTPE or machine translation. These changes help increase the efficiency of the translation and localization process in a more significant way. The translator could edit the text that has been translated by the machine translation first. This will help with the glossary and the efficiency.

Furthermore, in 2020 the industry was driven by languages other than English such as German, Mandarin, and also Spanish. This demand is also accompanied by the increased use of AI that collaborates with human translators. Not just that, a big surge in transcreation also happened this year. Video translation and localization are also in higher demand due to the increase in video consumption.

• 2021

In 2021, the improvement of AI and Machine Translation Post Editing or MTPE will affect the industry of translation. The surge of technology development in this industry, is also increasing the demand for video translation, closed captioning, subtitling, and many more. This is due to the high consumption of video content on smartphone platforms and also websites. With the expansion of the global community, localization services are used in many business sectors to help the adaptation and localization of various content for different backgrounds. The need for a Mandarin translator has also increased.

• 2022

Again, machine translation and MTPE still gain much attention this year. The collaboration between the AI tools and human translators makes it a perfect combination to make sure the translation job will work efficiently and result in a better final work. Not just that, speech translation is also gaining much attention due to the advances in speech recognition technology. The major trend this year is media localization and also business translation since the global community is going through a major shift. This year, the medical translation is also at a critical point like last year. This is due to the ongoing pandemic on a global scale. Therefore, a precise translation is needed in most countries.

• 2023

The rise of AI translation has changed the industry in a significant way. This technology is developed fast, however, a human translation to accompany the translation process is still needed. Localization is important for companies who want to adapt to a new market and audiences. Change in the global market is inevitable since there are many political changes in many countries.

Read More:Voice Over Localization, How It Plays a Big Part on Brand

Translation Trends in 2024

With the change in technology and translation tools, the industry has gone through many wild experiences. You have understood some of the few changes in the past years. Now, be ready to learn the trends in translation that could happen in the year 2024. Check it out.

• Collaboration Between Human Translation and AI

It is a fact that the growth of AI is impeccable. It is nearly perfect that many are drawn to using these tools rather than using translation services using human translators. However, this is not true at all.

While AI will give the most perfect version of their translation, it cannot be as accurate as a human translator in terms of cultural references and also human touch. Hence, a collaboration between the two is needed.

It is true that AI will give rise to the efficiency of the translation process. It will also shorten the amount of time the process needs to finally give results. The AI apparently can function really well with short and simple sentences. However, the results will drop in a significant way if they are given more complex sentences.

For some industries that require a high rate of precision, this shortcoming of AI is unacceptable. Especially in the healthcare, law, or finance industry. However, using AI as a tool will give a good benefit. Human translators could enhance their work pace better using AI without leaving any nuances or critical information needed in the translation. Many people view AI as a threat that could cause them to lose their jobs. This should not be the reality. AI should be viewed as the tools that help humans work. Especially if working with a large amount of data. Using machine translation will help the efficiency in a systematic way.

Business companies should not just consider AI as the substitute of human translators. Using AI to cut budgets is just a lazy way of dealing with business. A good business should know that human touch is needed to succeed in localization and translation.

• Language Demand

For many years English has always had a higher demand for localization. However, in the translation trends of 2024, this fact has changed entirely. The demand for other languages has actually been going on for many years. However, it is predicted that this year there will be a lot more demand in other languages other than English. The example is Mandarin and also Arabic. The change in the economy and development of technology has brought new markets to the global business. Such markets are in Asia, the Middle East, and also South America.

This changes what language is in demand for the translation job. Even so, English is still used globally in business interactions throughout the world. However, businesses should not rely on the English language only. Changes are needed to adapt to the new market and expand the success in a whole new region. Significant languages like Mandarin, Spanish, Hindi, Arabic, and Portuguese are important for global expansion.

• Various Translation Demands

The translation industry is not only having high demand in traditional sectors such as finance, legal, and health. Many industries like entertainment and e-commerce are also in the surge.

From video translation, video game localization, voice-over localization, and subtitle localization, there are many new markets for translation. In the future, there will be more new changes in demand regarding the localization process. A business owner should use a translation localization service to make sure the translation quality is top-notch. Hence searching for the right company is important.

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Closing

It is important to know the latest translation trends. It will help business growth and development to a brighter future. To do this, you can try to use a localization company to help the translation process run smoothly.