10 Translation Industry Trends in 2023
COVID-19 has changed the way we live our lives. The global business is no exception to it. People are confined to their homes to mitigate the spread of COVID-19. The global business that has brick-and-mortar stores has shifted its business to e-commerce. Thanks to digitalization have given great leverage to e-commerce stores. The e-commerce stores faced the challenge of communication. This is because people opt to buy products and services from a website that is in their native language. This has increased the importance of translation services more than before. Let’s dive into the 10 translation industry trends in 2023.
Globalization and Technology
In this era of globalization, the objective of entrepreneurs is to expand their business across borders. They can only tap into foreign markets when they speak the language of the target market. Here translation services play an important role in attracting the target market. At present, globalization is associated with translation. In 2023, due to technological advancement, there will be no problem for entrepreneurs to connect with the target market in their language because translation agencies are just a click away from them.
Globalization demands that more and more people should be connected in their language while keeping regional and cultural intricacies in view. According to Forbes magazine, translation services are growing tremendously with the global economy. This is good news for translators and global companies that want translation services to operate their business globally.
Technology advancement is the main driving force behind the progress of the translation industry. It makes people communicate in a language that they understand despite the location where they are. Online tools such as Skype and Google Translate are facilitating communication between thousands of businesses and companies globally. We expect to see more technological advancement in 2023 in the translation industry. They will use more software to enhance the speed and accuracy of translation services. However, due to regional and cultural references, human translators will still be in demand. Moreover, they can give instructions to the machine to operate efficiently.
Use of Videos and Podcasts
At present, global businesses are using videos on social media platforms to increase traffic. Thus, this has created a demand for video and audio translations. As per the survey by Wyzowl, 81% of business owners use video content on their websites. This number will increase more in 2023. Podcasts and videos are an important part of many global companies’ marketing strategies. For this purpose, many translation agencies have to train their translators for translating multimedia content. In this regard, translators should have the know-how of the subtitling and dubbing process. So, if you want to pursue a career in translation, you must know how to translate videos and digital content.
E-learning and Translation
Many global companies spend a large amount of money on the training and development of their employees. This is very important in this era of fierce competition because if global companies have to compete in the international market, they need to train their employees. Covid-19 has also affected the training procedure of companies. Traditional in-class training is finished and the concept of e-learning is introduced. E-learning training is a cheap form of training as it saves money from in-class training and transportation. In the unprecedented time of Covid-19 when global companies have asked their employees to work from home, they keep on training their employees through e-learning programs. According to the report by Statista, e-learning will continue to grow at a rate of 15% from 2017 to 2023.
Global business is turning to e-learning. Therefore, the important thing to keep in mind is that people will learn and retain information in mind if they are provided training in their native language. Therefore, training material, quizzes, games, and books should be translated and provided to the learners in their mother tongue. Many companies that are providing online education and distance learning need to develop the content in such a way that it can be translated into multiple languages easily.
Artificial Intelligence
Tech-savvy people have predicted that soon human translation will end, and artificial translation will grow. But due to cultural and regional intricacies, we cannot remove the human touch from translation. For instance, Google Translate cannot translate the complicated text with local and regional words. In many circumstances, human translation is faster than machine translation. With the amalgamation of a machine and human translation, a hybrid translation platform will provide a better option for language translation in the future. The human translator is kept in the loop with the help of computer-assisted translation. They review and edit the translations that are done by machines. CAT tools are a well-used tool in the translation industry and their use will increase more in 2023.
Remote and Online Working
COVID-19 has shifted the world towards digitalization. As people cannot go out, they need to communicate online. This has increased the importance of translators and resulted in the emergence of live translation. Although these both are available for a long time due to pandemics, remote translation and live translation have become the norm in companies, clinics, seminars, and courtrooms.
Medical Translation
Medical translation services are in great demand because of the pandemic. As developed nations worked on the development of vaccines, there is a great demand for medical translation to share the use of vaccines among people that speak different languages. The government also needs translation services to guide the masses about the precautions that they can take to save themselves from this lethal pandemic. Unless the pandemic is eradicated from the world, the demand for medical translation will prevail in 2023.
Growing Workforce of Translators
Many people have lost their jobs because of the economic turmoil caused by COVID-19. This has turned people towards learning linguistic skills. Many people have adopted a career in translation because of the growing demand for translation services. This career is more for those people that can speak Portuguese, Russian, Spanish, Chinese, and Japanese. It is expected that the workforce of translators will grow more in 2023.
Multilingual Customer Support
People tend to visit websites that are in their native language. They make purchases if they are communicated in a language that they understand. After purchasing, comes the importance of customer support. According to the survey, 76% of consumers use messaging apps to take after-sale assistance. They take this assistance if they are communicating in their native language. AI is helping the translation industry to enhance the response time of customer services in the language they understand.
Speech-to-Speech Translation
Speech-to-speech translation is a technology that helps to translate spoken language into their preferred language. Skype translators and wearable translation devices are important innovations in the era of translation technology. These technologies have simplified the lives of people when they are restricted at home. People are now getting used to this technology, and it will proceed to rise in 2023.
Language Demand
In terms of languages, the trend of translation services will increase in 2023 which is in high demand. It is predicted that languages that are increasing according to the number of speakers are Arabic, English, and Portuguese. Moreover, the languages like Chinese, Malay, Korean, Spanish, and French are also increasing. The translation of the content in these languages will be at its peak in 2023.
Wrapping Up
The above-mentioned trends will shape the landscape of the translation industry in 2023. They will help to mitigate the communication barriers among the nations and do not stop the smooth functioning of your global business in the tough times when the world is facing the consequences of the pandemic.
