SlatorPod

• #243 Gridly CEO Anna Albinsson on Efficient Localization

  Anna Albinsson, CEO of Gridly, joins SlatorPod to talk about the company’s evolution into a content operations platform, its expansion beyond gaming, and the increasing role of AI in localization.Anna discusses Gridly’s transition from a niche CMS for gaming companies into a comprehensive content operations platform. Initially built by game developers for game developers, the company is now expanding into fintech and edtech, as demand for streamlined multilingual content management grows.The CEO also announces the launch of integrated translation management system (TMS) and translation productivity (CAT) functionalities within its platform. This consolidation helps companies streamline workflows, reduce costs, and improve collaboration, particularly for enterprises with complex content pipelines.Anna sees AI as an opportunity rather than a disruption, emphasizing that accountability remains key. While AI can accelerate translation and localization processes, companies still need governance, workflow management, and quality control to ensure accuracy.Anna shares her views on sales and marketing, pointing out that Gridly’s lead gen is nearly 100% inbound-driven, with strong brand recognition in gaming. While SEO and digital marketing remain crucial, Anna emphasized the importance of human relationships.Looking ahead, Gridly plans to further develop AI capabilities to improve contextual accuracy, consistency, and automation in multilingual content.

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• #242 CEOs React as Trump Declares English the Sole Official Language of the US

  In response to President Trump’s executive order designating English as the official language of the US, SlatorPod gathered Dipak Patel, CEO of GLOBO, and Peter Argondizzo, CEO of Argo Translation, to discuss its implications for the US language industry.The discussion highlighted that language access has long been a key part of US policy, particularly in healthcare, education, and legal services. Dipak pointed out that eliminating language services would create inefficiencies, making it harder for medical professionals to provide accurate care.Peter emphasized the broader uncertainty the order creates as many organizations rely on federal funding for language services, and a lack of clear guidance could lead to reduced support in schools, courts, and public services.Both CEOs acknowledged that while this order presents challenges, the language services industry has historically adapted to change. Dipak suggested that financial pressures may push the industry to innovate, potentially accelerating AI adoption in interpreting. While the long-term impact remains unclear, the consensus is that language access will persist — driven by business needs and market demand.

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• #241 memoQ CEO Peter Reynolds on Adaptive Generative Translation and AI

  Peter Reynolds, CEO of memoQ, joins SlatoPod to talk about the impact of AI on translation technology and how memoQ is enhancing its tools to meet the changing needs of enterprises, LSPs, and translators.Discussing AI, Peter recounts memoQ's response to the rise of generative AI, leading to the launch of memoQ AGT (Adaptive Generative Translation). By providing contextual data to LLMs, they replicated the advantages of custom machine translation without extensive training.The CEO acknowledges industry concerns about AI replacing human translators but argues that expert linguists remain essential. He compares this shift to software development, where AI tools enhance, rather than replace, skilled professionals.Peter discusses memoQ’s acquisition of Globalese, explaining how its on-premise AI translation capabilities strengthen memoQ’s offerings for high-security industries like banking and life sciences.On the product side, Peter teases upcoming developments, including a fully revamped web interface and research into handling larger translation segments beyond the traditional sentence-level approach. 

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• #240 Anthropic Stuns with Fact About Claude Use for AI Translation

  Florian and Esther, along with Slator Head of Research, Anna Wyndham, discuss the language industry and AI news of the week, with findings from Anthropic’s recent research on Claude’s usage. The analysis of over 4 million conversations revealed a surprising fact about how people use AI for translation.Turning to YouTube, Florian discussed CEO Neal Mohan’s statement that AI dubbing is among the platform’s "big bets" for 2025.In a spree of AI announcements, Deepgram unveiled its Nova-3 speech-to-text model for enterprise use and Panjaya launched Pod Pro, an AI-powered multilingual sync tool. Meanwhile, Adobe expanded Firefly to include language capabilities, and Centific launched FLOW, an enterprise-grade AI solution.In Esther’s M&A and funding corner, Lingopal secured USD 14m in funding to enhance real-time multilingual broadcasting, focusing on sports and live events, and TransPerfect acquired Apostroph Group to solidify its position in the DACH region.Anna discussed Meta’s Language Technology Partner Program, which aims to improve AI for low-resource languages and preserve linguistic diversity. The episode wrapped with Florian noting Supertext’s rebranding and comparison with DeepL, where it claimed superior results in document-level translation quality.

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• #239 DeepSeek Translation, ElevenLabs AI Dubbing, Sorensen M&A

  Florian and Esther discuss the language industry news of the week, where they reviewed ElevenLabs’ AI dubbing, on the back of a USD 3bn+ valuation. While they found the translation quality was strong, minor timing issues and lack of lip-syncing meant the output felt slightly unnatural.Esther then provided an update on M&A activity, where UK-based XTM International acquired US-based Transifex and DEMAN Übersetzungen expanded its presence in Germany by acquiring life sciences translation specialist German Language Services.Meanwhile, Sorensen Communications acquired Hand Talk, which uses AI-powered avatars for automated sign language translation, and OmniBridge, which employs computer vision to convert sign language into speech or text.Florian shared how experts received DeepSeek’s AI translation capabilities, noting its strong Chinese-English performance and cost efficiency but highlighting skepticism over data security, domain-specific accuracy, and potential political bias​.The duo noted that ZOO Digital has joined Amazon Prime Video’s Preferred Fulfillment Vendor Program, a positive development amid its recent market fluctuations and historically low share prices. Florian gave his thoughts on Meta’s Ray-Ban glasses with live translation, noting their inconsistent performance with fast or quiet speech and questioning their usefulness for media consumption compared to traditional subtitles​.

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