Last updated on May 17th, 2023 at 06:06 pm

2023 looks to be a good year for the translation and interpretation industry. Language services are a business, government, medical, and personal need that isn’t going anywhere anytime soon. It’s been an interesting environment in this industry with many changes during the last few years – so what can we expect for 2023?

8 Translation Industry Trends in 2023

1. The Professional Translation Industry Will Continue to Grow

Translation services is a quickly growing industry; one prediction from the US Bureau of Labor Statistics puts the sector at 20% growth between 2021 and 2031, with an estimated 14,000 professional interpreters and translators joining the field in the next eight years. That percentage of change indicates faster growth than the average for other careers, which is a sign of the strength of the language industry.

The growing need for language translation services is due to many things, particularly the increasing globalization of our business and regulatory world. Government officials, businesses, and even laypeople must be able to communicate across borders and language barriers to work together and resolve problems and reach business opportunities. The need for a language service provider isn’t going anywhere soon!

2. Machine Translation will Continue to Expand

While the primary duties of interpreters and translators have stayed the same for decades, the technology in and around the field has grown by leaps and bounds. Years ago, computer translations could only handle basic phrases and words in familiar languages. Still, today they can do much more, thanks to advances in artificial intelligence and neural networks. Machine translation offers several benefits, including affordability and quick turnaround time.

But not all industries will see a rise in machine translation. Industries with specific jargon or high-level phrases, like the legal and medical industries, won’t benefit from machine translations. Neither will literarily fields like poetry or story translation. AI technology still lacks the nuance of human translators that makes all the difference for particular niches. 2023 won’t be the year AI translators replace human translation services, but we will see a continued expansion of what machine translation is capable of.

AI is expected to be a central focus for translation services and other industries as technology advances and more players are interested in the exploding power of AI. Machine translation promises to be an area of translation services to watch and learn to adapt to new developments.

3. Post-Editing Services from Translation Companies will Grow in Popularity

This trend goes hand in hand with the growth of machine translation. Since computer translations are still not as good as human translations, content automatically translated must be edited and proofed by specially trained post-editors from a translation company.

This is where post-editing comes in; a human translator combs through machine translation and enhances it, proofing for grammatical accuracy, linguistics, tone, syntax, and localization. Computer translations offer quick and affordable service. Post-editing from professional translators allows businesses to get the precision they need at a cost that fits the budget and improves the speed of many translation projects.

4. More Meetings with Live Interpretation Services

Although we live in a world with live subtitles and closed captions available at the click of a button, nothing replaces the accuracy and accessibility of on-demand interpreting services. Access to meetings, webinars, and other forms of content in people’s native language via interpreting services is the best and easiest way to increase accessibility. Simultaneous interpreting for remote and in-person meetings is a simple way to increase the accessibility of foreign spoken languages (or signed languages) in a given event.

During 2020, 2021, and 2022 the language services industry saw the growth of remote interpretation services. Many language service providers that mainly provide conference and on-site interpretation services were impacted during this period. Our translation company started seeing the comeback of onsite interpreting services towards the end of 2022. We expect 2023 to be a year filled with demand for on-site and conference interpretation services.

5. Localization of Language Services Remain King for B2B and B2C

In a world where an internet connection ties business, shortens distances, and eliminates borders, speaking the languages of your customers, clients, and employees is more important (and accessible) than ever. Companies cannot afford to do business in one country, like the US, let alone multiple countries, without investing in localized language translation services, among other language services.

Localization refers to having local dialects in your translations for audiences who speak the same language in different locations, having localized versions of your website or mobile apps available, and even having multiple social media channels by language. However, you define it, or whatever localization services you need, a generic translation won’t get it done when money is on the line.

Localization was once considered necessary only for B2C businesses; no consumer wants to spend money with a company that doesn’t speak directly to them. But localization is also essential for B2B businesses because everyone is someone’s ideal consumer.

6. Transcreation of Multilingual Marketing Content is expected to

Taking localization services a step further, transcreation will become an essential part of the localization process, especially for marketing translation services.

Transcreation is the process through which professional translators take source copy in marketing materials and convey the original meaning while rewriting it to resonate with a new audience. This is different from translating or localizing copy because only the intent must remain – not any words or designs. During transcreation, the content is adapted to the new audience. Examples, taglines, keywords, and other copy elements must be changed and adjusted to improve the translated content, so it works as it was initially created for the new local.

7. Video translation services and multilingual e-Learning platforms will continue to grow

Video is the most popular form of content online, and 2023 will see visual media retain its hold. Creating videos with global appeal is simple enough as long as this is a part of the strategy process from the start. Adding multilingual subtitles to your video or translating the voice-over audio quickly expands the reach of your video content to other frontiers.

This goes hand in hand with e-learning platforms. E-learning platforms grew in popularity during the height of the pandemic. Their ease of use and affordability made them the perfect choice for people who wanted to continue their education in a particular area but were stuck at home or in their country. As the world opens up, e-learning websites and platforms remain popular. Adding translated subtitles or a voice-over in another language quickly expands the reach of this content.

8. You’ll Need Multilingual SEO Strategies

If you have an existing SEO strategy that only covers content in one language, it’s time to expand. Translating your existing content into other languages is an easy way to expand the reach of the content. Most of the content on the internet is in English, even though many people do not speak English. By providing translated versions of content you already have in a new target language, you’re extending your reach with a smaller investment than drafting entirely new content.

Just as your original content needed an SEO strategy in English, your translated content will require it too. Your multilingual content strategy needs a well-planned international SEO. SEO looks like its single-language counterpart, with keyword optimization, metadata, alt text, location targeting, and other standard techniques.

Ready to make 2023 your best year in business by utilizing interpretation and translation services? Working with a professional translation service provider makes it simple! JR Language is a language services company with years of experience helping local, national, and international organizations with multilingual  communications. Contact us for a quote today— we’d love to learn about your needs and help your business with multilingual communications.