AI will not eliminate (initially) localization roles, but it is reducing the time spent on certain tasks. What once took hours can now take minutes. That creates capacity.We can treat that time as a cost savings or reinvest it. If nothing meaningful replaces it, the value of the role will eventually be called into question.Jobs do not disappear because tasks are automated. They disappear when the value is not redefined.
So the real question is: what can you do now with the time AI gives you that wasn't possible before?
The world of localization is full of small, hidden details.
Some things are deeper than they seem, and I often see between in-context review and LQA in the world of Localization. They might seem the same, but if we scratch beneath the surface, we'll see they're not what they seem.
In this post, I want to focus on explaining the differences between in-context review and LQA, which is something I see being confused quite frequently, and although the tasks are similar ... they are not the same.
AI is not eliminating localization. But it is removing the illusion that execution alone is enough.
Layer 1 accuracy, delivery, quality was our playfield. Now AI scales it faster and cheaper. And when value is framed only around execution, the conversation shifts to cost and headcount.
Meanwhile, executives focus on retention and growth.
That’s Layer 2 cultural impact.
In the age of AI, localization must operate in both.
You need a solid localization tech stack before you can build a global digital product. Tools that help manage content, automate workflows, ensure consistency, handle volume, control quality, and scale across languages are essential. Without them, everything becomes slower, more expensive, and harder to manage. Today, we have great tools to support all of this. And yet, despite all these changes, something fundamental hasn’t changed in the ingredients that define good localization.
Outside the circles of localization and globalization, translation is still seen as the step to go global. As if adapting the language automatically creates a global product. As if users in new markets will suddenly feel at home just because the words are no longer in English. In reality, that’s rarely how it works. Users don’t experience products in pieces. They experience prices, payments, support, content, and expectations all at once. Adapting the language is an important start. Still, users experience the product as a whole. If only the words change, they will naturally notice the parts that didn’t.
For a long time, localization was treated as a pure execution task: translate fast, deliver on time, and stay invisible. That model worked when content volumes were lower and speed was the main challenge. As AI becomes part of everyday workflows, this approach is no longer enough. Translation itself is not the hardest part anymore. The real challenge is deciding what content deserves attention and how AI fits into the broader content ecosystem. This shift highlights a deeper change: moving from simply translating content to actively managing it.
Localization professionals often focus on translation quality and best practices, but decision-makers care about customer impact and revenue. If we frame localization as a cost, it risks being deprioritized. Instead, we must highlight its value driving engagement, trust, and business growth.
At a New Year’s Eve dinner with my family, I saw a familiar situation play out: someone speaking with strong confidence about something they only partly understood. In Spain, we call this el efecto cuñado. What I didn’t realize for a long time is that this behavior has a name in psychology too. It’s the Dunning–Kruger effect, and it shows up just as often in localization and AI conversations as it does at Christmas dinner tables.
This feels like a pivotal moment. Localization teams are being asked to support more markets, move faster, use AI responsibly, and show impact, not just output. Expectations are higher than ever, but many teams are still trained mainly for execution. We are strong at delivering localization work, yet we often struggle to move from output to outcome and to clearly explain the impact of what we do.
“Welcome to my blog. The space where I document my passion about Localization, Project Management and Leadership”
The situation of how to effectively lead a remote team can be aggravated. There are certain project management techniques and tools that can help us to create a sense of team and deliver results, even if everyone works remotely. My favorite is Trust, but verify. But there are others that I have summarized in my weekly post. What am I missing here? What else could we pay attention to increase our results without increasing our micro-management?
Public speaking either to a couple of persons or 200 hundred is still public speaking. And while is true that remote on-line presentations have unique challenges, many of the tips we are thaught in Toastmasters are still applicable to remote online presentations.
For some people, WFH will be a challenge, but if there is anything that the Globalization / Localization industry knows how to do well, and does it very well, is to work from home.
Is transcreation the next natural step in the translation/localization industry? Can a translator be an excelent transcreator?
My reflection after a meet up about Localization in videogames + seeing a survey on Twitter about Translators income after taxes.
Startups aren't known for dreaming small. World domination is in their DNA. And world domination means Localization. For start-up thinking from the first day in languages, markets, and expansion strategies is something critical, but a majority of the start-up usually face the same problem. Either they don't have money to design a solid Globalization plan, or they don't have the role of Globalization / Localization specialist (s) in their teams. No fear, below you can find some tips about how you can embrace Localization in your startup journey even if you don't a budget for Localization!
In the last years, post-editing has become very popular. Companies aspiring to provide their content in different languages to a global audience in a jiffy plus the emergence of Neural Machine Translation technology plus the improvement of MT has made the role of the post-editor a very necessary one. In this post, I explore what's post-editing, why it is so popular and some tips about how to run an efficient post-editing process!
Let’s be honest. Our industry has not done a great job explaining the cost behind a good translation. What does the translation cost? Is it by word, per page, per type of document? We've been opaque for years about this topic. There are many reasons behind the cost of translation. This post will help you understand what you should take into consideration when purchasing a localization job.
UX Writing and Localization share many similarities in their reason for existence. Both disciplines focus on drive engagement, uplift conversion, improve retention and move users into action with every word. 2 crafts one goal: improve user experience, no matter where they are, no matter the cultural background they have
As a Globalization/Localization Manager to be effective and rise to the various challenges our teams encounter we must be fundamentally flexible. We must be able to have the right conversation with the different stakeholders we interact with. We must understand the unique ways in which each conversation should be handled.
To achieve our goals, we need to bring 5 different conversations into the workplace
What can a Language Service Provider do to bring value to a client’s organization? This might be top of mind for any LSP looking to hear what clients value, well, find my personal thoughts answering that questions in this post!
This post is a summary of all the different aspects that we must take into account when we embark on making a truly global game. I have created a pdf with what I consider the main milestones that we have to take into account, both from the planning phase ... in what languages should I translate my game? What markets are best suited to market my game? as the production, internationalization, localization QA or the post-release phase (continuous localization).
The professionals of the Localization industry are usually always solving problems and putting out fires ☺️ but how do we know if we are solving the problems that we really have to solve? How do we know that we are correctly defining the problem to be solved?
How to define a problem correctly, some thoughts to focus on the right problem to solve; happy Sunday/week everyone!!
The credibility of our brand is at the mercy of the quality of our translations …. so how do we know how good (or poor) our reputation is?
“Today, people buy experiences, not ONLY products.” It’s that time of the year again, Black Friday has arrived and with it comes the craziness of people. Great UX deserves Great Localization - Or how a reflection about Black Friday made me realize that great UX deserves great Localization to deliver a great user experience
How does it look a Localization Project Manager at its best? This post is a braindump of what I believe represents a Good Localization Project Manager (and what is not)
As more and more businesses go international, our approach to software is becoming increasingly intertwined with good internationalization and localization practices. One important step in this process is to choose the right font for our app/web page.
Translating everything all at once is a sure path to getting overwhelmed, there must be some better way to deal with it, right? I believe so! 😜
Attending Localization conferences might be expensive and quite often we are not totally sure how to get the most of it. This week I shared some ideas about what we can do before, during and after attending an industry event.
With so many great TMS out there choosing one that it fits nicely in our software development framework should be easy, right? Well …. have a look to my this blog post where I reflect on the challenges of integrating a TMS in the client ecosystem.
Chatting with my son this week, he told me that there was a game he liked because “ they have new things every day” that statement made me think about how we consume content today and the role that a Localization team plays.
Continuous Localization - changing mindset and the best practices/benefits of embracing this mindset
Defining localization metrics is relatively easy. In many cases, a team can write a reasonable list during a workshop, like the ones I mentioned above, or during a strategy session. The conceptual part of what to track and why rarely takes long. The real difficulty appears later: HOW you actually obtain those metrics.