Translation and Localization Trends to Watch in 2022

Written by

Véronique Özkaya

Published on

15 Dec 2021

2021 was a year of continuous change and adaptation to a “new normal” – should we expect more of the same from 2022? Here’s Argos Multilingual CEO Véronique Özkaya’s annual take on what happened and what’s about to.

Agility and flexibility

In last year’s trends article, we spoke about the speed of change. Organizations need to be agile and ready to change quickly as they deal with supply and labor shortages. This is where we see the limitations of big systems that don’t always provide answers to these challenges.

In any big system, organizational change tends to be more difficult and take longer, since there are multiple stakeholders and disparate groups with different and often diverging interests. Big systems also tend to make communication more complex while being risk-averse and reactive, meaning that best-of-breed solutions may be more appropriate.

It may be better to deploy a point solution that focuses on a specific part of the business rather than trying to deploy a massive system that will take months or years to implement. There is an opportunity to sell custom solutions that will provide more flexibility and have a faster impact.

Talent management and retention

Since 2020, human capital management has made a huge comeback. In 2022 and beyond, this topic will become even more important as we experience resource shortages. Remote working, health, human capital, the technology to support human resource management and the processes that go with it will all be more important than ever.

Cultural transformation

We tend to speak a lot about technology in our industry while relegating strategy and change to a lower priority. The transformations organizations are experiencing revolve more and more around people, culture, and operations as opposed to technology.

As we look at where our organizations are headed and how we are going to strive in the future, we need to think about how we will evolve our culture, our strategy, and the way we operate. The non-technical aspect of transformation will gain more traction in 2022.

Supply chain and vendor management

In everyday life, we have experienced the worldwide challenges in resources and product availability. We are aware of limitations and strains within supply chains. This is where technology can help in assessing resource availability and enhancing transparency.

We see integration of our resources with our customer systems. It is not just about technology, we are seeing the need for a broader and more robust transformation that goes beyond technology. It is in many aspects operational changes and diversification, as the language industry caters to a much broader range of language services (think NLP, NLU, content creation, and data services) needs than it did 10 years ago.

We all work towards better time-to-market with our customers, better response times, and ultimately a better customer experience.

Customer experience

Customer experience should define everything we do, and the four topics we’ve covered in this article all contribute to enhancing customer experience. It’s all about understanding how our people, our processes, and our technologies affect the customer experience and what we can do to make it even better!

About the Author:

Véronique Özkaya was appointed Chief Executive Officer of Argos Multilingual in early 2020. Prior to that, Véronique built an impressive career in the localization industry, using her experience, insight, and leadership to shape strategies that unlocked significant growth.