Globally Speaking RWS

Digital services (and digital access to information) are an increasingly important means of helping marginalized groups in emergencies. But, as you can imagine, there are many barriers preventing equal access to online information and apps. For instance, when international humanitarian organizations offer services in only international or official languages, many minority language speakers are excluded.


Aimee Ansari, CEO, and Ellie Kemp, Head of Research, Evidence and Advocacy at CLEAR Global did us the honour of visiting our Globally Speaking studio to share with us the first results of a research project on language in digital inclusion. Listen to their fascinating insights – such as the intriguing phenomenon of certain minorities using fintech solutions, like mobile money, in languages they don't fully understand or can't read.


They also explore how reliance on technology in a narrow range of languages can exacerbate the vulnerability of already marginalized populations.

“Companies are nowadays expected to seamlessly cater to client preferences and deliver relevant and personalized content on demand. Real-time and just-in-time localization is a key component of this hyper-personalized approach to communication”.

Listen to Loïc Dufresne de Virel, 25-year industry veteran and head of localization at Intel, who couldn’t be more enthusiastic about recent AI developments and their impact on customer experience.

Loïc explains, however, that the key to effectively capitalizing on this major transformation lies not only in the choice of AI but in the ability to integrate it into existing processes at multiple levels. Assigning a specific natural language processing task to an AI worker is relatively easy. The real challenge lies in the compatibility with other technologies, the ability to deploy AI capabilities at scale, and the requirement to support complex content formats - in parallel with the development of more flexible workflows based on AI-generated outcomes.

Knowing how to strike the right balance between AI-enabled automation and the human touch, each complementing and augmenting the other, is undoubtedly the key to turning content localization into a significant driver of incremental revenue.

It's AI bingo at the moment! Everyone's talking about it - but did you know that the quality and quantity of training datasets are crucial to the accuracy and effectiveness of machine learning models? The more diverse and representative the data, the better the AI model can perform in terms of nuance. Did you ever wonder how to ensure that AI discerns what Americans would wear to a wedding? And what people would wear in Asia, Europe or Africa, taking into account the specificities of each country?


In this enlightening AI dialogue episode of our Globally Speaking podcast, Melanie Peterson - Program Director for Train AI at RWS - joins Vasagi Kothandapani to discuss how she tackled one of her biggest AI challenges: a rating and labelling data project for western-style womenswear using resources in the APAC region only, where the raters were 80% male.


Melanie unpacks the intricacies of her mission, shedding light on how she explains what she does to her family and friends, why a rocket scientist or a chef might have been involved in one of Train AI's latest data training projects, and what exactly we mean by data collection, data creation, data annotation and sentiment analysis.


Get ready for a captivating exploration into the heart of AI.

In this second Globally Speaking Podcast, dedicated to the localization supply chain, follow Rosario de Zayas Rueda's fascinating journey as she explains how she started out as a translator and language specialist and ended up opening her own language services agency, completing a full cycle of professional development.


As she explains, in her early days in the localization industry, the role of a language specialist was nebulous. Like many of her peers at the time, Rosario had to navigate, figure everything out as she went along and fill in the gaps left by other people's undefined job descriptions.


Discover how her passion for technology led her to set up her own LSP, where she pioneered with post-editing processes and machine translation – long before these advances gained global recognition. And finally, discover why sometimes it’s not about the quality of the translation but more about the quality of the business outcome.

There are so many things you'd miss out on if someone hadn't taken the time to translate them... the best literature, the trendy Netflix shows or the instructions for your medicine. Plus, learning a language so you can have a conversation with someone from another country that you wouldn't otherwise be able to understand, or so you can understand music in another language, is so powerful.

These are just some of the reasons why Melanie - who likes to think of herself as a cultural correspondent - decided to become a language specialist and unlock global understanding to ensure that every piece of content resonates appropriately with its audience.

In the next series of our Globally Speaking podcast, we take a closer look at all the layers of the localization supply chain. In this first episode, discover the world of probably the most important player: the translator, who we now call the language specialist!

Find out about her experience with Trados and other translation software, why she thinks AI won't replace humans and what pressure she's currently feeling in the market.

How can a company set up a localization program from scratch? What are the important criteria to consider, and what are the challenges?

Is there a translation policy in place?

What needs to be translated, and into which languages?

Who is responsible for reporting and the communication around it?

Find out what Renée Lemley, former Global Copy Director at Under Armour, has to say about her experience of setting up a brand-new localization process at Under Armour and why she believes the secrets lie in the brand voice. In this episode of Globally Speaking, she explains to our host, Jordan Cockrell, that it is essential to have a language service provider who is fully engaged on the client’s side and who shares a strong agreement on the partnership.

As Anthony Burgess, author of a Clockwork Orange, explains: “Translation is not just about words, but about making a whole culture intelligible.” It's about translating emotions and a part of the culture, and that's the magic of what LSPs do.