SlatorPod

Slator

SlatorPod is the weekly language industry podcast where we discuss the most important news and trends in translation, localization, interpreting, and language AI. Brought to you by Slator.com.

  1. hace 3 d

    #288 The Language AI Startups to Watch in 2026

    Florian and Esther discuss the language industry news of the past couple of weeks, beginning with the newly released 2026 Slator Language AI 50 Under 50, which tracks emerging startups less than 50 months old.  The duo observe how this year’s cohort reflects a shift from standalone language technologies toward AI solutions built around complete business workflows. They also highlight seven trends, including the rise of agentic AI, AI-first language solutions integrators, specialist sign language startups, and the growing importance of proprietary customer data as a competitive advantage. Florian covers a stream of language AI announcements from Google, Apple, and Anthropic as the platforms continue to expand their multilingual capabilities. Esther recaps recent investment activity, with Rylo's USD 85m funding round for AI solutions serving deaf users, Dell Technologies Capital's USD 50m investment in voice AI startup Bland, and Gridly's USD 1.5m raise to add agentic AI capabilities to its content management platform. Esther concludes with her M&A corner, where Powerling acquires French language solutions integrator Atlantique Traduction and Sweden-based DigitalTolk expands into Switzerland through its acquisition of legal translation specialist Hieronymus.

    22 min
  2. #287 How the Market for AI Data Has Become a Major Growth Opportunity

    12 jun

    #287 How the Market for AI Data Has Become a Major Growth Opportunity

    Slator's Anna Wyndham joins Florian on the pod to discuss key highlights from the Slator Data-for-AI Market Report, which sizes the global market at USD 9.3bn and examines the ecosystem supplying the data needed to train, adapt, align, evaluate, and deploy AI systems. Anna explains how the market has evolved far beyond traditional data labeling. While annotation and large-scale training data remain important, she argues that the market’s focus has shifted toward helping organizations deploy AI safely and effectively in real-world settings. Anna highlights the growing importance of “deployment data”, data used to adapt models for specific domains, align behavior with policies, conduct adversarial testing, and evaluate performance. She notes that these activities increasingly rely on subject-matter experts, creating demand for professionals such as physicians, lawyers, engineers, and financial specialists. The discussion also explores how frontier AI labs, enterprises, and sovereign AI initiatives are driving demand. Anna shares that buyers increasingly need trusted providers capable of sourcing expert talent, scaling rapidly, and maintaining rigorous governance around data provenance and quality. For language solutions integrators (LSIs), Anna sees both opportunity and challenge. Existing strengths in multilingual operations and workforce management provide a natural advantage, but success requires new capabilities, including expertise in machine learning workflows and AI evaluation.

    35 min

  3. 5 jun

    #286 Inside the USD 30 Billion Language Solutions and AI Market

    Florian and Esther discuss the language industry news of the past few weeks, beginning with a recap of SlatorCon London, which attracted a record 250 attendees.  They highlight growing interest in language AI, startup innovation, and research, as well as a broader shift in industry sentiment toward viewing LSIs and LTPs as integral parts of the AI economy rather than businesses being disrupted from the outside. Drawing on Slator’s newly released market report, Florian shares that the total addressable market for language solutions and AI reached USD 30.85bn in 2025, declining 2.7% year on year. Traditional LSIs saw a steeper 5.1% decline, while LTPs grew nearly 20%. The duo also examine the wider AI landscape, discussing massive funding rounds and IPO plans at Anthropic and OpenAI. Florian argues that these developments create challenges for LTPs seeking defensible market positions, citing OpenAI’s launch of real-time speech translation shortly after DeepL announced an expanded focus on voice translation.  On company news, Florian and Esther review the bankruptcy of voice AI startup Lovo following legal disputes over voice rights and data usage, as well as the financial difficulties facing transcription specialist VIQ Solutions. Esther closes with an overview of recent M&A activity, including acquisitions by TransPerfect, RWS, and The Translation People, alongside the formation of Germany’s new IMK Group. She also notes growing consolidation in the voice AI sector and highlights a recent funding round for Japanese AI translation startup Yellow Blue.

    35 min
  4. #285 Real-Time Speech AI and Accent Translation with Sanas CEO Sharath Narayana

    19 may

    #285 Real-Time Speech AI and Accent Translation with Sanas CEO Sharath Narayana

    Sharath Narayana, CEO and Co-Founder of Sanas, joins SlatorPod to talk about the evolution of real-time speech AI, the rise of accent harmonization, and why voice will become the next major enterprise interface. Sharath traces his journey from engineer to entrepreneur, including the founding of Observe.AI before launching Sanas alongside Stanford researchers focused on solving low-latency speech processing. The CEO explains that Sanas initially operated as a speech lab focused on improving human understanding in conversations. The company developed multiple algorithms covering noise cancellation, speech enhancement, accent harmonization, and language translation before discovering that enterprises were most willing to pay for accent-related technology. Sharath emphasizes that Sanas’ accent technology is not designed to erase identity, but to improve clarity and reduce friction in customer interactions. He says enterprises, especially contact centers, adopted the technology to improve first-call experiences and reduce mistrust between agents and customers. He also discusses Sanas’ focus on on-device AI infrastructure rather than cloud-only deployments, where running speech AI locally improves latency, protects data sovereignty, and lowers compute costs. Looking ahead, Sharath says Sanas is preparing broader launches for real-time language translation, universal accent translation, and developer SDKs that will allow third parties to build voice applications on top of the Sanas platform.

    45 min
  5. #284 Market Reality Check, RWS-Cohere, Data-for-AI, GlobalComix

    17 abr

    #284 Market Reality Check, RWS-Cohere, Data-for-AI, GlobalComix

    Florian and Esther discuss the language industry news of the past few weeks and Slator’s newly launched website, which reflects a clearer positioning around research, advisory, consulting, events, and market intelligence. The duo breaks down the 2026 Slator Index, highlighting that while revenues appear to have grown, this does not signal real market expansion. Instead, growth is concentrated among a few large players, often driven by acquisitions, while many companies report declining revenues. Florian touches on the RWS–Cohere strategic partnership, with RWS strengthening its technology stack by integrating advanced AI translation, while Cohere gains enterprise distribution. The move reflects a broader trend of companies recognizing they cannot build everything in-house. Off the back of Slator’s Data-for-AI Market Report, Florian sees AI data services as a major growth opportunity. He explains that the industry’s bottleneck has shifted from building models to making them usable in real-world settings. Esther notes growing interest from companies exploring acquisitions and investments in this space. Esther wraps things up by talking through recent M&A and funding deals, including Star7’s private equity buyout, GlobalComix’s expansion into manga localization with the acquisition of INKR, and VoiceLine’s EUR 10m funding round in voice AI.

    34 min
  6. #283 Launching Welo Global with CEO Paul Carr

    10 abr

    #283 Launching Welo Global with CEO Paul Carr

    Paul Carr, CEO of Welo Global, joins SlatorPod to talk about the company’s strategic repositioning, continued AI investment, and evolving demand in the language solutions industry. Paul notes that the company has narrowed its focus to a few core areas and reorganized around client segments. He adds that client centricity and specialization have been central themes, alongside increased investment in AI and data engineering. The CEO highlights that two-thirds of Welo Global’s revenue now comes from outside of traditional localization departments. He says the business increasingly serves content owners such as legal teams, clinical managers, and AI labs. Paul describes the launch of Welo Global as a branding shift to reflect this broader scope. He explains that the new structure includes five client-facing brands tailored to specific industries and use cases, including Welocalize, Welo Data, Welo Life Sciences, Park IP, and Adapt. The CEO emphasizes that AI has driven major change, particularly through the development of the company’s Opal platform. He says the system delivers significantly higher-quality output than traditional machine translation by using agentic workflows and enterprise-specific data. Paul argues that localization ROI is difficult to isolate because it is usually part of broader investments like sales and marketing. He suggests simplistic ROI models risk undermining credibility. He concludes that demand remains strong and success will depend on adapting quickly, building new capabilities, and maintaining a culture that embraces continuous change.

    45 min
  7. #282 RWS CEO Ben Faes on Why They Partnered with Cohere

    2 abr

    #282 RWS CEO Ben Faes on Why They Partnered with Cohere

    Ben Faes, CEO of RWS, joins SlatorPod to talk about the markets’ perceptions of LSIs, the company’s AI strategy, and how RWS is repositioning itself for long-term growth. Ben positions RWS as a technology-led partner helping enterprises operate globally, from enabling multilingual communication to protecting intellectual property and improving market understanding. The CEO highlights the rapid acceleration of innovation and the democratization of AI, where individuals and companies can now build and deploy solutions at unprecedented speed. He argues that the real opportunity lies in using these capabilities more effectively, rather than applying them to low-value tasks. He describes the partnership with Cohere as a fundamental shift, with RWS integrating Cohere’s models into its Language Weaver Pro platform, moving beyond traditional, segment-based translation toward context-aware, LLM-driven solutions. Beyond translation, Ben sees strong growth in AI data services, especially in areas like cultural intelligence and multimodal training, where human expertise remains critical.  Internally, RWS has reorganized into three divisions — Generate, Transform, and Protect — to better align with customer needs, buyer personas, and evolving use cases. Despite short-term uncertainty, Ben remains optimistic, noting that new AI-driven services and products account for a growing share of revenue and signal how quickly the market is evolving.

    48 min
  8. #281 What Is AI Audio Separation with AudioShake CEO Jessica Powell

    31 mar

    #281 What Is AI Audio Separation with AudioShake CEO Jessica Powell

    Jessica Powell, CEO of AudioShake, joins SlatorPod to talk about how AI-powered audio separation is making audio more usable for both human and machine workflows, and enabling new use cases across localization, broadcasting, and media production.  Jessica emphasizes that early traction came from the music industry, particularly in areas like sync licensing and remixing. However, the company’s expansion into film and television happened organically as new use cases emerged. The CEO explains that AudioShake’s core technology uses source separation to break complex audio into individual components such as dialogue, music, and sound effects. She describes how this allows users to gain precise control over audio for tasks like editing, transcription, and multilingual dubbing. In localization, Jessica highlights how separating dialogue from music-and-effects (M&E) tracks enables both traditional dubbing and AI-assisted workflows, particularly for legacy content where original stems are unavailable. Beyond localization, Jessica underscores the importance of clean audio inputs for speech recognition systems. In noisy environments like sports broadcasts or unscripted content, separating dialogue before transcription significantly improves accuracy. Jessica also reflects on the broader AI landscape, noting that the rise of generative AI has increased awareness of audio as a critical modality. However, she distinguishes AudioShake’s work as non-generative, focused on extracting structure rather than creating new content. The CEO discusses the current funding environment in the Bay Area and how the investor narrative has evolved leading up to AudioShake’s late 2025 Series A. Looking ahead, Jessica points to real-time processing and copyright-compliant audio editing as key areas of innovation, as the company continues to expand its role in media and AI ecosystems.

    39 min
Ver todo (288)

Información

SlatorPod is the weekly language industry podcast where we discuss the most important news and trends in translation, localization, interpreting, and language AI. Brought to you by Slator.com.

Ficha técnica

  • Creado por
    Slator
  • Años en activo
    2019 - 2026
  • Episodios
    288
  • Clasificación
    Apto
  • Derechos de autor
    © 2026 SlatorPod
  • Sitio web del podcast
    SlatorPod

Quizá también te guste