Act 2: Moving Pictures

It’s been three years with GenAI in our lives.

You may think we understand what AI can or cannot do (at least those in the Global North think they do). But think again. There are entire regions of the world that are playing catch-up to the AI-first reality. And there are always newcomers to our industry who need guidance to set them on the right path.

Ultimately, progress will look different to every team and professional. It won’t be linear, and it may come at a cost. It may require us to redefine ourselves. In our quest onward, no one should be left behind, right?

In this section, read the articles that explore the human side of the (r)evolution unfolding around us.

Veronica Hylak

AI Product Strategist

Veronica Hylak is a product leader with 10 years of experience in software and six years in AI/ML. She has led product innovation for SaaS and AI platforms across Fortune 500s, U.S. government agencies, and early-stage startups, from autonomous drone systems to business management tools.

Her current focus lies at the intersection of go-to-market strategy, regulation, and AI ethics, helping organizations deploy reliable and responsible AI at scale while navigating real-world constraints.

When a product really wants to gain credibility or traction, whether it‘s a Silicon Valley startup or an established enterprise, there‘s a predictable moment of truth. They start thinking about expanding to new markets. 

And when they do, what’s the first thing on their checklist? Localization. 

It has become the litmus test for platform maturity, the gateway to user trust, and the difference between scaling successfully or failing to gain traction globally. But something big has changed.

Localization is no longer a siloed industry workflow managed by specialty linguists behind the scenes. It has evolved into a core product problem that directly impacts user acquisition, sales conversion, and customer retention. Technical teams, product teams, marketing teams, and sales are all thinking about it. Many companies now think about language access through the lens of user trust, not just translation coverage.

Translation as a feature, not a premium

Slator coined the term “Translation as a Feature“ (TaaF) to capture this mindset. Translation is no longer a premium service, but rather it has become the bare minimum expectation for end users. Open TikTok, Instagram, or any major social platform, and you‘ll see translation embedded everywhere. With over 5.24 billion active social media users globally spending an average of 2 hours and 21 minutes daily on these platforms, billions of people are constantly consuming localized content. These platforms have become the first way most global audiences interact with translation (even if the quality is junk), and this ubiquity has fundamentally altered user expectations. 

When users encounter an app or platform that doesn‘t speak their language, they don‘t see it as a company that hasn‘t invested in translation yet, but rather, they see it as a company that doesn‘t care about them. 

The data backs this up: According to a report by UserPilot, around 52% of users have uninstalled an app due to poor localization. But that‘s not a translation problem. That‘s a product problem.

The invisible industry problem

Despite the critical importance of localization, we face a massive awareness gap. 

When most people outside our industry think about translation, what comes to mind first? Google Translate. Then ChatGPT. 

The sophisticated ecosystem of translators, interpreters, localization engineers, and cultural consultants remains largely invisible to the very people who need these services most. Startups, corporations, and product teams recognize the need to localize, but many decision-makers don’t know our industry exists. 

The opportunity gap

So they default to the tools they‘re familiar with (Google Translate or AI chatbots) for their first multilingual experiment. Plug in an API, and call it a day. The Chinese translation LOOKS correct, so it must be… right?

While they struggle with user conversion loss, the very people building these apps often lack awareness of professional localization services. They‘re solving a product problem with the wrong tools because they don‘t know better tools exist.This disconnect has created interesting market dynamics. We‘re seeing well-funded, Y Combinator-backed startups emerge promising to solve localization for developers (receiving backing, press coverage from TechCrunch, and accelerator support) without any team members who have localization industry experience. They have a shallow understanding of how localization teams function, yet they‘re the ones capturing mindshare in the product and development community, as many believe it’s a problem that has yet to be solved.

This isn‘t necessarily their fault, but rather it’s a symptom of the broader disconnect between our industry and the product teams who desperately need our expertise. 

We‘ve remained behind the scenes while the problem we solve has become central to product success.

Localization is now the product manager‘s issue

Product managers and directors are responsible for figuring out what to build, how to build it, and ensuring it‘s sticky enough to retain users.
When localization becomes a barrier to product stickiness and to expanding to other markets, it automatically becomes the product team’s problem to solve.

The most forward-thinking product leaders are starting to recognize this. 

They understand that localization isn‘t just about translating text, but building trust with users across cultures and markets. It‘s about ensuring your product feels native, not foreign. It‘s about creating experiences that convert users rather than confuse them.

What‘s particularly telling is that I am now seeing product managers themselves start championing localization best practices. As one product manager noted in a UserPilot article: “Mobile app localization isn‘t throwing your copy into Google Translate and calling it a day.“ 

These weren‘t the words of a linguist or localization specialist. They came from a product manager who recognized that poor localization was directly impacting the success of their product. A product manager took it upon themselves to educate their fellow product community about the importance of quality localization.

How we reframe the conversation

The solution isn‘t to lament our industry‘s invisibility, but rather to reposition ourselves within the product development conversation. Instead of talking about translation coverage, we need to talk about user trust and access. Instead of discussing translation quality in isolation, we need to connect it directly to conversion rates and user retention. Instead of focusing on process workflows, we need to focus on product outcomes.

Localization has become a product discipline, whether we acknowledge it or not. The question is whether we‘ll step into that role that we already know how to do so well, or continue watching tech companies attempt to solve these problems without us.

The companies that understand this shift, that treat localization as a core product capability rather than an afterthought, are the ones winning global markets. This is something we already know. They‘re not just translating their products, but they‘re building products that succeed across cultures from the ground up.

The only question is whether our industry will be part of building those solutions or watching from the sidelines as others attempt to solve them without us. I know which side I will choose.

Read the full 132-page Global Ambitions: (R)Evolution in Motion publication featuring vital perspectives from 31 industry leaders on the ongoing AI-spurred (r)evolution.

Get your digital copy today