Act 1: The Snapshot

We begin with our feet firmly planted in the present and reflect on where the language services industry currently stands (spoiler: there’s no way to avoid this thing called GenAI).

But do we understand where we are and where we are headed? Are we asking the right questions, or should we just start with the “Why”? 

There is a sense of urgency that powers the varied market players. We explore new pathways, test new solutions, learn from the mistakes made along the way, course-correct, and start again.

The industry is evolving, and we are in motion. In the following pages, we examine what this movement looks like. 

Dan Milczarski

Vice President of Solutions at Blackbird

Dan Milczarski is a seasoned technology leader with over 20 years of experience, most recently serving as CTO at CQ fluency — transforming it into a top-tier, tech-enabled language service provider focused on process automation and custom development. He has since been appointed Vice President of Solutions at Blackbird.io, where he continues to drive AI and localization innovations and frequently speaks on responsible AI, machine translation, and process automation.

When we talk about progress in localization, it’s easy to focus on the shiny objects of today (cough, cough, AI, cough, cough). But to truly appreciate where we stand, we must look back. And what we see in that rear-view mirror isn’t a tale of stagnation, but instead an industry that has been laying the groundwork for the changes of today.

Let’s set the scene. A decade or so ago, the localization industry was, on the surface, steady. Perhaps even static. Many enterprise teams and language service providers relied on established workflows that had evolved only incrementally over the years. CAT tools ruled the day, connectors were rare and fragile, and human translators remained at the heart of every project, with technology playing a supporting role rather than acting as a catalyst.

From the outside, it could look like stagnation. But beneath that surface, important seeds were being sown. Early API integrations began to emerge, albeit clunky and limited. The first orchestration efforts (neanderthals by today’s standards) hinted at a future where localization would no longer live on the periphery of content operations but become embedded in them. And machine translation, once viewed with suspicion, began to find acceptance as a tool in the linguist’s toolkit rather than a threat to their craft.

Customer expectations were evolving, too. Enterprises started asking for scale (more content without much more cost) and holding LSPs to stricter SLAs in terms of quality and timeliness. This demand drove innovation. It pushed technology providers to think toward platforms that could connect content creation, management, and delivery in real time, across languages.

Looking back now, we can see that what seemed like small, incremental steps were actually laying the groundwork for the industry’s transformation. It’s a little like the early days of the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Those first movies might have seemed standalone, but they were actually setting up a much larger, interconnected story that would change the game. The localization industry’s “origin stories” of automation, interoperability, and integration have brought us to today’s inflection point.

Why does this matter? Because progress isn’t always loud. It isn’t always packaged as disruption. Sometimes, progress is Thor: The Dark World. A fine film that doesn’t stand out as a great Marvel flick but serves a purpose to move things along.

Equate that to the countless decisions made by technologists, linguists, and business leaders who chose to push just a little further toward efficiency, toward connection, toward innovation. Orchestration, AI, and automation are no longer buzzwords but realities. And we’d be less prepared to use them if it wasn’t for the past decade of incremental improvements.

So, it’s worth acknowledging the journey. Our past wasn’t about standing still. It was about preparing the ground for the revolution that is now in motion.

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.

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