Trados Publishes Their 2023 Translation Technology Insights Report

Trados, the industry-leading translation platform by RWS, today announced the results of their 2023 Translation Technology Insights (TTI) report.

With 2,076 responses from translation professionals in 108 countries across the entire supply chain, this comprehensive research aims to shed light on the pressures that are being faced across all areas of the translation industry and offers insight into what can be done to tackle them.

This is the third TTI report, following on from the 2016 and 2020 reports, giving us an opportunity to look back to see how more than half a decade has changed adoption of, or attitudes towards, some key technologies. And to look at the current trends that matter as the industry moves forward. 

The report reveals an industry under pressure from:

• A growing skills shortage: The industry has experienced a downward shift in the overall experience of translation professionals, evident in the data that show those with over 5 years of experience has dropped from 80% in 2020 to 70% in 2023. 
• Work demands intensify: As the fast-paced translation industry continues to grow, there’s more pressure from increasingly mature customers, many of whom want to translate for different channels, using more project files, in more languages.  
• The cost, speed, quality conundrum: Overall, translation professionals remain under more pressure to reduce their prices and deliver their work faster, than to improve the quality of their work. 

Under this sustained pressure, the majority of translation professionals continue to feel that they need to improve their ways of working to meet their challenges. But what can be done to tackle it?

• Attract new talent: To meet growing demand, we need to appeal to the younger generation considering their careers today, who have grown up in a digital age and want to feel that their industry is at the cutting edge by providing an agile, dynamic work environment that uses automation and AI.
• Work smarter not harder: Adopting translation technology, such as machine translation can boost productivity, collaboration tools and TMSs can streamline tasks, and cloud-based tools offer unparalleled flexibility. 
• Seek easy-to-use technology: While only 7% of respondents are demanding new software features, they have a strong desire for easy-to-use solutions. Technology vendors should be able to facilitate industry advancement, not only by continuing to make their solutions easier to use, but by finding better ways to offer training and support.

This article was first published at Slator, on March 2, 2023.