We have seen AI development skyrocket across the globe and across every industry. The impact on localization is certainly part of that upward trajectory.
The latest AI models will shift localization’s focus to cultural relevance and real-time adjustments. A new era of AI-driven localization is fully underway. For businesses to successfully go global, they must adapt to new expectations for speed, relevance, and cultural sensitivity. To help smooth the transition, we want to highlight some important trends to watch out for this coming year.
From Translation to Multimodal Adaptation
Gone are the days of localization being simply about translation. AI is now enabling localization across visual and auditory content as effectively as it does for text. It can scan images, detect text within them, translate without affecting the original image style, create natural-sounding voice dubbing without sacrificing tone, and swap culturally specific graphic elements. AI is now much more multimodal and makes content more adaptable.
The key benefit of these advancements is the ability for companies to localize content at scale, quickly, and without sacrificing quality. In the case of VistatecSpeech, for example, this resulted in a 20% reduction in project lifecycle and an average 78% cost savings compared to traditional voiceover workflows.
Real-Time Dynamic Content
AI-driven localization is causing a major shift in how brands manage content. Traditionally, teams would create a region-specific campaign or asset, then send it for translation or adaptation. This linear process was slow and tedious. We are rapidly moving toward a “Modular Content System,” in which GenAI breaks content into modules (i.e., assets within a web page) and manages them in real time based on user data, such as contextual behavior and language.
This high level of adaptability allows companies to create one-to-one personalization at scale. 75% of consumers are more likely to purchase from brands that deliver personalized content, and today, AI-driven localization is instrumental in creating that personalized experience. AI also has the potential to drive $463 billion in marketing productivity globally by automating the generation and adaptation of content variants.
“When it comes to content creation, more global brands are looking for partners who can not only translate content, but also create it,” says Simon Hodgkins, CMO at Vistatec. “Brands that sell products and services globally need impactful, informative, and intelligent content that supports their business objectives and strategic goals. At Vistatec, we are increasingly delivering end-to-end content solutions that integrate translation and localization from the outset. The model has shifted. As well as adapting existing content for different markets, we are creating original audio, video, and written content at a greater scale than ever before, localized, tailored, and translated with accuracy as part of a single, cohesive service.”
The Breakthrough of Agentic Workflows
Up until now, the localization workflow has been quite linear: you translate, edit, then proofread. It has proven to be slower and more manually demanding. However, AI is helping shift the workflow toward a more circular, “agentic” process. Instead of a single translation task handled by a human or machine, agentic workflows split the work into specialized steps, coordinated through orchestration to protect tone, accuracy, and brand consistency. Each of these serves an orchestration purpose and functions autonomously.
The autonomous component makes the workflow efficient. For example, if a user is frustrated in Spanish, the agents can identify the problem, search the English knowledge base for the fix, and translate and adapt it to user’s dialect and region. Data released by two well-known customer experience platform companies show that agentic workflows have reduced multilingual support resolution times by 63%. Additionally, 33% of enterprise software applications will include agentic AI by 2028, up from less than 1% in 2024.
Conversational AI
The use of AI avatars to create a seamless, personalized experience for users has also become widespread. These conversational tools are reshaping the global business interface. Instead of static translations, we are now seeing a rise in interactive personas.
Conversational AI creates a humanized experience by using voice and emotion imitation. It is highly beneficial for localization because it adapts to user language and cultural cues, and it quickly understands regional specifics. These models can detect customer moods, such as frustration or urgency, and adjust tone and speed in real time. Gartner predicts that by 2028, 50% of customer service organizations will have moved beyond basic chat to “AI agents” that perform tasks across different business systems.
The “Human at the Core” Approach
While whispers of AI “taking over” circulate, the use of AI in localization is simply changing the way it is optimized. The changing role of human experts is now to serve as orchestrators, managing AI agents, handling high-stakes content, and providing the extra empathy and nuance that AI still lacks.
Our trusted “Human at the Core” approach at Vistatec ensures access to the latest, industry-leading AI tools, data policies, and secure global infrastructure, with quality assurance led by human expertise. With responsible, human-centered AI, you get a multimodal, multilingual solution you can trust to deliver business value at scale.
At the end of the day, AI-driven localization, compared to traditional methods, reduces lead times from weeks or months to hours or days, lowers unit costs, boosts scalability, offers a multimodal approach, and is dynamic and behavior-based. All features that bolster the ability of companies to successfully expand globally.
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