Adapt or fade: the skill reset era for language service providers

A recent documentary called Skills Make It Work shared a powerful idea: a technical skill today has a shelf life of just 18 to 24 months. That means what we learn now may already be outdated in two years—or sooner. In this new world, it’s not enough to learn once. We have to learn, unlearn, and relearn constantly. For anyone in the language services industry—especially those of us working in AI medical translation—this hits especially close to home.

The days when expertise meant mastering a few tools and refining processes over the course of a decade are gone. In their place, a new mindset is required—one built on agility, curiosity, and resilience. For language service providers (LSPs), this shift isn’t theoretical. It’s deeply practical, happening in real time, and reshaping every corner of our work.

We’ve lived it

This is exactly what we started experiencing in the past few years—but it became undeniable in 2024, with the arrival of so many technologies reshaping our industry. When we founded our company nearly 14 years ago, we operated in a world where human translation was the gold standard. We built our workflows around leading CAT tools like Trados and MemoQ. Our teams, our clients, and even our value proposition all revolved around these tools.

Then, almost overnight, everything accelerated. Suddenly, we weren’t just managing linguists and files—we were testing AI translation engines, evaluating post-editing workflows, integrating subtitling platforms, adapting new QA processes, getting new ISO certifications and implementing customized AI medical translation solutions.

The learning process had to be immediate. We couldn’t wait for training cycles to catch up or for the market to settle. Our team had to absorb, apply, test, iterate—and move on to the next wave. And this didn’t only affect linguists or project managers. Every department—from sales and marketing to finance and vendor management—has seen new tools and new expectations emerge.

From experts to explorers

In the past, the industry valued deep mastery: knowing your CAT tool inside out, perfecting translation memories, or specializing in a niche language pair. Today, we still value expertise—but only when paired with adaptability.

This is especially true in AI medical translation, where rapid adoption must be balanced with scientific accuracy, regulatory compliance, and patient safety. We now look for professionals who can:

Embrace unfamiliar platforms without hesitation.

Understand and optimize hybrid AI/human workflows.

Evaluate AI-generated medical content with critical, domain-specific judgment.

Communicate these changes clearly to clients, partners, and internal teams.

It’s no longer about who knows the most—it’s about who can learn the fastest and bring that learning to life, at scale.

Building a company that learns

For language service providers, this constant state of evolution can be overwhelming—or it can be energising. The difference lies in how we respond. We’ve found that the best way to keep up isn’t to chase every new tool blindly, but to build a culture of testing, questioning, and sharing.

In our case, we’ve introduced:

Regular tool evaluation demos to keep the team informed.

Internal feedback loops between linguists, PMs, and QA leads.

Experimentation sprints using new AI medical translation tools on real projects.

Learning spaces that invite curiosity rather than perfection.

These aren’t massive programs, but they’ve helped us stay grounded even as the landscape shifts around us.

It’s not about mastery. It’s about momentum.

In today’s rapidly evolving industry, mastery is fleeting—but momentum is everything. What sets us apart is our ability to stay curious, stay connected, and keep growing together.

As an LSP with a strong focus on AI medical translation, we know our clients expect us to deliver speed, accuracy, and consistency. But more than that, they rely on us to navigate change. To try new things. To filter signal from noise. To adapt services before they even ask.

So we do. We learn fast. We teach each other. We fail quickly. We improve constantly.

Because in this new era, standing still is not an option—but moving forward, together, always is.

References

1. https://billetdufutur.substack.com/p/le-documentaire-skills-make-it-work

From human to AI to multilingual content validation: the evolution of the role of medical translation agencies

The language services industry is undergoing a rapid transformation. Just a few years ago, most companies relied exclusively on human translation to ensure accuracy, nuance, and cultural relevance. Then came the rise of machine translation (MT), which brought dramatic gains in speed and scale—but also raised new challenges around quality and reliability.

Today, we are witnessing the next stage in this evolution: the integration of artificial intelligence (AI) translation tools, and a growing shift toward multilingual content validation. This shift is especially visible in the medical and healthcare sectors, where accuracy is non-negotiable and new content needs to be rolled out fast, across dozens of languages.

As artificial intelligence (AI) becomes central to translation workflows, companies are rethinking how they ensure quality—especially in the context of high-risk content.

The rise of AI and in-house translation workflows

More and more tech companies are internalizing their translation processes by leveraging AI tools. This gives them significant advantages:

Faster turnaround times,
Reduced costs,
Greater control over their multilingual content pipelines.

However, AI translation—no matter how advanced—still lacks the contextual understanding and domain-specific expertise that is especially critical for healthcare translation accuracy in regulated industries like healthcare.

To compensate for this, companies are building hybrid workflows:
AI translation is followed by in-house post-editing, and then by external validation from specialised medical linguists. This new model signals a shift in how companies view language service providers—not just as executors, but as expert validators and consultants.

An example from our own experience: a wellness app with a new approach

A recent case we encountered perfectly illustrates this shift. A large tech company preparing to launch a wellness app reached out to us. They needed to translate the app content into a wide range of languages to support a global rollout.

Instead of sending their source files to a language service provider (LSP) as they might have in the past, they chose to do things differently. They used AI internally to generate the translations and handled the post-editing themselves. But when it came to validating the medical terminology and ensuring consistency with health-related standards, they turned to us—a specialized medical translation provider.

Their goal was to ensure that the final content would be safe, compliant, and accurate, especially in terms of the medical guidance and terminology used throughout the app. Our role shifted from traditional translation to a more strategic one: validating their content and advising them on the linguistic quality control process.

Why this matters: a glimpse into the future of medical translation

This case is not an exception—it’s a glimpse into the future of medical translation.

We expect to see more companies adopting this hybrid model: using AI and internal teams for speed and scale, while relying on external experts for quality assurance and validation, particularly for high-risk or specialised content.

Why AI alone isn’t enough in healthcare translation becomes especially clear in this context. Multilingual content validation is the cornerstone of trust. It’s no longer just about getting words into another language—it’s about ensuring that those words convey the right meaning, in the right context, with full accuracy. Especially in healthcare, there’s no margin for error.

Conclusion: quality needs collaboration

If a company has the capability to manage machine translation and post-editing internally, that’s absolutely fine. But when it comes to medical content, relying solely on internal processes is risky.

Specialised validation by expert medical translators is essential to ensure that the final content is not only safe, accurate, and compliant with medical standards, but also culturally appropriate. In the medical field, where communication can directly impact patient safety and treatment outcomes, it’s crucial to work with professionals who combine deep scientific and medical knowledge with a strong awareness of cultural nuances. Medical translators bring not just linguistic accuracy, but the ability to adapt terminology, tone, and context to local expectations — ensuring clarity, trust, and compliance across languages and cultures.

What’s more, a trusted LSP can act as a strategic consultant, advising internal teams on the necessary quality steps to reach the highest possible output.

Looking ahead, future trends in AI and medical language services point toward deeper integration of AI-driven tools with expert human validation. Automation may improve speed and scalability, but true quality still depends on the expertise of certified professionals who understand both the language and the science behind it.

In the fast-paced world of multilingual communication, LSPs are no longer just translation providers—they are partners in quality, guardians of accuracy, and key players in the future of global healthcare communication.

At Novalins, we support companies at every stage of this evolving process. As validation partners, we help ensure that medical translations are accurate, consistent, and aligned with the highest standards—because in healthcare, quality is never optional.

References

Noll R, Frischen LS, Boeker M, Storf H, Schaaf J. Machine translation of standardised medical terminology using natural language processing: A scoping review. N Biotechnol. 2023 Nov 25;77:120-129. doi: 10.1016/j.nbt.2023.08.004. Epub 2023 Aug 29. PMID: 37652265.