State of the Translation Industry – 2022 Update

The global language services industry witnessed a slowdown in growth after successive years of business gains, with the market worth between $47.5 billion and $48.4 billion (compared to $49.6 billion in 2019).

As the world became accustomed to living in a pandemic, a jump in growth was expected in 2021, with the overall value reaching somewhere between $51.6 billion and $52.9 billion. And further growth is expected in 2022, with estimates putting the value of the global language services industry at between $54.8 billion and $57.7 billion.

It's wonderful to hear good news about a growing industry, but how do we expect the language services industry to grow and to change? Below, we explain a few ways:

The Evolution of Machine Translation

The common idea behind machine translation is that it delivers translations faster and more cost-effective than human translators can, but with reduced quality. Right?

The Truth About Machine Translation

Machine translation is, in truth, the future of the translation industry. 2022 will see the translation industry delve even more deeply into the technology sector, seeing a marrying between "man and machine" that will help to produce more standardized, high-quality translations for a lower price and in less time, saving money and effort for everyone involved: client, translation company and translator.

Collaboration Tools

The past years in a COVID world have shown us that remote work is not only possible, but also potentially more productive as well. It’s an area where the translator market was already well ahead of the curve, with many translators and other linguists having worked remotely for years.

We’re likely to see this trend accelerate further in 2022, with tech firms that dived into developing tools for remote working maturing their product ranges and expanding the use cases for those products.

Those of us in the translation industry will need to keep on top of these changes, looking at them not just from a language perspective but from a project management and customer service viewpoint.

Business Translation

This year will also usher in an increased demand for business translation.

We’re all online more since the pandemic, and companies are trying to discover how this changes are patterns of consumption. In many cases, it means that companies have rethought their delivery area, as serving customers online can remove previous geographical limitations.

The language services business will come into play as more and more companies want to translate manuals, marketing materials and even labeling for products and services.

Medical Translation

As the pandemic continues on and on, we can venture a guess that medical translation will continue to drive plenty of demand for translation services in 2022.

Medical expertise has always been highly prized within the translation market, with medical translators able to command excellent rates for their unique blend of knowledge and linguistic ability.

Timely, accurate medical translation was absolutely essential to facilitating this. Two years later, the channels for delivering those translations are now well established, but that’s not to say that demand is likely to drop off anytime soon. Indeed, with the new Omicron variant spreading like wildfire at the start of 2022, it’s likely that we’re going to see a great deal of demand for medical translation services throughout the year.

Conclusion for 2022 in the Translation Industry

The world is dynamic, and in this brave new world, we need to keep pace with these constant changes. Do you need translation, interpretation and language services assistance in 2022? Contact Idiomatic here for a free quote.