For as long as there has been a translation industry there has been severe competition, first around craftsmanship and later also among tools and technology. Hundreds of thousands of translators and tens of thousands of translation agencies and companies, all claiming to be the best-in-class, unwillingly, and unconsciously perhaps, did exactly the opposite of what they all strived for. They kept the industry small and fragmented.

It is time to start fixing the translation ecosystem. TAUS proposes to do so following three steps:

1 Fixing the Knowledge Gap

Why we are so anxiously holding on to the distinction between MT and human translation. It’s simply translation. We’d like to call this the holistic translation world. Many of the stakeholders find themselves in a state of ignorance, denial or passivity. They don’t know (enough) about the technology breakthroughs and the implications they could have for their ambitions.

2. Fixing the Operational Gap

MT and AI allow us to translate and measure everything. Every bit of content that historically remained locked in its original language can be opened for end-users speaking many of the world’s different languages. However, in order for this to happen, we need to upgrade our infrastructure. All systems should be connected. Our current operational models, metrics, tracking and pricing systems and agreements are still incompatible with this new reality of holistic translation

3. Fixing the Data Gap

Let’s not be mistaken: there is no single magic MT engine that translates better than all others. The difference really lies in the data that we feed into the engines. We believe the most effective way to achieve a fully holistic translation world is through a data marketplace, where translators, language service providers, translation buyers, and MT developers meet to buy, sell and exchange data.

In short, we will move to a "not business as usual" way: Translators become reviewers (rather than posteditors), transcreators, data analysts and content marketers. Language service providers become globalization consultancies. The industry will dissolve itself and become embedded as a function in different verticals to help enable global expansion and cross-cultural mitigation.