We asked readers if they think that YouTube will manage to AI dub “all videos into every spoken language within 5 years,” and over half (53.2%) said “definitely not.” A little over a quarter (27.4%) of respondents think it is possible, and the rest (19.4%) are certain it will happen.
AI’s Legal Quickening
AI translation is pervasive, and although less openly acknowledged than other uses of AI, in regulated content, it is no longer operating behind the scenes. That much was evidenced by research conducted for Slator’s Legal Services and Language AI Report.
Slator 2025 Legal Services and Language AI Report
The 90-page report analyzes language services, AI, and technology demand from legal services organizations in the public and private sector.
While “legal translation” covers a wide variety of subfields, AI’s increasing speed and fluency have made its use seem like less of a liability. But as one professional legal translator commented for the report, “when you’re dealing with more technical legal documents, you need to be more careful with AI output. […] Junior lawyers use these tools indiscriminately.”
It stands to reason, then, that legal AI translation should still be customarily edited by humans. In practical terms, however, law offices and in-house counsels might find that unedited AI translations suffice (in their view).
When asked if they had ever signed something they knew was AI-translated, over half of readers (51.1%) said they had not. A bit over a quarter of respondents (25.5%) would not know, while almost one in five (19.1%) would never sign [if they knew], and the rest (4.3%) have knowingly signed an AI-translated document.
AI Besties
Building new capabilities in-house, such as AI translation, could come at a high cost for traditional language services providers (LSPs). Beyond the design and proof of concept phases of a new offering lies product development, and that requires people and capital.
A way to find both, and have a chance at staying competitive, is through collaboration with a partner. And a partnership can take many different forms. Consider, for example, Phrase’s Q2 2025 partnerships, one with Acclaro and another with Clearly Local for co-funded roles. Or KUDO’s way, which welcomed Simultaneous On Air and Argo Translation as partners and resellers.
For some companies, whether they engage the partner for a fee or permanently connect to the partner venture’s destiny by way of equity or through split revenues on co-served accounts, it makes sense to bet on market relevance and competitiveness with a little help from a “friend.”
We asked readers if AI has made partnerships with friendly competitors more important, and the response chosen by almost half (48.3%) was “definitely yes.” Close to a third (27.6%) of readers are not sure about it, while one in five thinks it is probably so. For the rest (3.4%), the answer is no.
New Options for iOS Default Translation App
Apple began allowing translation apps other than its own Translate to be the default option for iPhones since it rolled out iOS 18.2 in December 2024. And going by the steps described on Apple’s developer site, it appears that integrating system-level translation capabilities into an existing app is a matter of just a few hours of work.
Among other basic requirements, to function as a default translation app, the application needs genuine translation functionality, meaning through a local model or a cloud API, along with a specific entitlement declaring its eligibility to be a default option.
Reverso Context and DeepL are two of the translation options already available to tick as default on the iPhone, with more likely to follow soon. We wanted to know if readers with iPhones had already selected a default translation app, which the vast majority (78.8%) had not done. About one in seven (15.2%) respondents have done so, and for the rest (6.0%), their preferred app was not listed as an option at the time of voting.
