SlatorPod

Gato Plugins Founder Leonardo Losoviz joins SlatorPod to discuss how advances in AI translation are making multilingual websites more accessible, more affordable, and easier to manage. Leonardo explains how his background in software development and experience with multilingual Asian markets inspired him to create Gato AI Translations, a WordPress plugin that automatically translates website conte...

Artem Grigorev, CTO of AI data company Toloka , joins SlatorPod to discuss the growing importance of human expertise in AI development, the shift toward smaller specialized models, and the challenges of evaluating AI performance. Grigorev explains that while computing power and model capabilities attract significant attention, high-quality training data remains fundamental to AI progress. As model...

Adam Bittlingmayer, CEO and co-founder of ModelFront , joins SlatorPod to discuss the state of the art in enterprise AI translation and the language technology platform’s ( LTP ) launch of an AI-native open translation management system (TMS). Bittlingmayer says translation can appear solved when an AI model is given enough context and the right prompt, but providing that context consistently with...

On SlatorPod, AudioStack Co-Founder and CTO Peadar Coyle discusses what it takes to deploy voice AI at enterprise scale, from localization and domain expertise to human oversight. Peadar explains how AudioStack enables brands, governments, and media companies to produce localized audio across accents, regions, languages, and individual products. Rather than betting on a single voice model, the com...

Florian and Esther discuss what mattered in language solutions and AI over the past few weeks, including key takeaways from SlatorCon San Francisco 2026, where AI ran through discussions across enterprise localization, voice AI, interpreting, data-for-AI, media localization, and venture capital. Florian covers Smartling ’s majority investment from Vitruvian Partners as a positive development after...

Dmitrii Sandzhiev and Iurii Agafonov, two of the Co-Founders of NCSpeech , join SlatorPod to talk about building speech AI datasets in emerging markets, scaling data collection through superapps, and addressing the quality and infrastructure challenges behind voice AI. Dmitrii explains that NCSpeech turns idle time in superapps into AI training data by rewarding drivers, riders, and passengers for...

Florian and Esther discuss the language industry news of the past few weeks, starting with RWS’s proposed acquisition of Acolad and what the deal means for consolidation among the largest language solutions integrators ( LSIs ).  Esther rounds up further M&A activity, including t’works acquiring SwissGlobal , Alfatrad buying Lexic Language Solutions, Alpha CRC acquiring PureFluent, Magna Legal...

Artur Nowakowski, Co-founder and CTO of Laniqo , joins SlatorPod to talk about the language technology platform’s (LTP) origins, business model, and research-driven approach to AI translation. Artur shares that Laniqo emerged from machine translation research at Adam Mickiewicz University after his team won a WMT 2022 shared task, attracting PONS Langenscheidt, which became the company’s main inve...

Sean Hopwood, Founder and CEO of Day Translations , joins SlatorPod to talk about building a global language solutions integrator (LSI) over the past 20 years, adapting to AI, and why a passion for languages continues to shape the LSI's strategy. Sean reflects on how his entrepreneurial mindset and fascination with languages led him to launch Day Translations, which has grown from handling sm...

Florian and Esther discuss the language industry news of the past couple of weeks, beginning with the newly released 2026 Slator Language AI 50 Under 50 , which tracks emerging startups less than 50 months old.  The duo observe how this year’s cohort reflects a shift from standalone language technologies toward AI solutions built around complete business workflows. They also highlight seven trends...

Slator's Anna Wyndham joins Florian on the pod to discuss key highlights from the Slator Data-for-AI Market Report , which sizes the global market at USD 9.3bn and examines the ecosystem supplying the data needed to train, adapt, align, evaluate, and deploy AI systems. Anna explains how the market has evolved far beyond traditional data labeling. While annotation and large-scale training data...

Florian and Esther discuss the language industry news of the past few weeks, beginning with a recap of SlatorCon London , which attracted a record 250 attendees.  They highlight growing interest in language AI, startup innovation, and research, as well as a broader shift in industry sentiment toward viewing LSIs and LTPs as integral parts of the AI economy rather than businesses being disrupted fr...

Sharath Narayana, CEO and Co-Founder of Sanas , joins SlatorPod to talk about the evolution of real-time speech AI, the rise of accent harmonization, and why voice will become the next major enterprise interface. Sharath traces his journey from engineer to entrepreneur, including the founding of Observe. AI before launching Sanas alongside Stanford researchers focused on solving low-latency speech...

Florian and Esther discuss the language industry news of the past few weeks and Slator’s newly launched website , which reflects a clearer positioning around research, advisory, consulting, events, and market intelligence. The duo breaks down the 2026 Slator Index , highlighting that while revenues appear to have grown, this does not signal real market expansion. Instead, growth is concentrated am...

Paul Carr, CEO of Welo Global , joins SlatorPod to talk about the company’s strategic repositioning, continued AI investment, and evolving demand in the language solutions industry. Paul notes that the company has narrowed its focus to a few core areas and reorganized around client segments. He adds that client centricity and specialization have been central themes, alongside increased investment...

Ben Faes, CEO of RWS , joins SlatorPod to talk about the markets’ perceptions of LSIs, the company’s AI strategy, and how RWS is repositioning itself for long-term growth. Ben positions RWS as a technology-led partner helping enterprises operate globally, from enabling multilingual communication to protecting intellectual property and improving market understanding. The CEO highlights the rapid ac...

Jessica Powell, CEO of AudioShake , joins SlatorPod to talk about how AI-powered audio separation is making audio more usable for both human and machine workflows, and enabling new use cases across localization, broadcasting, and media production.  Jessica emphasizes that early traction came from the music industry, particularly in areas like sync licensing and remixing. However, the company’s exp...

Daniel Sebesta joins Florian and Esther on the pod to talk about the latest language industry news, AI translation developments, and key insights from the Slator Pro Guide: Growth Hacks for Language Technology Platforms (LTPs). The trio begin with TransPerfect’s latest financial results , which reported USD 1.32 billion in revenue, up 7% year on year. They also discuss leadership changes at Strake...

Georg Ell, CEO of Phrase , returns to SlatorPod for round 3 to talk about how the language technology platform (LTP) is evolving amid the AI boom and the shifting dynamics in enterprise SaaS. Georg shares how Phrase has doubled down on a platform and ecosystem strategy that encourages customers to build solutions on top of the LTP’s system rather than forcing them into a closed system. The CEO add...

Daphne Tay, Founder and CEO of Bluente , joins SlatorPod to talk about building an AI-powered document translation platform that goes beyond text and tackles the complexities of formatting at scale. Daphne explains that formatting challenges vary significantly across file types, from scanned PDFs to multi-column layouts and complex graphics, requiring deep technical handling of document structures...

Slator’s Head of Research Anna Wyndham joins Florian on the pod to discuss Slator’s new Pro Guide: Growth Hacks for Language Technology Platforms , describing it as a practical playbook for turning strong AI products into scalable revenue. Florian highlights ElevenLabs’ USD 500m raise at an USD 11bn valuation and Synthesia’s USD 200m round as evidence that investor appetite for voice AI is acceler...

Florian and Esther discuss the language industry news of the past few weeks, starting with senior hires in revenue and operations at DeepL and what this signals about the LTP’s next phase. The duo then turns to new data from AI labs and hyperscalers, where Florian highlights findings from Anthropic’s research showing AI is settling into a support role rather than full automation, with usage concen...

JC Penet, Reader in Translation Industry Studies at Newcastle University, and Joss Moorkens, Associate Professor at DCU, join SlatorPod to talk about the new open-access book Teaching translation in the age of generative AI: New paradigm, new learning? The duo explains how large language models (LLMs) have a different impact than earlier machine translation breakthroughs as they generate human-lik...

In the 2025 year-end episode of SlatorPod, hosts Florian Faes and Esther Bond reflect on a year defined by rapid AI investment, shifting policy, and structural change across the language industry. Esther opens the year-in-review by highlighting January’s twin funding milestones in the language AI and product space. Florian follows with February, which saw hyperscalers and AI labs release data high...

Josh Miller and Christopher Antunes, Co-Founders and co-CEOs of 3Play Media , join SlatorPod to talk about the company’s trajectory as a leading language solutions integrator (LSI) in multilingual video accessibility. The duo explains how the two met at MIT, where an early challenge from OpenCourseWare revealed that captioning thousands of technical videos was financially impossible, leading to th...