“How is the job market changing with AI?” This was the question that opened SlatorCon Remote’s first panel entitled “Talent & AI: Creating a Recipe for Success”, with tbo.’s Jorgelina Venturi and Scott Jackson.
Venturi, Business Development and Account Manager at tbo.talent, confirmed that the job market has changed: “We’re seeing the creation of brand new roles, like AI Ethics Officers, Machine Learning Engineers, and Data Scientists, but at the same time, traditional roles are evolving to integrate AI too.”
“Project managers and project coordinators are now overseeing AI-driven projects, […] marketers are using AI, for example […], and this combination of new roles and traditional ones shows how dynamic the job market has become”, Venturi concluded.
Slator’s panel moderator, Alex Edwards, asked if the spotlight on language technologies with AI was attracting talent from inside the industry, or outside. Venturi explained that “the AI job market is drawing in [talent] from other sectors. We’re seeking professionals from […] finance, healthcare, and other creative industries for transition into localization roles due to the expanding application of AI in these areas. However, there’s a noticeable talent shortage within our industry.”
On the subject of upskilling to meet the demand for AI roles, Venturi stated that “nowadays [localization] talent is stepping up by focusing on continuous learning and upskilling. Many are taking specialized AI courses or earning certifications in machine learning, or some of them are joining bootcamps to boost their expertise.”
Scott Jackson, Head of Innovation at tbo. added, “the biggest low-hanging fruit in terms of upskilling is just education about how LLMs work, […] and it’s a good idea for people to understand what’s behind the scenes, what’s happening when we’re using LLMs.”
Implementing AI Tools in LSPs
On the subject of using LLMs in LSPs, Jackson stated “the whole copilot or personal assistant use case is going to be — if not already is — moving into a situation where the personal assistant is a universal adaptation of LLM capabilities in almost any industry, and our industry would be no different.”
“Those [functionalities] will appear in CAT tools as personal assistants for linguistic specialists, [or] in TMS systems as an extension of the interface for project managers or vendor managers. […] Start talking to the TMS providers and [ask about] data analysis or business intelligence. That’s a fundamental [aspect] of what we do, and LLMs are going to be in that use case also.”
Slator’s Edwards asked tbo.’s Jackson about how LSPs can navigate the range of tools on the market to select and implement one that meets their needs. Scott stated that “a lot of the capabilities [out there] involve video creation, real-time avatar creation, real-time speech translation, all the [aspects] that are chained together and combine different services into a new service.”
“A lot of that is also in a hype phase and an investment bubble where the capabilities are oversold. And most of those companies don’t have confidential data, confidentiality policies, or promises that are good enough for our industry. The LSP industry has a much stronger track record of looking after data confidentiality compared to any of the big names in AI right now”, he noted.
“Those [functionalities] will appear in CAT tools as personal assistants for linguistic specialists” — Scott Jackson, Head of Innovation, tbo.
Upskilling Existing Employees
Edwards asked about how LSPs can best support existing employees to manage this environment and upskill to make the best use of these tools. Jackson stated that “there are people in a company that probably have some time to do research, and I would say after that core [group] wraps their heads around it a little bit, they could decide if it’s possible to develop an in-house rollout or training program, [for example].”
Jackson extended his response to cover the importance of prompt engineering, saying that “the extent to which companies would train around prompt engineering varies, to the extent that they employ in-house QA teams or in-house linguists. That would probably be a big differentiator there.”
tbo.’s Venturi added, “we all should embrace proactive learning. […] We all know that the AI landscape is ever-changing, and staying current is key for new opportunities for both sides.”
Venturi concluded with one final piece of advice to LSPs: “Invest in your team’s growth, encourage them to do ongoing education, provide them access to training resources, and also create an environment for innovation. It will help you build a more resilient and forward-thinking workforce.”