Episode Transcript
[00:00:03] Speaker A: Now is the time to peer through the windows, look at what are the different possible realities, the different possible futures that await us, and being mindful and being cognizant of the fact that, yeah, the work starts today if we want to see any one of those potential futures materialize.
[00:00:29] Speaker B: Hello and welcome to Localization Today. My name is Eddie Arrieta, CEO at multilingual magazine. Today we have a conversation with industry researcher and content producer at Argos Multilingual, Gabriel Karandyšovský. Today we will be talking about Argos Multilingual's most recent report, Global Ambitions 2024.
Gabriel, hello and welcome to Localization Today.
[00:00:56] Speaker A: Hello, Eddie. It's an absolute pleasure to be here with you today, and thanks for. Yeah, thanks for inviting me. And Argos multilingual. Yeah, happy to be here.
[00:01:08] Speaker B: Great. Gabriel, tell us a little bit more about global ambitions. What is it? We know that you've done it for a few years, but perhaps some members in the audience don't know what it is.
[00:01:18] Speaker A: Absolutely. So, global ambitions, in a nutshell, the short version, and this is the third year in a row that we at Argos are doing it. So it's a yearly publication. So it comes in physical format and then digital, downloadable as well, usually around September. So we're right in the middle of it. And, yeah, it's a yearly publication that attempts to capture what's happening in the industry at that particular moment or leading up to that point in the year. That being said, global ambitions is not just a magazine, but it's essentially a platform that Argos created to provide insights in different formats, rather on the shorter formats. There's a monthly LinkedIn social media newsletter. There's also a podcast where we invite different people, different personalities, thought leaders from the industry, from different sides of the industry. So really, it's an ecosystem of content, I would say, in itself. And so, yes, today we're talking about the publication. So, the magazine element of global ambitions, and we've been very happy and proud to be able to collaborate with multilingual media, or multilingual magazine, I should say, over the last three years, to produce and distribute it. So thank you, Eddie and team shout out also to Antonella, who helped make this happen. So, yeah, it's been a collaboration that's been a few years in the making.
[00:03:06] Speaker B: And that is fantastic, the way you put it, Gabriel, you are talking about it as a content strategy as well, and it's something that helps Argos multilingual delve into what's happening at that specific time in the industry. I assume that given the content ecosystem and this production that Argos multilingual is investing on, you have a very vibrant community and audience. Who is this report written for? Who does it benefit? Who is this ecosystem made for?
[00:03:40] Speaker A: Right. And sort of a good question. I think there's few elements to this. First of all, the audience or the people who listen to the podcast or read the material, it's a very wide spectrum of professionals in our industry, and not just in the language industry as such. But of course, one of the ambitions, no pun intended in this case, is to reach beyond the language industry, because the Argos multilingual is now not much different from other sources of information and knowledge, in that we try to attract attention to our industry to get people talking, get people excited about what's happening in language industry. So from that perspective, we serve a large audience. That being said, one of the elements that went into sort of the design thinking behind the magazine this year, but also on previous years, is we try to be inclusive of first of all viewpoints and experience experiences, and articulating those, in this case in text format, so having representation from different sides of the industry also in order to convey the message and or the specific insights to a broad audience. So all those words to say that, yeah, broad audience applicability, and hopefully people from diverse viewpoints, people with diverse roles and responsibilities, can, can take something out of the publication.
[00:05:16] Speaker B: Thank you for sharing that insight. And I assume then that you've covered several different topics in the past few years. When the audience goes to the website, the landing pages and the podcast, what are some of the contents that they can see there before we get into the report for this year?
[00:05:34] Speaker A: Sure. Of course, the topics are varied. We cover essentially the starting point is our topics or elements where Argos is active, specifically, let's say, work for regulated industries such as life sciences, legal, but also tech it. Right. So topics that are pertinent for specific groups of people, and also when we're talking about podcasts, is usually inviting people from those spheres, but not only, of course. So, yeah, a wide range of topics. The same goes for the magazine itself. As I mentioned, the third edition this year.
There has been a sense of progression throughout the years, though. When we look at 2022, the very first edition, it was oriented around content in the global space, multilingual content in the global space. Then the 2023 edition of the magazine was broad on the, or, on the wave of AI and all the hype surrounding it and the reality that was starting to sink in. So we're talking about perspectives, how to deploy, utilize AI to the benefit of everyone involved. And this year, the progression takes another different step. And it's something we talk about frequently, and I think we referenced it in one of the articles as well. 2023 was the great year of experimentation with Genai. 2024 is the year of coming to grips with reality when it comes to Genai, and also realizing that it's not just the only topic, only source of conversations. And so we tried to reflect that. But, yeah, I mean, in terms of the different formats, it's, again, different topics on the landing pages. Users also can access previous editions of the publication. So, yeah, I suppose it comes back down to, I think I mentioned this a few moments ago in an attempt to capture the essence of what is happening within that specific year in our language industry.
What is the buildup and what is the progression, and trying to give it sort of a balanced, boots on the ground viewpoint. Naturally, the different publications serve a purpose from the company standpoint. But I think it's also a question of positioning, where Argos is somehow, and without stereotyping this too much, but somehow wants to appear as a voice of reason. So providing that balanced, inclusive viewpoint of what is going on, also giving voice to people who need to be given voice to, in a way, in that they have insightful things to share, they have great experiences in diverse roles and diverse environments. And there's a realization that, yes, these people need to be given a platform to, to voice it out loud. And that's the whole, I mentioned the word ecosystem. It really is sort of a platform to give voice to voice to the experts, to the people who have gone and done the hands on work.
[00:09:12] Speaker B: That's a fantastic way to view it. Gabriel, thank you so much for sharing it. And it sounds like Argos multilingual is sharing a viewpoint, as well as more like a lens from which to look at the industry on a specific point in time. And that's really valuable for everyone to see. So let's get to it. You've mentioned briefly about what's in it this year, but global ambitions, 2024, it's a new year, it's a new report. What can you tell us about it?
[00:09:45] Speaker A: Yeah, let's dive into it.
One of the early stage thoughts, and when we started conceptualizing what the theme and topics would be, one of the overriding ideas was, we're at this point in time in our industry where a lot of the talk, a lot of, you know, when you go to different conferences or depending on the sources, you usually read or listen to or watch. A lot of it is caught up in the moment of Nai everywhere. Rightfully so. Of course, there's a reason that's the case. But we also felt that today is prime opportunity to recenter our focus and our attentions. And I'm using the sort of collective first person plural here, as in potentially applicable for everyone across the industry. It's also a very good moment to start reflecting on what our future will look like, whether there will be Genaida, and it's likely the case that there will be Genei in our future. But what else is there? And so that's one, and closely second is that, you know, it's when you start formulating what that future might look like. The work you can start doing to get to that vision of the future, to see that vision of the future materialize, starts today. So in terms of producing a content piece such as global ambitions, it's very much focused on the present, but with an eye towards the future. And so that is also reflected in the title we opted for. We named it windows into the future. We were very keen, and I, we felt very strongly, still feel very strongly about the theme. Now is the time to peer through the windows, look at what are the different possible realities, the different possible futures that await us, and being mindful and being cognizant of the fact that, yeah, the work starts today, if we want to see those future, any one of those potential futures materialize.
[00:12:07] Speaker B: Very interesting, because it really made me think about those trees of possibilities that you see when they are created. I'm sure you've seen them, and then you have all these alternative paths towards success. Even in some cases, those don't have to compete.
Let me ask you about those windows in particular. What can you tell us about them? Are there some common themes on those windows? Are they very different? Can you give us some examples of what those windows.
[00:12:38] Speaker A: Right, very good question. And so the paradox here, and that was a very interesting exercise in and of itself, in trying to articulate that in text formats in a magazine, is that we are, or we're trying to not say that the future will look like this, as opposed to it can look like that. I think one of the realizations, as we were also going through the exercise of working with the varied collaborators, was that actually there are so many potential versions of future of the future that depending on who you talk to, depending on where they are from, what type of company they work for, even if it's a client side organization or tech provider or a language services provider or a linguisthood. There are so many different versions of the future. And that's the trick here, is that if we're trying to articulate that, and of course you cannot say that this future will happen.
In my opinion, it's a very tricky proposition. If you try to say this is how it's going to look like, the reality is no one knows how it's going to look like. We all just do our best guessing to try to imagine what subjectively we would like to see materialize or manifest. So there's a certain ambivalence into the whole theme of Windows issue.
And I like, and I'm a sort of very visual person, as in when I talk about something or imagine something, I imagine the visuals that go with it. For someone. If you're thinking about a window, there's a. There's a glass window in a high rise building that you imagine a very modern, very futuristic kind of thing. And for someone else, a window is a wooden frame in a cabin in the middle of the forest or near a lake. So I suppose we all have different view or sort of starting points where we view from or which window we look through in a way. And we all have different ideas of the future.
So, yeah, I'm going on a little bit here where you're on a very conceptual level, but yeah, that's.
It's, you know, if you're asking me what are possible futures, well, then, you know, one of them could be very AI centric, very tech centric. One could be at some point in future, bigger problems, bigger social, environmental, geopolitical problems will force us to different solutions or a different reality. And then, yeah, maybe there's also back to reality kind of future. So really everything is fair game if you think about it. When it comes to the future, however, and again, going back to the idea of a balancing act, of course, in a magazine format, you only have so much space to. To try and fill it with ideas, the elements of.
And I'm sorry, I'm getting a little tripped up here. So this is something you may want to cut, but the balancing act in creating such a publication, talking about the future is that. Yeah, also we try to echo the viewpoint of Argos multilingual as a company and I, how we see it as an entity within the language industry and one that has an agenda and agenda in the sense of having a vision and subscribing to an ethos.
And that's something we also echo at different points in the magazine, even though there are different possible versions of the future.
One sort of narrative and guiding line throughout that is emerging is the need to coexist with technology, and is the need to redefine what it means to be human in a world that's augmented by technology. And so the idea of, and this is not necessarily novel, you probably heard that in different spots, is the. Is the idea of human and AI symbiosis.
And it's likely that we'll be coming up more and more as we venture into the future.
[00:17:12] Speaker B: Yeah, we would have presumed that technology will be involved in the conversation. And the very interesting perspective, in terms of the characters that are, of portraying these windows into the future.
Can you tell us about them, the authors, those that are making the content happen, those that are taking the stand, which is, we can predict the future, but we kind of need to be bold enough to take a stand, and they are taking that stand. And Argos multilingual is doing it. Can you tell us about those characters that are in the report?
[00:17:52] Speaker A: Yeah, absolutely. And so a couple of things that come to mind. So, first of all, the magazine global ambitions, but also, in a more general sense, the entire platform, the entire global ambitions platform, is a space for collaboration, for sharing ideas. It's very inclusive, very collaborative effort at all times with my coworkers and also the external contributors. The nature of the magazine itself, it's a fruit of collective labor and of reuniting experts, thought leaders, people with insights to share. So a highly collaborative effort, which in its own self, makes the whole process very thrilling, at least. Speaking for myself, I had a blast throughout just sharing ideas and exchanging thoughts with all these collaborators. So highly collaborative space. And I mentioned that a few times. Now, the keyword inclusive, something we felt very strongly about, is that, and this is happening in other spaces, and multilingual media is one of them as well, is giving voice to people from the different sides of the industry. And so when it comes to the characters, we have a very diverse cast of characters, as in a movie, essentially. So there are people from client side organizations of different sizes, but people who have been around for a long time. And then there are also independent professionals from the translation localization industry, consultants we bring on board, also people from the tech world. So there is a space more specifically, but I suppose we'll get to that in a second. There is space for the tech partners of Argos, for different companies in the language technology space. And then also we're highlighting viewpoints of a few folks internally from Argos as well. We'll work on, on big ideas and putting big ideas into motion and operationalizing big ideas and how we transform them into actual outcomes for localization. So a very diverse cast of characters in terms of process or how we went about it at this point in time, it was, I'm tempted to say it was almost easy way of getting or aligning ideas and thoughts with them, practically, and this is just anecdotal, but everyone we reached out to said, yes, absolutely, let's do it. And I think there's something to the overarching theme. Overarching at this point in time, this is how we feel that that is being echoed across the different types of people and professionals in our industry. So, yeah, very highly collaborative, very engaged, some brilliant ideas, brilliant minds who share their ideas. So, yeah, and I hope that some of that spark creativity and fun we had along the way sort of transpires through the different texts.
[00:21:23] Speaker B: Of course, you're mentioning that this feels like a movie and you have these characters that are looking into possible futures you are taking. In a way, I stand.
What am I going to get as a reader at the end of it, when I finish it? What experience do you expect us to have while reading global ambitions this year?
[00:21:46] Speaker A: Gosh, a very good question. And perhaps the most important question of all, why should you read this?
Yeah, I'm a little bit ambivalent myself about the answer is because when I engage with a piece of content, it's only natural to expect something back. But I think the line we're tiptoeing here in this year's edition is that, especially in our time, and I mentioned this year is the year of coming to grips with reality, is from the perspective of people having done the experiments with Gennai specifically, and having seen the limits and possible opportunities and ways to continue evolving and coexisting with technology.
We were tiptoeing the line of not giving you a straight answer. So if you go into the magazine and expecting to find straight answers into, okay, what will the future look like?
We're not giving that, and hopefully that's not too off putting for people. But the truth of the matter is that when you finish reading the different articles in the magazine, you may be coming out with more questions than answers.
And I think that's a function of both the reality of today that we don't know. There's a lot of uncertainty still, and it's difficult to predict where all the industry will keep evolving.
But I think it's also by design for this publication specifically, in that we've opted for prodding the reader to ask crucial questions in a way giving you a straight answer. Like, here's how the, here's what you get out of it. Here's what you should do, is almost reductive, and I would also say disingenuous to say, like, these are the 1234 or half a dozen steps you should take today, where rather, the realistic or the pragmatic part of this is. Here are the things you should start thinking about, and here are the crucial questions you should be asking yourself daily in order to evolve and to meet, to rise up to the occasion and sort of grab the different possible opportunities that present themselves. So, yes, in a way, I'm sort of half dodging your question because I don't have a concrete answer, but that's very much on purpose. If you're reading the 2024 Global Ambitions edition, be prepared to be challenged, be prepared to reflect on your own situation, but also on where we are headed as a collective and as an industry. And, yeah, it's a very important component to be able to ask those questions and formulate answers to them on your own, in this case, with a little bit of help of our collaborators.
But, yeah, I think more, unfortunately, maybe for some, but more answers than. Or, sorry, more questions than answers.
[00:25:20] Speaker B: Well, yeah, as the saying goes, right? Like, is it better to get the fish or to learn how to fish? And so, in a way, when you're giving conceptual frameworks, that would be the hope that the reader then engages with that conceptual structure and then looks at the future, perhaps even changing some of those conceptual constructs that they find. So it's very, very interesting because, like I'd mentioned, we can predict the future, but we do try to find tools like. Like, or perspectives like the ones in global ambitions 2024 to look into that future. And it doesn't tell you, because the good student doesn't like others to tell the answers to the. To the quiz or to the test. They want to understand why they don't understand and they want to excel at it. So I think that's. That seems to be a really good drawing element of global ambitions. You've seen some things. You've seen windows. You have your own biases. You also have your own principles.
What expectations do you have? Not perhaps, what does the future look like? But what are some parting points? And you've mentioned technology, of course, but I presume you've also seen and predicted. And predict might not be the right word, expect. It will be that there are other things that would stay, that would evolve somehow, but would also in a predictable way. Do you have anything like that that you can share with us today?
[00:27:04] Speaker A: Absolutely. And sort of, in a way, my own maybe subjective opinions kind of mirror some of what's in the, what's in the magazine itself. Of course, there's dimensions of technology and the continued influence of technology on our professional lives. But other than that, I would think, what else is there? And when I think about what else is there, well, it's a mixed and varied bag. You imagine you have the image of Hermione's bag and you reach into it and you pull out all kinds of different stuff. You know, if you're for the fans of Harry Potter, this will ring a bell. But imagine and those bag of possibilities. So I tend to think of it that the future is a mixed bag with all kinds of things you can pull out, hopefully the good kind, but sort of bringing this back to our industry and to the magazine, a few elements stand out. And this was also sort of a byproduct of those conversations and collaborations with the different authors. Was that, for instance, one sort of takeaway, and this comes out and Im going to start name dropping here, maybe we can revisit some of these. But when working with Inez Rubio of Emerson, one realization was that, yes, AI is perhaps the big talking point right now. Everyone is concentrated on that. Everyone is tired of it by now. But in her case, and I would, it's very likely that this is the reality of other companies as well, is that some business transformation processes are still happening today, and they are not necessarily AI related. And business transformation will occur or will continue happening regardless of any new developments, tech centric developments, or otherwise happening in the future. So in their particular cases, going through the, the different stages of being acquired by a company and restructuring operations and restructuring the team, and that type of experience is almost evergreen, if you will. It was happening long before anyone was talking about AI and will continue happening well into the future. So one of the takeaways is that beyond the hyped up terms in our case in the last two years, AI, but who knows what will be the next wave of hype in the future? Some say more traditional or evergreen processes of business transformation will still be there and in our industry at different levels, whether a client side organization or an LSP, you will still be facing those challenges. How do you adapt, how you, how do you restructure, where do you grow and so on, which are fundamentally, or in a way, not entirely, but in a way tech agnostic problems. So that's one what will be appearing, another topic which is of great importance, and I fully subscribe to the idea, is one of continuing to anchor localization itself as an important building block of accessibility and inclusivity. And for those who have been following trends in this area, and it's been, you know, it's been a talking point for a few years now, the industry is one of the parallel futures unfolding before our eyes is a lot of brands going the way of building more inclusive, more accessible products. And localization is 100% part of accessibility. And the good thing is that today, in 2024, more and more case studies or I, not even case studies, but success stories or testimonials are starting to appear. How specific companies have tackled this. And yeah, we're covering this in a couple of articles from different sites, one by Miguel Sepueta, another one from King, and another article by Christina Anselmi of Electronic Arts. So more on the Mediaev video games side of things, but they're showing us that, and this is also a function of entertainment in general and video games specifically, being an industry that is very attuned to what is happening in society at that particular moment. And the whole drive towards more accessibility with products is very prominent in that industry.
Theyre sharing their experiences and their testimony of how its happening. So I would expect a different variant and a parallel variant of the future in our industry being very focused, very embedded in whatever accessibility oriented initiatives happen on the side of the brands and the client side organizations. So yeah, those are just two, two, or let's say three, counting Genai, sort of trends or elements that we're going to see continue and endear where much into the future in terms of also, and maybe another one in terms of evergreen topics. I'm mentioning the challenges of business transformation. Another Evergreen challenge is one of, one of alignment, one of being able to communicate between clients and vendor, but also communicate between clients. So let's say localization and globalization, teams and their own stakeholders internally. So, and that was the, even before the advent of Genai, internal alignment was a big topic and a lot of focus and energy and resources typically go into it on the client side. And that in itself will continue being a big, big topic, a big or something that occupies a lot of mind space for leaders, for decision makers on the client side. So another evergreen topic that you could reasonably expect to see continuing on into the future and maybe, maybe a couple of points. And so the question you've asked me, I'm essentially already spilling the beans a little bit on the contents of the different articles, but another sort of theme or something we might be seeing, or hopefully will be seeing a lot more in the future, is taking hues and drawing inspiration from what is happening in other industries, and different industries are tackling in a way almost, and this is not to sound too reductive of the merits of what the different players in the language industry are doing and are attempting to do. But we're not at that point yet where we could reasonably say as an industry that we're making a dent when it comes to sustainability of business practices and being environmentally friendly and so on. So these are big topics, the level of society and on the level of societal change that we still have a lot of work ahead of us to incorporate and try to live out in practice and daily business practice. So one more potential window into the future of what could be happening.
[00:34:51] Speaker B: And of course, I want to be very respectful of your time. It's been a great conversation. I see the big potential that you have for global ambitions for this report and for upcoming reports. What invitation, one message do you have for those of us who are going to start reading it? And I know you have mentioned a few things like keeping an open mind and not looking for specific answers.
What invitation, what extra invitation do you have for us on that front?
[00:35:22] Speaker A: Right. First of all, feel free to read and listen to and or engage with our content. With Argos content feedback is awesome, and even if you tend to disagree with some of the points we're raising in the magazine, if there's a call to action is read, share the feedback. So yeah, that would be the first one. Our sort of timid and humble ambition within global ambitions is to hopefully share insights and prod you in the direction that you will be able to ask the right questions that will set you up on the path or that will serve you well when building towards present day and future success. So yeah, the direct outcome is subscribe there's the website globalambitions.net where you can access the current, the most recent, but also the archive of podcasts.
I mentioned this at the beginning, very short format. We're trying to deliver impactful insights in short formats. So typically around the 15 minutes mark highlights, but also there's of course, more. So there's the global ambitions of the publication itself, but also related material on the topics of AI, but also other themes that you can access through the Argos website. So yeah, I invite you all to read engagement and if you have perspectives to share, yeah, reach out at any point.
[00:37:13] Speaker B: Thank you for sharing your information and we, of course, will encourage everyone to follow all the social media for global ambitions. Gabriel, thank you so much for joining us today.
[00:37:23] Speaker A: Thank you, Eddie. Thank you. Multilingual media. It's been an absolute pleasure and looking forward to the next one.
[00:37:29] Speaker B: Likewise. Have a great day. We will have an insightful conversation about the future, what you can say and not say about the future with Gabriel from Argos multilingual. Go check out their newest report, Global Ambitions 2024. It's a new year. They have a new report, and you've heard about it here. Multilingual localization today. My name is Eddie Arrieta. I'm the CEO of Multilingual Media. Thanks for listening.
