Episode Transcript
[00:00:02] Speaker A: Language intelligence, that's the big conversation, the big news. Can you talk to us a little bit about the evolution and the memoq offering to language intelligence, how it comes about and why? Does it make sense?
[00:00:21] Speaker B: Yes. So MemoQ has been around in the industry for decades, and we've seen the transition of the industry going from simple human translations all the way to AI.
What we did about a year or so ago, we started developing a product that would help companies communicate and do business in regions across the world. Right. While you can do that with the tms, what we thought was, how many people in a company have access to the tms and how would we broaden that scope for everybody? Communication is the basic need. If you are able to do business in different languages, you need to communicate with the people. And what we did with this product was we designed it specifically keeping in mind anyone in a company who would need to communicate in a language other than their primary language. And that's how Fluent was evolved language intelligence. And the reason also why we decided to create a different company is product is fundamentally different.
And we did not just want to slap the AI label and just say that we have, we are now AI. We didn't want to do that because it's fundamentally a different product. TMS is a tms, but the language intelligence is built ground up as AI first. And what we also thought of was how do we create this ecosystem for companies where they are able to work with linguists, where they are able to work with the tms, and they're also able to leverage LLMs, and this ecosystem will be able will enable them to communicate in different languages and do business across the globe. And that's how the concept of language intelligence came into being.
[00:02:01] Speaker A: And of course, intelligence has a lot of different definitions. In this case, language and intelligence come together. Can you tell us a little bit about what does it mean for you as an organization? Of course, for you as a professional, what is language intelligence?
[00:02:18] Speaker B: Yeah, that's a good question.
So traditionally, when we look at. Well, I say traditionally, but more recently when we look at AI and LLMs, you could easily put some text through an LLM and you can translate it. But what is communication really at the core? Is it about translating words from A to B, or is it about communicating the message from one person to the other? And that's where the intelligence part comes in.
So what we did was said, okay, let's create this ecosystem where, yes, you can translate words, but do you translate the meaning? Are you able to translate the context? Are you able to translate the emotions. So how does that, all of that come together? And that cannot be done by a simple tool where you can put text in and text out. It has to leverage your context, it has to leverage your communication style. It has to leverage the meaning behind what you're trying to convey. So what we did was with MemoQ, you're able to create these resources, you're able to create your own company terminology. You're able to create, even for countries, you have Canadian French, for example, which is different than the French you speak in France. Right. How are you able to distinguish all of that in a simple tool, which at the core of it should remain simple? And that's the idea of it. But in the backend, how does it incorporate everything that an LLM can take advantage of? An LLM is only as good as the context it's provided with. And that's where the intelligence part comes in, where all the work that's been put in by linguists for so many decades for a company or for countries, how are you able to leverage that with an LLM? And that's exactly what we did with language intelligence, where none of the work that's been done so far goes to waste. Everything is incorporated. The idea of linguists, you can still call them a linguist, but they become in charge of communication because they are the experts of communication, right? You could say that, yes, this AI tool translates everything from A to B, but it should be the linguist who decides how that translation is handled, what kind of data it's using as context. And they should be the one to decide whether the output, the outcome that's coming out of the tool, is it worth sharing with the person who, who speaks a different language? They are the experts. And that's what we wanted to create this idea of control.
[00:04:31] Speaker A: And
[00:04:31] Speaker B: you just said it. Control, decision, choice. This is at the center of language intelligence. And fluent. Can you tell us a little bit more about the importance of control? Yes, and control is the keyword that I've been focusing on for a long time. One of the things that I have noticed when speaking to enterprise companies for a long time with memoq as well, is are we making a decision for them or are they able to have a say in the decision? Right. A lot of times with traditional SaaS, software companies don't want the burden. People don't want the burden to decide how a software works. And, you know, they don't want to change everything in the software, you know, and then have to deal with the modular stuff. They would say okay, this is what we need. Give it to us. Right? There you go, there you go. And the evolution in the software world has kind of peaked now in a way where you are now. A lot of companies are now transitioning to AI, moving away from the traditional SaaS environment. But we are not at the same stage with AI as we are with traditional SaaS. And that's where I bringing the idea of control with AI. You know that the technology is evolving rapidly, right? So if I'm deploying AI across my organization, I don't want to be locked in, in a five year contract with the company that tells me this is the LLM that we're providing you, this is the tool. There you go. Five years contract, you're good. When in two months I'll realize something better has come out, what do I do then? Right? So I don't have the control to change anything or even if there is no contract, I don't want to be locked in with one single LLM for the, for the rest of the time. I should be able to change anything in the environment with the infrastructure not breaking up. And that is specifically what we decided to do here. What you could do with Fluent, for example, is you could have any TMS you want in your ecosystem. You could have linguists involved in the ecosystem, you could have any LLM of your choice involved in the ecosystem. And as a communication tool, you could have Fluent. And what I tell people is that you could remove any of these elements, replace it with something else, and nothing in the ecosystem breaks. You could even remove Fluent from the ecosystem, replace it with something else that you might want to change with nothing breaks. And that's the idea of control that I want to talk about. A lot of times people might want to lock you in with your technology, which is good for the seller, but from the buyer perspective, how does that benefit you? You know, you are not future proofing yourself. Especially in the age of AI, where the technology is evolving in weeks, in days. I don't want to be in a situation where an LLM is telling me that this is the best translation technology that exists right now. This LLM has the best results. They have all these graphs and charts that are going higher and higher, and then two months later someone else comes out and says, look, our translation is actually better, 80 times better. What do you do then? Right? Just tell us, replace this with a new model and let's test it. We're able to do that without breaking anything in your infrastructure. And that's really what we want to say about control. The other aspect of control is what happens with your data. This is something that we've been talking about for years with MemoQ.
You should be able to decide what happens with your data. Always ask this question, what happens to my data? When it goes through your system? You should be able to decide how the data is processed, where the data is stored. Are you using that data in any way? You should have full control over what happens with your data. And that's precisely what we are doing with fluent as well. You will decide how your data is handled and stored. And we talk about sovereignty quite a lot. A lot of times sovereignty is not just about the geography, because sometimes we confuse sovereignty with being, you know, data should not leave Canada, for example. But it's more than that. Sovereignty is about control. It's about deciding how your data is handled and where your data remains. Should it be handled by different systems? Should the data be used to train the models? All of that is about control. And that's exactly what we want companies to understand that. Don't let your control go away. You should have the control. This is your data. This is your system. You should control it, especially with AI.
[00:08:21] Speaker A: And I can stop myself realizing that you're talking about data. You've talked a little bit about translation, but it seems that there's an evolution on the conversation, that this is no longer just about translation. Not that translation is not important, but we are in a way bringing the conversation to something that goes beyond translation. But what translation does within the organizations. Can you tell us a little bit about that?
[00:08:49] Speaker B: Yeah. So why do you want to translate something? Right. If you're an organization, you are doing business in, in a specific language, why do you want to translate it? You want to do business in a different language, or you want to do business in a country where the primary language of communication is different?
So the idea is about communication. As I said before, it's not about translating word A and then getting the literal translation of that word, another language. That is translation at the core of it. But what we are talking about here is communication. How does the meaning translate? How does the message behind the words translate? And that is communication. And that's why when we talk to people, they tell us, okay, so this is a communication platform. I say, yes, it's exactly what it is. It's helping you communicate in many languages. It's helping you communicate with different cultures. And that's precisely what translation should be about. It should not just be about literal word translation.
You should always be able to Translate the meaning behind the message. Right. And talking about Canada, which is our primary market at the moment, when we talk about working with the government, what does that mean? Right. Why do you want to have a communication platform from the government? It goes back to communication. Does Canada want to do trade with many countries across the world? Yes. How do you do trade with companies with countries that English is not? Where English is not the primary language of communication? You translate, you translate and then you communicate. But if you do a literal word to word translation, you would only go as far as inviting someone for a coffee and having, you know, a casual conversation. But when we are talking about doing business, it goes way beyond that. You can make or break, you know, your relationship with countries while you mistranslate something. Right. And that's the idea of communication between countries.
We spoke about how Canada wants to do trade with countries beyond the U.S. for example, as well, going to Europe. The first thing you have to do is to be able to communicate with those countries in the languages that they understand. And we understand that. So that idea of communication is at the center of language intelligence as well, and control communication. These are the things that are the pillars of translation. And we want to educate the companies, we want to educate people about this, that, you know, don't let the control go away. Make sure you are focusing on communication and not just literal word translations.
[00:11:02] Speaker A: And of course, you've made the connection now between communication and control, communications and control, or where do communications and control make much more sense? And we understand, you know, communicating well and having control is extremely important. But there are specific verticals where this is much more prevalent in terms of relevance.
Can you tell us a little bit more about
[00:11:25] Speaker B: that? Yes. From our conversations that we've had with people so far, I've noticed the finance industry and the healthcare industry where this is more prevalent.
To give an example of the healthcare industry, there are certain things that you would translate in a solution in an AI tool, RMT or any technology, and the results would be phenomenal. Right. You will translate five or six sentences and you would say that there is nothing a human can improve upon it. However, from the organizational point of view, I would still need to have it reviewed by a human. That's a legal requirement. That's for me to make sure that this is going to a person, which in many cases, as I've been told, and I quote, it's about life and death. Right. This is the exact quote that I've been told and said. In these situations, we do not let the machine decide we will always have a human review aspect. No matter how good the quality of the output is, we are sure the quality is 100% accurate, but we will still have to review it. So how are you able to create that ecosystem and give us that control? And that's exactly where we are able to do that. With either a memoq as a TMS or any TMS that you might have and the LLM of your choice and create that flow where whatever comes out of fluent, you're still able to review it before sending it to the, to the, to the person where the communication is going to. So that they are 100% sure that this is exactly what the organization wants to tell me. It's not something that the machine decided to translate something and something was lost in translation.
The same, I would say, is in the finance industry, where a lot of times, if I'm a staff member at a bank, I want to translate a document. From my judgment, I might think this document is not very sensitive and let me just put it through a generic AI tool. But. And it goes back to control. As a linguist, I know that sensitive document. I know this document should be reviewed by someone. So I, as a linguist, should decide how everybody in the company should handle translations. And there's. That's where we can create an ecosystem for this bank, for example, where you don't. We take the burden away from a staff member to decide whether or not a document is sensitive or not. We let the control go back to the link list and exactly what I've been telling every organization that I speak to. Yes, you would have. The decision will be made at a very high level. This is a solution that will be mandated across the organization. But if it's about communication, if it's about translation, the final decision on how this tool should be used, how communication should be done in other languages, should be decided by a linguist. And like I said, finance and healthcare so far has been critical about this point.
[00:13:59] Speaker A: We talked a little bit about the evolution of MEMOQ to language intelligence. And you just mentioned linguists. We talked about translations, we talked about a little bit about regulated industries. And you know, the elephant in the room in our industry is the jobs of the future. The linguists you're talking about, you know, the importance of having them in there.
Why does it still become relevant for, you know, organizations to recognize these particular roles, these specialized roles in linguists, in this conversation of communications and control?
[00:14:36] Speaker B: Wow. Yeah. For me, a linguist is a significant piece in this whole ecosystem. Ecosystem. Right now we can argue about what we should call them, you know, what is the title? All things aside, as a linguist, you know how communication and translation should be handled. So you are the expert. You are the only expert left in this whole ecosystem who can decide how communication should be transferred. Right? I, as an IT manager, if I'm a, Even if I'm a CEO, I'm not an expert of communication. You've hired specialists. That specialist has the power to control this whole communication aspect, which I think is the key piece when you're doing global business and trade.
Communication is at the core of it. And these linguists who have spent decades dealing with multilingual communication, for them, now all they have to do is switch their perspective from just literal word to word translation on paper, but now managing and administrating this whole ecosystem of communication across organizations. So in many ways, their role is now much broader than it was before. It's much more significant, it's much more important than ever before. And I don't want the linguists to feel like, oh, they're now going to struggle with anything. No, they just have to look at the bigger picture now, where they have to go to their CIOs, their CTOs, and tell them, yes, you're all using these generic tools for translations, but there are better ways of handling it. You are miscommunicating things by not understanding how communication works. So I would say with AI, their role becomes even more important now. And, you know, and I'm really glad to hear that, because there's a lot of fears that, well, we will have nothing to do. And this is not only about linguists, this is across different industries in terms of what becomes the end goal for our society, the end goal for organizations. We're talking control, we're talking communications, we're talking about the evolution of the humans within the ecosystems. What is our end goal? Is this only about money?
What is it about that comes at the center of this conversation of language intelligence and what we do as companies, as a society connecting humans? Right. One human from Canada wants to communicate with someone from Croatia. How do you communicate? It's all about translation. It's about translating. And that's why I say it's not about translating words alone. You can do that with any MT solution, You can do that with any machine. It's been done for ages with machines now. But how do you communicate the way it should be communicated? And I think that idea of being able to communicate across cultures, across communities, that's where we have to keep in mind the Language intelligence aspect of communication and talking about Canada, there are a few things about language intelligence that many people do not know.
The company is majority owned by Indigenous Canadians. And with our two parent companies, Memoq and Nations Translations, there has been a significant focus on preserving indigenous languages. Right. So why do we want to do that? Right. Because communication is the core of human values. Right. How do you preserve a language?
We sometimes live in the bubble where we think, okay, we know how this language works. So I suppose every language works in the same way. But that's not true. Language goes beyond words and that's what we want to focus on. Again, don't just focus on simple words and you're able to translate words at a cheaper rate. Now, that's not really the goal here.
We are selling this idea of AI cutting costs and everything. All of that might be true in many ways, but that's why I've said the linguist is a critical piece here. Don't forget the core idea of why we are translating. It's about communications. It's about connecting humans across the globe and that idea should be preserved.
[00:18:23] Speaker A: And of course, you've worked with a significant number of companies by now and what they are communicating and how they are communicating and varies vastly depending on their goals. What can you tell us about what you've seen out there in terms of the diversity of things to communicate and ways to communicate and how your solution is adapting to those specific nuances, industry based and company based?
[00:18:50] Speaker B: Yeah, that's a good question. And what we have seen at Memoq precisely is there are certain aspects of communication that could make or break a company. Right.
It's critical to their business. The other might not seem as critical. Critical, which is, let's say, communication that goes out to the public, but it doesn't really impact their revenues. Right. This is not about buying or selling business. Generic communication. With language intelligence, what you're able to do is if you are giving linguists the control, and this is why I keep saying that linguists should have the control. They will be able to decide what kind of resources should be added as context to the LLM for language intelligence to make the right decisions on how certain messages should be translated without that context, you're letting the LLM decide everything. But with the linguists and the context, you're able to decide from your organizational point of view how specific communication goes out. And this is where language intelligence will be incredibly useful for you, because all the work that you've done for the last few decades, developing the own communication style of Your company developing the tone of your communication, that needs to be preserved. And that's what language intelligence does. Preserving that tone of communication, preserving that style of communication. So you're able to tweak, if you are talking to the public about something about marketing, you're able to tweak that messaging. But if it's something about business, if it's about revenues and if it's about something legal, if it's about something specific, that it's not for the general public, but it's about communication between two departments in a company, you're able to tweak that language with language intelligence. So it adjusts the tone based on the style of your communication and based on the context. And that's already ingrained in the solution.
[00:20:29] Speaker A: And of course you are talking about how things are adapted for companies and for specific locales. It seems, and we've talked about this, it seems like Europe is a great place for solution led language intelligence.
How easily adapted is language intelligence to an industry or rather than a market like the European market?
[00:20:53] Speaker B: Yeah, with the European market, I was quite surprised at the level of interest and enthusiasm that they showed towards language intelligence because as I said, we primarily launched in Canada, but within weeks of our launch, we got a lot of interest from Europe. And what they liked about our message was control. They wanted to understand that, okay, if we are able to deploy any AI solution, we need to make sure we are in control of what's being pushed through the system, what kind of data is going to the system where the data is stored. Are we able to change anything in the system tomorrow without being locked into something? If there is a sanction on a particular company, is our infrastructure going to break or are we able to simply flip a switch and we are able to continue working? That's exactly what we want you to have. That level of control that no matter what happens, your infrastructure, your communication system should not break. Because again, this is something that I want people to understand that changing anything in the infrastructure should not require you to do the groundwork again, all over again and spend 2, 3 months finding alternatives. Spend 2, 3 months looking for something that, that works just as good. You should be able to just in minutes change everything that you want to change and nothing in the infrastructure breaks. And from the European perspective, that is very attractive. And that's where we see, you know, when we started from the Canadian sovereignty idea, how it translated to, you know, translated everything to the European market.
[00:22:10] Speaker A: And, and, and you are saying it there, there, there is adaptation, there is growth, we are in a moment of the world, which I don't think it's gonna slow down any anywhere.
Things are moving fast.
And what is coming before the end of 2026 for language intelligence and fluent and what can we expect in 2027?
[00:22:31] Speaker B: Right now we are focusing a lot on education. I think people need to understand why this concept is so important for them. A lot of times people are making decisions in a rush, not understanding the potential consequences of those decisions. As I said, this is fundamentally different than a SaaS deployment and we are used to making decisions from that perspective. This is a CRM that we purchase and let's purchase this solution as an AI tool. But this is fundamentally different and that's why we are spending a lot of time talking to multilingual, for example, talking to others and helping people understand that.
Don't ignore the idea of this language. Sorry, not language, this technology evolving so rapidly. Keep in mind that you might be locking yourself in something that might be outdated in two months. Don't get fooled by just AI labels on age old technologies. You are seeing technologies from decades old are now suddenly AI first. That does not work like. It's not work like that. And that's exactly why we created a new company in language intelligence. Because you have to have this system built from ground up, keeping in mind data security, privacy, sovereignty, all of that should be built from ground up in the company as a whole, not just a product that you want to sell to increase in revenue. And there's a lot of education that is required in this aspect. And for 2026, that's precisely what we are focusing on. The technology keeps evolving. We were in talks with a lot of other LLM providers for partnerships and everything and how we are able to work with different cultures and different communities across the world, not just preserving language, but preserving the style of communication that's at the core of it. But for now, we just want people to understand why this is important.
[00:24:04] Speaker A: If I'm interested in learning more, I know that memoq days are gonna come in 2026.
Where can your stakeholders and potential future stakeholders be able to meet with MEMOQ language intelligence teams?
[00:24:18] Speaker B: Yes, very good. November 5th we will be at Seattle, so if you're around in the west coast, you're welcome to join us. We are also going to be in Stuttgart, Germany in November and we're also planning a memoq day in Japan and the Nordics later this year.
[00:24:34] Speaker A: Fantastic. Anything to add before we go? Any final messages, anything else?
[00:24:39] Speaker B: You can find me in seattle on the 5th of November.
[00:24:43] Speaker A: Fantastic. I think. I think that's it.
[00:24:45] Speaker B: Thank you very much.
