Kamil Stawirej has spent 20 years in the language services industry, starting as a project manager for a Polish startup and working his way to Head of Language Production, Enterprise at Lionbridge. Here, he shares what led him to the industry, the changes he’s seen in his career, and why there’s never been a more exciting time to enter the translation business.

Why do you enjoy reading MultiLingual magazine?

I must say that I am quite impressed with MultiLingual. Its layout is simple and convenient for the reader, its coverage broad and diverse, its resources abundant. The magazine offers a great deal of useful and enjoyable content. I find the News section particularly handy, as it’s full of the latest industry information divided into several categories, including business, mergers and acquisitions (M&A), artificial intelligence (AI), games, and even geopolitics. Without doubt, it is a comprehensive source of information about all aspects of the localization industry and market.

What also caught my attention are the podcasts and the book reviews. The podcasts are a convenient way to recap the latest when your business or work schedule is tight with events and tasks. The reviews, on the other hand, let you find something for a quieter and more relaxed time — something to learn and draw inspiration from. I love it.

How did you get involved in the translation business?

It was a deliberate and carefully considered decision. I had grown interested in languages — most notably English as the lingua franca of the modern world — in secondary school. Coincidentally, it was around this time that Poland was undergoing an economic and social transformation and opening up to the outside world. That created enormous potential and possibilities for translators and interpreters. Back then, English literacy in my country wasn’t as high as it is today, which is where I saw my window of opportunity. So, when the time came to decide about the future, I didn’t hesitate; I enrolled in English studies at Adam Mickiewicz University with a goal of becoming a professional translator and interpreter. Hungry for more, I later additionally enrolled in post-graduate studies in translation and interpreting.

Having received my diplomas in 2002, I enthusiastically went straight on to look for a translator job in the fledgling localization industry. Those weren’t easy times for job seekers, but I was lucky. An entrepreneur answered my newspaper job ad. (Yes, that’s how you posted your open-to-work status before social networks.) Surprise, surprise! He had been assembling a crew for his new start-up: a translation agency. Yay, I got a job! I got a job as a… project manager (yay?). It may not have been exactly what I had in mind when I was studying to become a translator, but I soon found the work to be exhilarating and rewarding. The rest is history.

Since you entered the translation industry, how has the business landscape changed?

Everything has changed: the global economy, politics, technology, human behavior, and, most notably, the way people communicate and do commerce with one another. In the early 2000s, Central European countries like Poland, the Czech Republic, Slovakia, and Lithuania were yet to join the European Union. The common market as we know it today was all but a distant dream to us. The world economy had just been recovering from the dot-com bubble and the ensuing crash. As for technology, we made do with email, word processors, landline phones, fax machines, and, of course, paper dictionaries. Computer-assisted translation (CAT) tools, translation memories (TMs), online glossaries, machine translation (MT)? Nothing of the sort. Some translators had been using typewriters. 

Yet, we were able to see the momentous change coming. With internet coverage and transfer speeds going up, everyone and everything was about to go full speed ahead with digital transformation. As technological barriers began to crumble, people began to communicate and interact in ways we hadn’t seen before: not only via email or mobile text messages, but also through websites and social media. That opened the floodgates of content and the associated business opportunities, which resulted in the rapid modernization and growth of our industry.

Could you share your experience working with your first client or on your first project?

My very first project was to help set up a translation agency. In other words, I needed to build myself a job and a workplace. It took about three months, but we opened for business in early 2003. For a complete novice like me, it was as challenging as it was exciting and fulfilling. 

As it usually is with start-ups, I had to learn to quickly become someone I had never been before and then wear a few hats depending on the situation. My middle name was “Multitasking,” but I wasn’t working alone. I had to learn to collaborate with other people in a fast-paced and demanding environment, too. As you can imagine, it wasn’t always smooth sailing, but we had lots of fun, despite the occasional fail. It was an outstanding learning experience — one that defined me and my future by giving me a taste of what the localization business is like.

Do you believe it’s a good time to enter the translation business?

While the industry has certainly evolved since I got my start, there’s never been a more exciting time to enter the translation business. The pace of transformation is accelerating, and newcomers who embrace technologies like generative AI, MT, and TMs will be poised to drive our industry forward and achieve the most success. The language industry has always needed humans to drive innovation and supervise outcomes, and today’s landscape is no different. Our customers rely on people for their understanding of localization and its intricacies. From translators and interpreters to project managers, language specialists, and engineers, we will always need people to provide linguistic and subject-matter expertise, develop and manage technologies, guide processes, and support customers. 

Where do you see yourself professionally in the next 10 years?

Hopefully, still building bridges with the help of human-friendly technology and open-minded colleagues managing its aspects and making it work for other people. I imagine my role as one that guides teams and helps them understand what their mission is and how to fulfill it on time and to specification with the latest tech. Crucially, we can expect AI to become a mainstay technology (not just in localization, but across all industries), so I definitely see myself working with AI tools and technologies in 10 years’ time. 

What predictions do you have for the future of the translation industry?

The future is now. I know, it’s a rather tired slogan, but it’s quite accurate, isn’t it? With the advances in and proliferation of AI, our industry is undergoing one of the biggest disruptions in its history. We need to keep harnessing and mastering the latest technologies and always keep abreast of the developments. Naturally, we first need to learn how to use the current large language models (LLMs) to enhance our mainstay services such as translation and editing. Then, we should learn how to blend many AI techniques and technologies for best effects, to be able to provide our customers with all-inclusive content services.

Importantly, I see a crucial role for us humans. Technology is nothing without humans and human supervision. We need to make sure that whatever content we create with the help of AI is of desired quality, delivered on time, and suitable for its intended function. Only then will it truly serve its purpose.