Boostlingo and the Future of Language Access

Since its founding in 2016, Boostlingo has strived to ensure that kind of quality language access is available for everyone at the push of a button. A language services platform that connects the end user and language service provider through a sophisticated, proprietary routing system, Boostlingo is designed to quickly and easily supply individuals with interpretation they can rely on. In other words, it’s an instant line to peace of mind for some of the most important and sensitive events in a person’s life.

Given that mission, it’s no wonder language access is a driving ideal for Boostlingo CEO Bryan Forrester. He envisions a world where no one need worry about the quality of the language services impacting the quality of their life.

“Five years from now, 10 years from now, 20 years from now — we talk about this internally at Boostlingo,” he said. “It’s hard to see that far out into the horizon, but what we see is a market that continues to grow. I think what we’re going to see is the delivery methods of language services continuously innovate and change.”

Forrester likens language access to the phenomenon the world saw with photography over the last two decades. Anyone old enough for creaky joints and persistent lower back pain remembers the days of taking a disposable camera into a pharmacy for development before they could see their vacation photos. But of course, all that changed in the back half of the 2000s with the dawn of the smartphone era. With a camera in more and more pockets every single year, the number of pictures taken around the world each day exploded — simply because the process was so much easier and more convenient.

“We believe in five to 10 years, there’ll be 100 to 1,000 times more interpreting and translation jobs processed,” Forrester said. “Why? Because it’s easier. People have access to more options to do these things. And so the industry is going to continue to grow. At Boostlingo, we want to be that iPhone, right?”

Ease and convenience make all the difference for some of the most important, impactful, and socially necessary work happening around the world today. Take Catholic Charities of Louisville, a nonprofit supplying several charitable services throughout the most populous city of Kentucky. Their Language Services department connects individuals who often face linguistic barriers to employment with the training and work opportunities to supply language services throughout the city. And they fill a significant need within the broader Louisville community. Their department fills over 1,000 onsite visits every month serving individuals in 25 to 30 languages, all managed by a team of just four. And their work is poised to become even more vital as the city expects to accept record numbers of migrant and immigrant workers over the next year to year and a half.

“We know the need for language services is going to skyrocket,” said Alisa Pifine, Director of Language Services at Catholic Charities of Louisville. “We’re looking to reach out to qualified people who want to do this work. That right now is our focus: making sure we have the capacity to provide services for all the people we’re expecting.”

It’s about as pure an example as one could ask for vis-à-vis the importance of language access. And with just four people managing thousands of cases, Pifine said Boostlingo is an irreplaceable tool for enabling the efficient and timely delivery of services. Armed with the Boostlingo platform, the Language Services department at Catholic Charities of Louisville is now totally paperless. It’s simpler than ever for interpreters in the field to mark off their completed assignments.

“My gosh, we’re talking about things we were never able to do before,” Pifine said. “Dropping in on a Zoom conference call or virtual parent-teacher conference, which became popular during the pandemic — we just send the interpreter the invitation, and they can be right there and participate and help out.”

“Language access is becoming more embraced in our community, and Boostlingo is helping us to do that because of the scalability,” she added.

The beauty isn’t simply in the vital language needs fulfilled for the Louisville community through these services. It’s also in the useful work it supplies to migrants who desperately need opportunities in their new homes and lives.

“That’s so many more opportunities for them, not just for income but also to learn more about different situations and what people do in places all around the world,” Pifine said.

The ease of using the Boostlingo platform is the cherry on top. The last thing Pifine’s linguists need is a cumbersome user experience when learning the ins and outs of interpretation and language work. After all, even the most powerful language platform isn’t good for much if it takes a computer science degree to use it.

“I always tell people that if you can request an Uber, you can request an interpreter,” Pifine said.

The experience of Pifine and her team is music to Forrester’s ears. To him, it’s a beautiful example of how technology and humanity intersect to make a meaningful difference in people’s lives.

“Boostlingo has been thinking about these things for a long time because we are a technology company first, and we’re always thinking about technology innovation,” he said.

Almost 10 years removed from its 2016 founding, that question is still at the forefront of Forrester’s mind. If anything, it’s an even more pertinent and driving topic as new technologies like AI throw a curveball into the future of language access. For Forrester, it’s a time for excitement, not trepidation. Because if Boostlingo’s central goal is to expand language access, there’s never been a better time in history to do just that.