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She Spent 27 Years Perfecting Translation-Now She Says It's Dying | Olga Beregovaya, VP AI@Smartling

8 Apr 2026 · 1 min

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1:26

In this segment, Olga Beregovaya, VP of AI at Smartling, critiques the traditional enterprise localization model where all content is first created in English and then translated into multiple target languages. She argues that this paradigm is unsustainable for large enterprises operating in many countries. Leveraging her linguistics background, she proposes bypassing the English source step by directly generating content in target languages using inputs such as SKU tables and brand guidelines, which can produce more native, culturally resonant material. However, she warns that generative AI models must be trusted to avoid hallucinations, illustrating the risk with a mushroom‑poisoning meme. Beregovaya also introduces the concept of "linguistic colonization," emphasizing the importance of preserving mother‑tongue communication for individuals whose parents spoke languages like Russian or Mandarin. The talk balances optimism for AI‑driven native content creation with caution about model reliability and cultural sensitivity.

Chapters

Let's take a large enterprise with presence in 20 countries. All the plethora of content is developed in English. The traditional approach is you take all the assets from the headquarters and then you translate them into remaining 19 geo languages, just taking source and mapping it to target. Imagine a byte text. Source, target, source, target, source, target. That's the paradigm is not gonna live for long. I have 2 degrees in linguistics and I've never translated anything as a translator. You don't wait for the source to be created. You can just take the inputs like SKU tables, any kind of brand book guidelines, and you can actually jump straight to creation. So you're jumping the step of let's create something, you know, in English first. It might be more native to the target language or to the language of generation than that translation process. Translation process is still much more predictable. When you generate, you really need to trust the model to not dream things up. My favorite meme is a person asking a large language model, "Is this mushroom poisonous?" The model confidently says, "No." And then fast forward, there is a tombstone on this person's grave and the model goes, "Sorry, this mushroom was poisonous." There is a term of linguistic colonization. It speaks to me and translates into my, say, language that my parents spoke to me in Russian. Your parents spoke to you Mandarin. So we still want to hear our mother tongue.