Over the past few weeks, I’ve been involved in AI workflow pilots with small-LSP clients (yeah, I’m still a fan of small LSPs!).
In more than one case, translators refused to use the AI-prepared files, or did so incompletely, or didn’t follow directions. Some dropped out after a quick look. Others said they preferred their own process. This was not just one person being difficult. It was a pattern.
It’s easy to just conclude from this that translators don’t want AI workflows to work. But I think the deeper issue is more serious, and more rational.
What many translators are resisting is not AI itself. They are resisting the possibility that, if these workflows succeed, the work will gradually disappear into the AI.
Our role shrinks. Our value gets unbundled. Our livelihood becomes less secure.
That fear makes sense.
The problem is that resistance alone is not a strategy. AI is still changing the market. The real question is where our new value will be.
One idea I keep coming back to, inspired by an excellent book I’ve been reading, Reshuffle: Who wins when AI restacks the knowledge economy by Sangeet Paul Choudary, is that value moves toward new constraints. If that’s true, then our job is to find those constraints and position ourselves there.
Of course, there’s nothing easy about finding those constraints. But at least we have to try. The payoff could be huge!
My best guess, for now, is that this means diversifying clients, going deeper and wider with specialization, repackaging our services, and mastering technology-driven workflows on our own terms.
It doesn’t sound all that profound when listed out that simply, I realize.
But it’s a start.
What do you think?
