Hello from the land of half-finished workflows,
Many translators seem to land in one of two camps.
Camp A: “AI will replace us all.”
Camp B: “I’ve tried these tools and they’re just not helping.”
What’s missing is Camp C — where the real productivity gains are actually happening. Quietly. Slowly. But very, very intentionally.
And that’s what this message is about.
AI can deliver genuine productivity gains. But they don’t just fall into your lap. You have to dig for them.
Last week I traded notes with colleagues about workflows, bottlenecks, and the bigger picture of how AI changes the way we work. And three themes stood out.
First: productivity depends on workflow design.
AI by itself isn’t enough. One colleague shared a clever shortcut for piping AI output straight into a CAT tool. It shaved off time and smoothed the process. Another ran headfirst into the wall of XTM, where internal fuzzies still trap you in the old segment-by-segment slog.
The reality is simple. If you don’t adapt your setup, you’ll just trade one set of frustrations for another. AI is powerful, but without workflow redesign, it’s a bottleneck in disguise.
Second: productivity depends on mindset.
Let’s be blunt. Rates are falling. They’ve been falling for decades. That trend isn’t reversing.
The question isn’t whether you can protect your per-word rate. It’s whether you can balance that lower rate against faster throughput.
If AI lets you double your speed without hurting quality, then your income can climb even while rates slide. But to get there, you have to let go of the defensive stance and start thinking like an entrepreneur.
It’s not about clinging to the old pay scale. It’s about optimizing your time, your methods, and the volume you can handle.
Third: productivity depends on imagination.
One colleague sketched out a vision of a “translation factory.” Imagine an AI system doing multiple iterative passes, correcting itself, switching models for different quality layers, and finally handing you a near-polished result to finish.
Sounds futuristic? Sure. Is that even what we want? Doesn’t necessarily matter.
But imagination does matter, because it shapes the experiments we run now and prepares us to recognize the next breakthrough when it shows up.
So here’s the real lesson. AI is not productivity in a box. It’s not plug-and-play. It’s an enabler… but only if you’re willing to redesign workflows, rethink your mindset, and stretch your imagination forward.
The translators who embrace that shift today are the ones who will thrive tomorrow.
As for me, I’m still in the trenches with you. Still experimenting. Still tinkering. Still learning from colleagues who share, push back, and challenge me to think differently.
And that’s exactly what keeps this work exciting.
Until next time, keep bending the tools to your will,
Steven
PS. If you’re ready to try this out for yourself, don’t just nod along. Head over to CotranslatorAI.com and sign up for the CotranslatorAI Advanced 30-day free trial. It’s where you can test new workflows, measure your own throughput, and start building your version of that “translation factory.”