Professional translation services are growing in demand, in response to the wider availability of automated translation technologies, according to a new research report.
The global market study of outsourced translation and interpreting services by Common Sense Advisory explains that automated translations have done nothing to slow demand for professional translation services.
Instead, the wider awareness of language services seems to have spurred many people to turn to human translation agencies, rather than rely on word-for-word machine-based technologies that may not account for variations in grammar between languages.
Nataly Kelly, chief research officer at Common Sense Advisory, says: “The widespread availability of online machine translation has not decreased the demand for high-quality human translation.
“If anything, translation technologies appear to be acting as a catalyst to generate more demand.”
This has allowed translation agencies to enjoy an annual growth rate of 12.17% in recent years, based on seven years of data from 154 different countries around the world.
“Projected growth rates for 2012 are even stronger [than 2011],” Ms Kelly adds, with services like telephone interpreting and internationalisation among the fastest-growing areas of the market.