As trade routes shift, demand for translation services will surge: RWS CEO

RWS CEO Benjamin Faes said translation demand will rise as firms expand into non-English markets, with India growing 20 per cent annually and local headcount likely to rise to 2,000

Demand for language service providers is set to rise as global trade tensions push companies to pursue growth in non-English markets, sharply increasing the need for translation services, RWS chief executive officer (CEO) Benjamin Faes said.

 

India is one of the company’s fastest-growing markets, expanding 20 per cent annually. It could see RWS’s local workforce surge from about 1,400 to nearly 2,000 over the next 18 months, he added.

 

In India, RWS has a presence in Mumbai, Bengaluru and Indore.

 

“With rising trade tensions and like what we see in China, many countries are diversifying their trade routes. That means companies need translation in far more languages than just English,” he told Business Standard.

 

He said that with India’s share of services export, there was a need for better cultural relevance across different markets.

 

“So I see massive potential for the growth of our services in India,” he added.

 

The company said Indic languages grew 16 per cent from FY24 to FY25, driven by more diverse language demands from about 20 to a list of 30 target languages.

 

Most sought after languages are Hindi, followed by Bengali, Punjabi and Tamil.

 

Hinglish, a hybrid of Hindi and English, is also recording the most aggressive growth.

 

Other non-English languages include French, German, Spanish, simplified Chinese, and Japanese.

 

The UK-based company offers services to industries such as pharmaceuticals, legal, corporate content, financial services and patents, among others. 

 

It is known for its language service provider solutions enabling companies localise their content, software, videos, and other user-interfaced digital formats of a business.

 

Despite the growing adoption of artificial intelligence (AI) and tools for use cases such as translation, Faes said precision, enterprise security, and a human-in-the-loop mattered for large clients. This, along with the know-how of niche sectors like pharma and legal, is critical to content delivery.

 

“Say, you are a fashion retailer launching 200 products per day, and you launch them in 40 different languages. That means, about 8,000 pages that need to be translated, tested, and reviewed,” he said.

 

In India, the firm has a language office enabling translation into Indic languages.

 

Faes said the demand was for about 13 of India’s 22 official languages currently.

 

The company is partnering with entities building foundational models to help refine and correct cultural biases, through a dedicated division called Train AI. The division was launched around three years ago.

 

“What this division is doing is working closely with a foundational model builder to fine-tune and adjust the cultural bias of those models around the world. So, we do teaming, and see how models respond to particular critical questions in certain countries,” he added.

 

The company is partnering with Google’s Gemini, Meta’s Llama, Cohere and Microsoft, among others.