Sep 9, 2025

Key Takeaways from SlatorCon Silicon Valley 2025 On September 4, 2025, over 200 C-Suite leaders, localization executives, technology practitioners, investors, researchers, and academics gathered in Silicon Valley at the Hotel Nia in Menlo Park for the second in-person SlatorCon of the year. The energy in the conference venue was positively charged, with delegates from all over the US and many other countries enthusiastically participating in the Q&A sections of the many interesting presentations and panels. Esther Bond , Slator Head of Advisory, welcomed attendees to the event, highlighting Slator’s tenth anniversary and our multiple language intelligence offerings, as well as our advisory and M&A services. After giving an overview of the day’s presentations and panels, she invited delegates to take advantage of the opportunity to network with the event’s diverse audience and engage with exhibitors. Slator Managing Director, Florian Faes , began the sessions by sharing key data-driven insights on the state of the industry with a presentation titled “The NEW Language Industry and the Integration of AI.” He honed in on the need to see our new, dynamic market with a fresh perspective, in light of breakthroughs in language AI that are fundamentally reshaping the industry. Florian also addressed the broad consensus that, while AI solutions are quickly evolving, many Language Solution Integrators (LSIs) and Language Technology Platforms (LTPs) have adapted well. They are now building highly differentiated and specialized businesses with real moats against competitive threats posed by AI foundation models. Bryan Murphy, CEO of Smartling , followed the introduction by addressing what he considers a crucial shift from traditional, service-based models to automated, AI-powered translation solutions. The CEO also warned that do-it-yourself (DIY) generative AI projects have a high failure rate due to hidden costs and a lack of expertise, and recommended a more effective approach using specialized, purpose-built and more reliable AI applications. The first panel presentation of the event was moderated by Florian Faes, with participation from Raj Sachde, Cloud Migration and Modernization Leader at AWS , Prerak Garg, General Manager, Cloud + AI Strategy, at Microsoft , and Sabri Hammad, Senior Solutions Architect at Google Cloud Consulting. The discussion centered around “Scaling Language AI with Foundational AI Platforms” — how startups and larger enterprises can leverage major cloud platforms like Microsoft’s Azure, Google Cloud, and AWS, to build and grow language AI solutions. A key theme was the shift from building from scratch to building on top of existing platforms like these. Pushing Ahead and Acknowledging Challenges Kelly Marchisio, Multilinguality Lead at Cohere , gave a very well-received presentation in which she explained how state-of-the-art multilingual large language models (LLMs) are built. She framed the presentation from the perspective of a machine learning engineer, and a key theme that emerged was the centrality of multilingualism in Cohere’s development process and the unique challenges associated with it. The panel discussion on “No Content Left Behind — How AI Dubbing can Democratize Global Understanding,” moderated by Slator’s Senior Research Analyst, Alex Edwards , addressed the rapid adoption, evolving use cases, and key challenges of AI dubbing. Participants Andrew Thomas, Vice President Marketing, Linguistic AI, RWS Group , Justin Beaudin, Founder & CEO, Adapt Global Studios , Guy Piekarz, CEO, Panjaya , and Matt Panousis, Co-Founder & COO, LipDub AI , agreed that the technology is moving beyond its traditional home in media and entertainment to new industries. They discussed new use cases where AI dubbing has the potential to improve language access for buyers who could not previously consider traditional dubbing because of cost and resource limitations. Scott C. Suckow, Senior Director, UCHealth Language & Cultural Services, followed the AI dubbing panel discussion with a presentation on the successes and challenges in advancing language access at UCHealth, an operation that has experienced continued growth. Suckow mentioned several strategies and methods UCHealth has implemented to improve all communication points with limited English proficiency (LEP) and deaf and hard of hearing patient populations, as well as gaps and opportunities for the future. SotA Language AI Anna Wyndham , Slator Head of Research, hosted a panel titled “Your Content Engine Is Only as Smart as the Agents Driving It,” which had Semih Altinay, VP AI Solutions at Phrase , Juan Marcano, Software Engineer – Machine Learning at Uber , and Govindarajan Varadan, Manager, Solutions Architecture at AWS , as participants. The panelists discussed how AI agents are becoming a strategic layer in enterprise content operations. In localization, these agents are increasingly coordinating technologies, workflows, and data. While it is early days for their real impact, AI agents are already making decisions and defining a progression into more complex tasks. Prajwal Renukanand, Co-founder and Chief Scientist at Sync , gave a presentation titled “Understanding Lip Sync Technology: From Translation to Expressiveness,” where he discussed the history and current state of AI lip-syncing technology, including the challenges of adding appropriately expressive, multilingual speech to pre-existing videos. Slator’s Esther Bond moderated the event’s investor panel discussion, which had as participants Pramod Gosavi, Senior Principal at Blumberg Capital , and Shesh Amathnadu, Senior Investment Director at CVC, SK Telecom Ventures. The panelists discussed the speed at which new startups and AI advances are entering the market, and the need for startups to differentiate their products as AI translation becomes increasingly commodified. Esther also delivered the closing remarks, inviting the audience to continue the conversation at SlatorCon Remote in November 2025, or in person again in 2026, at SlatorCon London (for details coming soon, check Slator’s Events page ). Stay tuned for more comprehensive follow-up coverage! Tags