A technology-oriented mapping of the language and translation industry: Analysing stakeholder values and their potential implication for translation pedagogy

TL;DR

This paper explores how automation influences values in the language and translation industry, highlighting the evolving roles of human expertise and adaptability within technologically driven workflows.

Contribution

It provides a detailed analysis of stakeholder values in automated translation, emphasizing the importance of adaptability and the reconfiguration of human and technological roles.

Findings

Efficiency is a baseline expectation in automated translation workflows.

Human value persists through expertise, oversight, and contextual judgment.

Adaptability is a central mediating value linking human and technological aspects.

Abstract

This paper examines how value is constructed and negotiated in today's increasingly automated language and translation industry. Drawing on interview data from twenty-nine industry stakeholders collected within the LT-LiDER project, the study analyses how human value, technological value, efficiency, and adaptability are articulated across different professional roles. Using Chesterman's framework of translation ethics and associated values as an analytical lens, the paper shows that efficiency-oriented technological values aligned with the ethics of service have become baseline expectations in automated production environments, where speed, scalability, and deliverability dominate evaluation criteria. At the same time, human value is not displaced but repositioned, emerging primarily through expertise, oversight, accountability, and contextual judgment embedded within technology-mediated workflows. A central finding is the prominence of adaptability as a mediating value linking human and technological domains. Adaptability is constructed as a core professional requirement, reflecting expectations that translators continuously adjust their skills, roles, and identities in response to evolving tools and organisational demands. The paper argues that automation reshapes rather than replaces translation value, creating an interdependent configuration in which technological efficiency enables human communicative work.