Andrew Thomas: Localization That Drives Growth | Ep 1215

Summary

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The Digital Executive Podcast

Episode 1215: Andrew Thomas – Localization That Drives Growth

Date: March 21, 2026
Host: Coruzant Technologies
Guest: Andrew Thomas, VP of Marketing at Acclaro

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Episode Overview

In this insightful 10-minute episode, host Coruzant welcomes Andrew Thomas, Vice President of Marketing at Acclaro, to explore the evolving landscape of localization within global business. Thomas shares how localization has transformed from simple translation to a core strategic lever for growth, details how AI and automation are accelerating change, and highlights what companies must do to succeed in an increasingly global and tech-driven market.

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Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. Defining Sustainable Growth in Localization

[02:15]

• Sustainable growth is not just about translating more content, but about delivering predictable results and consistent quality.
• Trust is built by providing both the required volume and the right level of quality driven by client outcomes—not just “perfect translation.”
• The focus should be on "quality of outcome," determined by what the client needs that content to accomplish in each language or locale.

Quote:
“It's not always about having content that's perfectly translated, but rather focusing on the bigger picture of what I like to call quality of outcome, really understanding what they need that content to accomplish and then consistently delivering that content in any particular language or regionalized variation that they need in order to achieve success.”
— Andrew Thomas ([02:41])

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2. Localization as a Strategic Growth Lever, Not a Cost Center

[04:00]

• Thomas reframes localization for clients by asking:
  • The breakdown of domestic vs. international revenue
  • When they last bought a product not in their language—almost never, underscoring the essential role of localization.
• For many companies, global revenue can outweigh domestic, making localization mission-critical.
• Thomas and his team coach departmental-level clients on how to explain the value of localization to upper management—it's about revenue and market access, not just expense.

Quote:
“It becomes rapidly evident at that point that it's not just the cost of doing business, but rather it's the difference between customers deciding whether or not they want to do business with you at all.”
— Andrew Thomas ([04:41])

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3. The Role & Limits of AI in Language Services

[06:19]

• AI currently excels at scaling content translation and generation, enabling translation at unprecedented speed and volume.
• Next evolution: AI will increasingly automate more complex processes as it becomes more agentic.
• However, certain elements remain non-negotiable for human expertise:
  • Accountability: Avoiding risks of unsupervised AI output.
  • Cultural nuance: AI is limited to what it’s been trained on; it cannot keep up with rapid shifts in context or meaning.
  • Regulated industries: Life-and-death or legal stakes require perfect accuracy and specialized human knowledge.

Quote:
“If the world were to change overnight, [AI] cannot quickly adapt the way that you or I could... For example, prior to Covid, if you were to use AI to translate content... it would not understand that ‘mask’ meant something different.”
— Andrew Thomas ([07:36])

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4. The Future of Localization: From Translation to Content Intelligence

[10:01]

• Industry is moving beyond translation as a service into content intelligence and transformation:
  • Thanks to multimodal AI, agencies will transform content across formats (text, video, audio) and languages seamlessly.
  • Translation is quickly becoming a feature embedded in everyday tools, shifting the focus for agencies toward consulting and delivering measurable outcomes.
• Success will rely on AI-enabled scalability plus people-driven quality control and cultural expertise.
• Ultimately, the competitive edge will lie in delivering the “quality of outcome”—ensuring content achieves both company goals and local customer needs in every market.

Quote:
“We're no longer just taking words from one language and turning them into other languages. Now, thanks to multimodal AI, we might be transforming words into video or audio into text or any number of languages, any number of outputs.”
— Andrew Thomas ([10:22])

Quote:
“These days, content is actually doing the vast majority of communication with your customers... You really have to be focused on that quality of outcome as a company.”
— Andrew Thomas ([11:34])

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Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• Quality of Outcome Emphasis:
  “At the end of the day... quality achievement outcome for the client, no matter where that market is.” — Podcast Host ([03:26])
• The Importance of Cultural Nuance:
  “AI is not going to get that correct. So, accountability, cultural nuance.” — Andrew Thomas ([08:36])
• Content as the ‘New Salesperson’:
  “Content is actually doing the vast majority of communication with your customers... It's literally content. That’s what people are turning to first.” — Andrew Thomas ([11:34])

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Timestamps for Key Segments

• [02:15] Sustainable growth goes beyond translation—quality of outcome
• [04:00] How to reframe localization as business-enabled, not just a cost
• [06:19] Where AI creates value and where humans must stay involved
• [10:01] Future shift: Content intelligence, multimodal AI, and translation as a feature
• [11:34] The primacy of content in customer relationships

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Tone & Takeaways

The conversation is practical and strategic, focused on helping business leaders recognize localization as a growth engine rather than back-office overhead. Thomas is clear and candid about the critical, ongoing need for human expertise as AI transforms the industry, grounding his forecasts in relatable examples and real-world stakes.

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For Listeners:

This episode is valuable for executives, marketers, and localization professionals looking to future-proof their global strategies. It offers a roadmap for leveraging AI at scale while protecting brand, meaning, and customer trust across markets.

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Transcript

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[Podcast Host]

Foreign. Welcome to Coruscant Technologies, home of the Digital Executive Podcast. Do you work in emerging tech? Working on something innovative? Maybe an entrepreneur? Apply to be a guest at www.corazon.com brand welcome to the Digital Executive. Today's guest is Andrew Thomas. Andrew Thomas is Vice President of Marketing at Eclaro, where he oversees all aspects of marketing from brand strategy and positioning to storytelling and demand generation. With more than 25 years in the localization and software industries, Andrew brings deep technical expertise and a long term view of how global content, translation technology and marketing have evolved and where they're headed next. Having seen localization grow from one off manual processes into sophisticated, highly automated ecosystems, Andrew is particularly passionate about helping organizations understand and adopt modern localization strategies. His area of focus include translation technology, linguistic AI, content scalability, and the role of marketing and making complex systems accessible and valuable to real people. Well, good afternoon Andrew. Welcome to the show.

[Andrew Thomas]

Thanks for having me.

[Podcast Host]

Absolutely my friend. I appreciate it and making the time your two hour time difference today. You're in San Francisco, I'm in Kansas City. Really do appreciate it. It's such a beautiful day so I just love doing this. And Andrew, if you don't mind, I'm going to jump into your first question here. Andrew, as VP of Marketing at Eclaro, you sit at the intersection of marketing and customer success. What does sustainable growth look look like in today's global localization market?

[Andrew Thomas]

It's a really great question and it's important for everybody who's interested in this topic to think about whether you're asking that question as it relates to my company Acclaro, or whether you're asking about it related to the clients that we serve. The answer is basically the same. Sustainable growth in localization isn't just about translating more content. And as you know, we're in the middle of a massive content explosion thanks to AI, but it's actually about delivering predictable results. We gain our clients trust by consistently delivering not just the volume of content that they need, but the level of quality that they need that content to deliver. And it's not always about Having content that's perfectly translated, but rather focusing on the bigger picture of what I like to call quality of outcome, really understanding what they need that content to accomplish and then consistently delivering that content in any particular language or regionalized variation that they need in order to achieve success.

[Podcast Host]

Thank you, I really appreciate that. I love it when experts like you are helping our audience understand really what you do for your customers. But back to that sustainable growth, which he says equals delivering quality and predictable results. And it's really that at the end of the day, the quality achievement outcome for the client, no matter where that market is. And I really do appreciate you providing those insights for us. Andrew, localization has evolved far beyond translation. How do you help businesses think about localization as a strategic growth lever rather than a downstream cost center?

[Andrew Thomas]

Yeah, honestly, I start off with two questions. I ask them, number one, what's the breakdown of their revenue streams domestic versus everywhere else? And quite honestly, for most companies, if they're global at all, everywhere else is much larger even percentage wise than their domestic revenue. And then I asked them, when's the last time that they've ever purchased a product in their own personal lives that wasn't in their language. And quite honestly, that quickly clarifies for them just how important localization is. And it becomes rapidly evident at that point that it's not just the cost of doing business, but rather it's the difference between customers deciding whether or not they want to do business with you at all. And so, yeah, that's usually the shortcut to that conversation. We also spend quite a bit of time working with our clients who oftentimes are at the departmental level within those companies and are treated as a cost center, honestly coaching them and helping them explain that to their upper management to make it clear to their upper management just how valuable localization is in driving all of that revenue from rest of world that executives care about.

[Podcast Host]

Thank you, I appreciate that. And obviously a big part of this is showing that value of localization to your clients. But I liked how you start out, you ask your clients two questions, you break down that revenue stream and then ask them, kind of really makes them think is when's the last time they purchased a product that is not in their language. And I like how you phrase that because it does make you stop and think about that. So I appreciate that. And Andrew, AI and automation are reshaping language services. Where do you see AI creating the most of value today? And where is human expertise still non negotiable.

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[Andrew Thomas]

yeah, this is the big debate in our industry right now. Quite honestly, you cannot deny that AI is helping companies scale the amount of content that they're translating into various languages, or frankly generating from scratch into various languages. So scale is where I think AI is producing the most value. In the next couple of years, it's also going to transition increasingly into automating more processes as AI becomes increasingly agentic. But where you cannot sacrifice human expertise comes in number one, accountability. So I think there's going to be a lot of companies that are going to be experimenting with AI that frankly might fall into some problems if they just let the AI run rampant without any kind of human oversight. And then also cultural nuance. When you think about AI, it really is fundamentally applied statistics. It only knows whatever it was originally trained on. And yes, it can continually be updated with new information, but it's always looking backwards in the sense that it's only ever generating content from what it's been fed in the past and rearranging that content into new patterns. So if the world were to change overnight, it cannot quickly adapt the way that you or I could, because we understand that the context has fundamentally shifted. I'll give you a very quick example. Covid most recent major impact in the world that nobody could have predicted prior to Covid. If you were to search, if you were to use AI to translate content and it came across the word mask, it would assume that you were talking about a beauty product, a facial mask of some kind of. It would not understand that when Covid happened, you were actually talking about a mask to protect yourself from germs in the air. And so fundamentally, overnight, it was producing translations that were no longer relevant, and it's not to be blamed for that. It was only as good as the content that had been trained on. When those kinds of fundamental shifts happen, if you don't have a human involved that understands the cultural nuances and how the world changes overnight, at times the AI is not going to get that correct. So, accountability, cultural nuance. And then last but not least, if you're in a regulated industry such as medical, finance, legal, there's fundamentally aspects of some of the content that you have to Translate in those industries that cannot at all be imperfect. They have to be exactly correct. Because frankly, people's lives or liberty are at stake. Right. And so you need to ensure that not only the right professional, but somebody who actually understands both the language and the content reviews it to ensure that it is correct. That's not something you want to leave up to just AI and automated processes.

[Podcast Host]

Thank you. Appreciate that. Scaling is really where AI is powerful. You talked about that producing probably the most value right now, both the creativity and producing that volume of content. AI is certainly powerful, we all agree on that. But as you talked about limited on the content that is trained on and has access to current or past. Again, you highlighted a few things I think is important in this is that accountability, cultural nuance and that industry specific information and making sure that is correct. So again, appreciate you unpacking all that for us and our audience. Andrew, last question of the day. As we look ahead to the future. How do you see the localization industry evolving over the next five, 10 years? And what capabilities will companies need to compete globally with confidence?

[Andrew Thomas]

Yeah, it's a great question.

[Podcast Host]

It's.

[Andrew Thomas]

Our industry is definitely being disrupted by AI right now, just like a lot of industries out there. I think over the next several years, companies like ours will be moving rapidly away from simple translation and focusing more and more on what I would call content intelligence and transformation. Right. We're no longer just taking words from one language and turning them into other languages. Now, thanks to multimodal AI, we might be transforming words into video or audio into text or any number of languages, any number of outputs. Right? So this kind of multimodal approach is dramatically impacting how we approach managing translation projects and also managing kind of the volume of work that our clients need us to support. So that's one fundamental shift. Another shift is that because translation is becoming essentially a feature that's being embedded in lots of the common tools that we use today. Thanks again to AI. It's less about that and it's more about consulting these companies and like I said, partnering with them on quality of outcome. It's less about just getting content from one language to another and much more about ensuring that content is actually delivering both what the customers that the recipients want and what the company needs for that content to perform. These days, content is actually doing the vast majority of communication with your customers. It's not salespeople, it's not, you know, people in your support departments. It's literally content. That's what people are turning to first. And so you really have to be focused on that quality of outcome as a company. And so I think our industry is going to be making that shift fundamentally, largely off of the back of being able to scale on top of AI, as long as we have the right people in the mix to ensure that the quality and the accuracy is there for that outcome.

[Podcast Host]

Thank you. Really appreciate that. 100%. Agree with you. I think every industry, I know every industry is being disrupted by AI right now. But your prediction, if you kind of look at as you talked about right now, we're probably going to start to move away in the near future from the simple translations you talked about to content intelligence, which I thought was interesting. And then translation obviously is now becoming a feature and it's embedded in everything we do and use today, thanks to AI. But at the end of the day, and the message I took away is quality of outcome for both seller and the consumer. And I think that's important, that messaging is right. So I appreciate that. And Andrew, it was such a pleasure having you on today and I look forward to speaking with you real soon.

[Andrew Thomas]

Thank you. Likewise, enjoyed myself.

[Podcast Host]

Bye for now.

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