According to the 2026 Language AI Report released by DeepL on the 11th, many global corporations have not achieved sufficient automated integration into core systems despite expanding AI investment.
In this survey of business leaders in the United States, the United Kingdom, France, Germany, and Japan, 35% of corporations worldwide were found to still rely on manual translation processes. Another 33% use a combination of translation management systems (TMS) and human review, and only 17% of corporations have adopted large language models (LLM) and AI agents for translation. Among respondents, 33% cited global market expansion as the main driver for language AI investment.
DeepL founder and CEO Jarek Kutylowski said, "Although AI adoption is spreading, core work processes are designed around people and are not leading to productivity gains," and "a redesign of work processes is needed."
Translation was found to affect operational efficiency across various areas, including sales and marketing (26%), customer support (23%), and legal and finance (22%). Seventy-one percent of respondents named a transition to AI-based work processes as the top priority this year.
Harry Wittum, head of digital transformation and AI at Caritas, a DeepL client, said, "To realize the value that AI promises, a reassessment of the overall operating model is necessary."