Multilingual Communication Now: The 4th session of the Łódź-ZHAW Duo Colloquium
Now that machine translation has become the norm, the roles played by human linguists are shifting – towards multilingual communication management but also towards intercultural, linguistic and technological consulting. Scholars and industry professionals from across Europe gathered in Winterthur to discuss the radical changes in the language industry that are taking place in the wake of DeepL, ChatGPT and other generative AI systems.
This 4th session of the DUO Colloquium created a vital forum for exchange between the language industry, governmental institutions, and academia, in an era of unprecedented transformation – with participants from industry and government including representatives of in-house language services at Digitec Galaxus, SBB, Allianz, Sanitas, Vaudoise, Migros, Swiss Post and Roche, the heads of the Directorate General for Translation at both the European Parliament and the European Commission, as well as the Head of the Centre of Expertise for Language Technologies at the Swiss Federal Chancellery.
Key takeaways from the conference:
- Human responsibility remains crucial
In their keynote speeches, leading Translation Studies scholars Łucja Biel (University of Warsaw) and Maarit Koponen (University of Eastern Finland) emphasized that while technology is now an integral part of multilingual communication processes, ultimate responsibility for content and decision-making must remain with humans. - The rise of language skills +
Both corporate language services and independent language service providers are seeking graduates with a hybrid skill set. Today’s linguists are expected to combine strong multilingual, writing and editorial skills with technological competence and the ability to advise on areas such as accessibility, intercultural communication, and data management and protection.
- Professional linguists are more important than ever
In an world where language tools are widely accessible, professionally trained linguists are more crucial than ever for companies and institutions who wish to communicate both professionally and creatively.
The 4th session of the Łódź-ZHAW Duo Colloquium on “Multilingual Communication Now – Processes, Roles, Responsibilities” was hosted by the Institute of Multilingual Communication at Zurich University of Applied Sciences, School of Applied Linguistics, 27 to 28 March 2026.
Contact: Chantal Wright