Over the past 23 years, SE10 has advised B2B industrial clients on how best to manage translations – particularly for international brands with global market presence. The approach has always been nuanced and we’ve recommended what’s best based on individual companies and goals. But with the rapid acceleration of generative AI, we are noticing some changes in how translations are appearing that we believe are here to stay.
As communications professionals, we know that language matters. SE10 is a team of trained journalists and writers and many of us speak a second or even third language. Our global B2B industrial PR agency has spent over two decades advising clients on PR strategies that land in every market around the world. Translation has always been an important topic – and the cause for many a debate!
Historically, the discussion has often boiled down to budgets. Can our clients afford the time and cost of translations and, more importantly, do they want to prioritise this task? After all, although SE10 has local language capability, a technical translator is often required due to complex phrases and terminology. For some of our clients, we have agreed a handful of key markets that we will translate each press release for. For others, the translation requirements have become so huge that the decision has been made to stop, and only release news in English.
There’s an argument to be made both for and against translating. To date, those who translate naturally earn more media coverage from local language press. However, those who push out English-only releases have still enjoyed large numbers of coverage, with some markets (for example Italy and Germany) often translating the news themselves.
In the second half of 2025 we started to see a shift in translation trends. Many of our clients pause on media announcements over the summer break so there is a clear “before” and “after” for us to base our observations on. Before the summer, translations trends remained the same. But come September/October, we noticed something. One of our clients – who typically does not translate content for the media – issued a new English-language only press release. As usual, the coverage came through thick and fast but, this time, the amount of translated articles nearly doubled. There was also coverage from markets that we have not appeared in since we stopped translating, for example, in France. And this trend has continued beyond that first release.
The only logical explanation? The rise of high-quality AI translation tools. Today’s AI-powered language models can now produce instant and acceptable quality translations. Translation is being democratised and the barriers between language and news are dissolving.
This doesn’t mean that there is a new, blanket approach to translation. Brands who invest in translated press releases are signaling, care, commitment, and cultural sensitivity to local language media. It shows editors that we are committed to building long-term, meaningful relationships with them, their publication, and their market. On the other hand, however, for brands with global footprints and tightening budgets – we are seeing more opportunity to achieve broad international reach.
At SE10, we are helping our clients navigate this new landscape. There is still a balance between the efficiency of AI and the authenticity of human connection. As the boundaries continue to blur, our mission remains the same. We are here to advise our clients on how to amplify presence across the globe in the best, most efficient ways.
If you’d like to discuss your global media strategy, click here to get in touch.
Rosie Hopkins
Account Director
About the author
Rosie is an account director at SE10 based out of the London office. She has over a decade of PR experience that spans agency and in-house communications roles across London and Singapore. She uses her experience to help clients strategise and deliver on PR campaigns across the globe.
