Driving Global Growth with Localization – Magnus Slind-Näslund, Lokalise

1. What role is localisation playing in driving revenue growth for companies operating across multiple markets in 2025?

Localization has evolved into a critical revenue driver for global businesses in 2025, with 74% saying that it accounts for more than one-quarter of revenue growth with 11% saying it accounts for more than half

Strategic localization allows companies to break down language barriers and create deeper connections with customers. Companies that adapt content to fit every market, language, and culture are gaining a competitive advantage over those that just translate. They’re improving customer satisfaction, which directly impacts revenue.

Adaption goes beyond translating content and includes: 

1. Cultural adaptation of content: Adjusting messaging to reflect local values and communication styles
2. Market-specific UX/UI design: Customizing interfaces for regional preferences
3. Localized customer journeys: Adapting the entire customer experience including payment methods and customer support
4. Regional SEO optimization: Customizing search strategies for local search behaviors

2. Why are so many businesses still struggling with localisation maturity despite acknowledging its strategic importance?

Despite 74% of companies identifying localization as an important revenue driver, 62% struggle to do it effectively.

A lot of businesses still see localization as a back-end transactional function rather than a strategic asset of global business. So the first hurdle is getting buy-in. To get buy-in, they need data to prove localization ROI, but require investment to generate meaningful data—creating a circular problem. Without compelling data, securing adequate budget remains difficult.

Without the right tools and budget, stakeholders will struggle to optimize processes. So businesses are kind of stuck in this middle, trying to make do with the resources they have while also trying to show that localization can move the needle. 

3. What are the emerging risks for companies that continue to underinvest in scalable localisation capabilities?

• Losing customers in international markets
• Falling behind competitors who localize
• Missed revenue opportunities 
• Limited global brand recognition

4. What localisation process gaps are most common among mid-to-large enterprises, and how are they impacting operational efficiency?

They lack internal expertise and adequate tools or technology, leading to slow and manual localization processes and no clear ownership.

5. How are companies integrating AI and human oversight to optimise their localisation workflows?

The most successful organizations aren’t choosing between AI or human expertise—they’re orchestrating both in strategic harmony by redesigning their localization workflows and adopting localization tech and frameworks with AI at the core.

Here’s how companies are optimizing workflows:

• Language professionals assess the impact and risk of each content piece
• Language professionals refine AI models with context
• Teams automate multi-step localization and AI translation for risk-free content tasks, enhancing operational efficiency
• Automatic quality scoring routes translations for human review only when needed

6. What are the challenges and trade-offs involved in shifting from manual processes to automated or hybrid localisation models?

Getting localization buy-in is one of the biggest challenges. The transition to automated localization requires initial investment in technology integration, configuring workflows, and team training. This investment is quickly recovered. Modern localization platforms like Lokalise are intuitive and easy to implement, minimizing the learning curve and reducing the complexity of implementation associated with adopting new technologies.

Switching to hybrid and automated processes is a no-brainer. Manual localization models create painful and error-prone processes. The more markets companies enter, the more translation costs increase, while accelerating market entry often results in quality issues and localization-related defects. Today’s automated and hybrid models have largely eliminated these challenges.

Through automated or hybrid models that integrate with end-to-end AI solutions, you can translate faster with a reduction in cost and no reduction in quality. The organizations seeing the most impact from AI are those redesigning workflows as they deploy AI, not just layering technology onto existing processes.

End-to-end AI-powered solutions:

• Automated localization workflows take care of translation handoffs, eliminating any bottlenecks
• a Smart AI engine selection automatically delivers the best AI translation. Lokalise AI translation already delivers up to 90% accuracy rates, meaning only 10% of translations need to be post-edited by humans
• Quality scoring can be used to route translations for human review only when needed

As AI translation quality continues improving, we’re seeing consistent decreases in overall translation costs while maintaining or enhancing quality—finally eliminating the “speed, quality, cost” tradeoffs of localization.

7. To what extent are spreadsheets and ad hoc tools still being used in localisation, and what alternatives are gaining traction?

43% still rely on spreadsheets, highlighting ongoing workflow fragmentation. Other tools like a CMS, project management tools, communication tools like Slack, and code repositories are often being used as standalone tools without a centralized source of truth.

Two-thirds of companies use a translation management system (TMS) but nearly all buyers now expect AI integration from their translation management systems, with the majority specifically requiring customizable workflows rather than one-size-fits-all solutions.

8. How can marketing, product, engineering, and customer experience teams better align on localisation strategies to enhance global competitiveness?

Implement shared localization metrics tied to business outcomes rather than departmental goals. Each department should have a clear localization owner and regular localization reviews to communicate milestones achieved and localization stakeholders should all work in one place, connecting the tools they already use to make it easy to roll out localization and collaborate. The easier you make localization, the easier it is to get teams on board, so you should ways look for a localization platform that’s easy to implement, intuitive, and backed by exceptional support if teams do get stuck. 

9. What impact does effective localisation have on customer trust, inclusivity, and brand loyalty across different regions?

In Germany, research shows that effective localization drives measurable business outcomes. 63% of companies report stronger inclusivity and accessibility, while 65% have cited improved customer satisfaction both higher than global averages. These benefits are more pronounced in Germany compared to other regions, correlating with Germany’s higher localization maturity (58% with high localization maturity versus the global average of 38%). This pattern suggests that as organizations optimize their localization processes, they unlock increasingly significant impacts on customer trust, inclusivity, and brand loyalty.

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