Overview
Artificial intelligence has quickly evolved from a competitive differentiator to a standard feature across the language services industry. As AI-powered translation, interpretation, and localization tools become commonplace, their presence alone is no longer a meaningful measure of a provider’s value.
The right language service provider combines AI with human expertise to improve communication and reduce operational friction. They also scale language support as the organization grows.
Table of Contents
AI Is No Longer the Differentiator
A year ago, organizations evaluating language service providers often started with a simple question: “Do you offer AI?” That question is almost useless now.
According to Nimdzi, 70.3% of providers now offer AI-generated translation, which makes AI roughly as distinctive as having a website. Other forms of AI-powered language technology, like AI interpretation, are also becoming standard.
So how can your organization choose a language services company that will help you stay ahead of the game?
Instead of looking at whether or not a provider uses AI, consider how they use it. Are they building systems that combine technology, human expertise, and operational efficiency to solve real communication challenges?
Here are seven questions that, in our experience, reveal far more about a provider’s long-term value than any AI feature list ever could.
1. Does AI Improve Your Workflow or Just Add Another Tool?
Technology should make work easier.
If accessing interpretation requires staff to leave the systems they already use, productivity suffers. That means clinicians have less time to spend with patients. Customer service agents and front office staff get tied up trying to help people who need language assistance, while queues build up and the other people waiting become impatient. In HR, onboarding and benefits enrollment drag out while someone tracks down an interpreter.
Look for a provider that can embed language access directly into existing workflows through APIs and platform integrations. For example, Language Services Associates‘ (LSA) API capabilities can connect interpretation services directly to the platforms your team is already working in.
Whether the connection is within a telehealth platform, CRM, contact center solution, or electronic health record, requesting language services should take one click inside the tool the user has open.
- Ask a provider to show you how those requests would work inside your own environment and look for the provider who can eliminate the most operational friction.
2. Do They Know When AI Is and Isn’t the Right Choice?
AI is an incredible tool.
It’s also not the right solution for every conversation.
Routine interactions like scheduling appointments, answering common questions, or providing basic multilingual support may benefit from AI interpretation.
A doctor explaining a diagnosis, though, needs an interpreter who understands both medical terminology and how culture influences the way illness is viewed and treated.
In an HR investigation, the interpreter has to understand what’s at stake for everyone in the room.
When someone’s health, money, or legal standing is on the line, you want the cultural understanding, empathy, and accuracy that a professional interpreter provides.
Evidence shows the value of keeping humans in the loop.
In a 2025 study of translated hospital discharge instructions, AI translation reviewed by a qualified human matched or beat professional human translation on quality and took less than half the time for most languages.
Without that review, quality is hard to predict: a systematic review of AI translation in clinical settings reported accuracy as low as 36% to 59% for Mandarin-to-English.
In high-stakes situations where understanding is critical, federal and state regulations often require that individuals be provided with accurate information in the language they understand best. Human interpreters and human review are often necessary to ensure that level of accuracy, and reliance on AI alone can create compliance issues.
That’s why the best providers don’t force organizations to choose between AI and human interpreters. They help you determine when each creates the greatest value.
And that’s why LSA’s AI Interpretation extends coverage for routine interactions while keeping professional interpreters available when a conversation calls for one.
3. Can They Scale as Your Organization Grows?
Your language needs today probably won’t be your language needs next year, or even tomorrow.
As organizations expand into new markets, acquire additional locations, or serve increasingly diverse populations, language access requirements become more complex. Your organization may need over the phone interpretation for a quick customer interaction, video remote interpretation for a virtual appointment, onsite interpretation for a complex meeting, or translation and localization for written content.
A modern LSP should cover each of those situations and make it easy to add more.
- Ask how quickly a provider can provide a language or a modality that isn't in your current contract, and what that costs.
4. How Secure Is Their Technology?
AI introduces new questions around privacy, cybersecurity, and compliance, so look closely at how a provider protects sensitive information. Strong providers can clearly explain their encryption practices, security controls, and approach to handling confidential data within AI-enabled environments. They should also demonstrate compliance with relevant industry standards and be prepared to support regulatory requirements such as HIPAA.
- Ask whether the provider will sign a Business Associate Agreement and what their security practices are. Ask how client content gets used in AI training, too.
Many providers train custom models on your own past translations, which makes future work faster and more accurate. Confirm that your content stays with models dedicated to your account.
5. Can They Measure Success?
Language access programs improve when someone can see how they’re performing.
A provider should report metrics like:
- which languages come up most often
- how long people wait for a connection
- which departments generate the most volume
- how AI tools are being adopted
- where demand goes unmet
Usage counts alone won’t tell you any of that.
At LSA, we provide reporting and centralized management tools to help your organization understand language demand, usage patterns, and opportunities to improve efficiency.
6. Do They Create Operational Value Beyond Language Services?
Filling interpreter requests and translation orders is the baseline. The strongest providers go further…
Instead of simply delivering services, they help organizations remove operational inefficiencies that drive unnecessary costs. This may come through faster interpreter access, fewer workflow disruptions, improved resource allocation, hybrid AI-and-human delivery models, flexible pricing structures, or standardized language access practices across multiple locations. Organizations often discover that lasting savings come from smarter processes and better outcomes, not from cutting services.
Did You Know?
LSA’s AI Language Solutions are designed to combine automation, language expertise, and human support to help organizations improve communication across languages.
7. Are You Choosing a Vendor or a Strategic Partner?
Perhaps the most important question isn’t about AI at all.
It’s about partnership.
Language vendors are a dime a dozen. A true partner, one that helps organizations build stronger communication capabilities that support long-term growth, is harder to find. They work alongside your organization to develop communication strategies, improve customer and patient experiences, support compliance initiatives, integrate new technologies, train employees, and adapt as you grow.
AI Is the Starting Point, Not the Finish Line
AI has changed how language services get delivered. It hasn’t changed what organizations need from language service providers: accurate communication, workflows that don’t add steps, and a clear answer about who’s responsible when a high-stakes conversation goes wrong.
Asking about AI alone won’t tell you whether or not a provider will deliver all of that. The seven questions listed above will.
How LSA Can Help
At LSA, we’ve spent more than 35 years answering these questions with professional interpretation, translation and localization, AI-powered language solutions, and API integrations across more than 300 languages.
Working through this list with your current provider? Contact LSA to see how our answers compare.
