Kilgray’s translation industry trend report in 10 thoughts I had when reading it

Today Kilgray (creators of memoQ CAT tool) published their Trend Report 2018.

I just finished reading it and below some of my quick comments and impressions.

1. What I like the most about the report is that it is not memoQ-centric (and I thought it would be). Kilgray did a very good job to show the whole spectrum of CAT technologies and approaches.
2. 7 diverse technological/translation-related aspects discussed by many professionals from and around Kilgray crew gives a lot of perspectives.
3. I find all of the topics well researched, thought through and commented on.
4. The walls of texts here are not a bug but a feature.
5. Each section ends with a “What’s your take?” question and options to comment. As a reader I felt encouraged to interact, agree/disagree/give a thought. This is great.
6. I did not have the feeling this report was published just for the sake of publishing something. I often have it when reading “5 best ways to…”, “Top 10 trends in…” meaningless posts published on software creators’ blogs.
7. Well balanced level of technicalities.
8. When I started reading this report I thought this is only for specialists. And this is true. Experienced language professionals will gain a lot of insight and surely will not agree with some points. However, at the end I was sure it is also a great source of current trends for less experiencd translators who are just starting their careers and want to know “what is happening now in the industry”.
9. Some topics are indeed provocative and I like to disagree, such as Peter Reynolds’ “Post-editing RIP”. Based on my experiences I cannot disagree more, yet I see some interesting thoughts here that made me do some research. I do like to be provoked. On the other hand I would love some of the speculations to come true, such as Łukasz Rejter’s “…the race to add more and more features to the tools, thus increasing complexity, will stop.”
10. My general opinion – every year, since I have started teaching students in 2010, I needed to spend several hours to come up with information about the current state of the affairs in CAT tools technologies. I had to collect links and prepare an introductory speech for my classes. Now Kilgray did this for me. And I must admit they did a very good job. Kudoz to all the team, as you created a really concrete analysis.