There’s a quiet assumption embedded in how most companies operate: English is almost always seen as the starting point. I see it play out almost daily in conversations with leadership teams. It shows up in how product specs are written, how campaigns are planned, and how expansion is sequenced.
On the surface, this feels efficient. In practice, it constrains growth in ways that are easy to miss until it’s too late.
Running Smartling, I spend a lot of time with companies that are either trying to expand globally or wondering why their existing efforts aren’t working as expected. The pattern is consistent. I rarely see translation itself as the limiting factor. What slows companies down is the assumption that everything should originate in English and be adapted later, rather than built to work across markets from the outset.
Your customer prefers their native language
The reality is that 76% of consumers prefer products with information in their native language, and 40% won’t buy in a language other than their own. Read that again; it means nearly half of your potential customers will walk away from a product that’s translated late, badly, or not at all. Yet most organizations still treat language as a formatting step. You build something, then you translate it. But language shapes the thing itself: how a product is described, how value is framed, and what even gets built. When English is the default, you’re choosing a worldview without realizing you’ve made a choice.
I’ve sat in countless planning sessions where teams describe their “global” customer, but everything about that customer (from their pain points to how they evaluate products to their marketing persona) maps back to an English-speaking context. That’s not a neutral starting point. It’s a constraint that quietly filters out entire segments of demand.
This shows up most clearly in how companies prioritize markets. I’ve seen leadership teams delay entering high-growth regions, not because the opportunity wasn’t there, but because translating their existing materials felt like overhead. But when teams know their product, content, and messaging will live across multiple languages, they approach the work differently from day one. They’re more precise about what they’re actually trying to say. And they’re quicker to identify ideas that don’t travel well across markets. In my experience, this discipline often leads to better outcomes in all languages, including in English.
AI can’t translate everything
Thanks to AI, translation is becoming faster and more accessible, which is a real step forward. But it’s also led to a new misconception that language is now “solved.” From what I see working with companies every day, the opposite is true. AI can translate words at scale. It can’t decide what should be said, how value should be framed in a specific market, or when an idea needs to be rethought entirely. Decisions like these still require judgment. And increasingly, that judgment is what separates companies that expand successfully from those that struggle.
How to design for multiple languages
For leaders, this isn’t about whether you invest in translation at all. It’s about whether your decisions assume a single market or multiple from the outset. That distinction shows up in several ways:
First, assume from the outset that your product and messaging will exist in multiple languages, and build systems that reflect that reality. This reduces rework and forces clarity earlier in the process.
Second, localize the idea, not just the words. If something doesn’t resonate in another market, it’s rarely because the translation is off. More often, the underlying premise needs to be adapted. The companies that grow effectively give teams permission to rethink, not just translate.
Third, move language upstream. The earlier language considerations are integrated into product and marketing workflows, the fewer bottlenecks you create later. Treat language as a core input, not a final step.
Finally, be explicit about who you’re designing for. If the customer you picture in decision-making only exists in one language, you’re likely leaving growth on the table. Expanding globally isn’t just about reaching more people; it’s about understanding them on their own terms.
The companies that get this right rarely talk about translation as a standalone function. They talk about markets, customers, and growth. Language is simply embedded in how they operate. The assumption that English should come first has persisted because it’s invisible. It feels neutral and efficient. But in my experience, it’s one of the most limiting defaults a company can carry into its growth strategy and one of the easiest to overlook.