In the age of GenAI, the fear of missing out (FOMO) drove many companies to frantically adopt GenAI. Avoiding being left behind has also accelerated shadow translation isssues. Pre-GenAI, shadow translation widely meant the use of free (N)MT tools. Generally the main issue was the exfiltration of information from the private domain into the public domain.
As I mentioned in my blog post Does shadow translation present a bigger threat to language services than MT/GenAI itself? in Spring 2026, I have started working on the issues of shadow translation as a governance issue, especially in light of the LLM/GenAI-based translation that is a prime example of deceptive fluency.
My presentation would draw on the following aspects of this issue:
- Shadow translation – a desire path for employees: ideas about how to deal with employees determined to take a shortcut, and whether to question whether it is a signal of a translation bottleneck.
- The disadvantages of evading capture in translation management: considerations about the effects of shadow translation and how to capture them.
- For internal use: a misleading label, and a potential governance risk.
- The genesis of reference translations out of shadow translation: how what starts as a shadow translation gains credibility and reference value and the potential governance risks.
- Risks of siloing and competing texts: the lost of a “single source of truth” might mean that there are multiple versions of a shadow translation “circulating in the wild”. Cases for centralised storage and document management.
- Shadow translation, a victimless crime? Message distortion and potential cognitive downstreaming risks.
- How shadow translation can cause terminology drift: missing context means coining and acceptance of new parallel terminology.
- Accountability issues: who remains accountable for shadow translation output?
- Institutional practices for getting a grip on shadow translation: ideas for categorisation/labelling of translations including clarification of permitted uses, visibility requirements and review expectations.
