AI Isn't Enough: How Skyscanner Scales Marketing Localization Across 40 Languages

Stop Fixing Translations. Start Fixing the Program. Valeria Nanni Interviews Nicola Calabrese

This episode is a little different. Instead of Nicola asking the questions, Valeria Nanni, Senior Localization Manager at Skyscanner, turned the microphone around and interviewed him about his new book, Localization in the Age of AI. They covered a lot of ground. Why most AI localization pilots never reach production. The four-pillar framework for building a program that actually scales: strategy, people, technology, and processes, in that order. Why AI amplifies the problems in a weak program just as much as it amplifies the strengths of a good one. What the translator's role looks like today, and why the language specialist who steers AI output is more valuable than the one who just fixes it. And why the "when do we reduce the budget?" conversation with leadership is usually the wrong conversation to be having. Valeria brings her own experience managing localization across 40+ languages at Skyscanner, so this is not a one-sided interview. It is two people who have been in the weeds talking honestly about what works and what does not. If you are trying to figure out how to make AI work in your localization program without burning time on pilots that go nowhere, this episode is for you. Find the book on Amazon: search "Localization in the Age of AI" by Nicola Calabrese. Follow Nicola on LinkedIn for more on localization strategy and AI. Learn more about Undertow at undertowlanguages.com.

Stop Treating International Expansion as a Quarterly Goal — with Ferdinand Goetzen

🎙️ Most SaaS companies expand the same way: pick Germany or France, translate the homepage, hire a half-bilingual rep, and treat the whole thing as a quarterly goal. Six months later, the spend is shut down, and the verdict is "the market didn't work." The market was fine. The approach was not. In this episode, Nicola Calabrese sits down with Ferdinand Goetzen, Co-founder of The Growth Syndicate and a marketing leader who has helped expand companies like Recruitee and 3D Hubs into Germany, France, and beyond. What you'll learn: 🌍 How to read the signals already in your CRM before picking a market 🤝 Why competitors are usually a green light, not a red flag 🎯 The trust gap by industry, and when "looking local" really matters 📈 The validate, build, invest model that beats every quarterly target ⚠️ The line where "lean" becomes "underfunded." If you are a SaaS founder or marketing leader weighing your next international move, this one is for you. 🎧 Follow The Multilingual Content Podcast so you don't miss the next episode.

AI Isn't Enough: How Skyscanner Scales Marketing Localization Across 40 Languages

How do you scale localization with AI without losing the human touch that makes marketing actually work? In this episode, Nicola Calabrese sits down with Antonella Alterio, Senior Localization Manager at Skyscanner, to unpack how a 40-language travel platform balances speed, quality, and cultural nuance across markets. Antonella shares how Skyscanner uses AI for high-volume SEO content, why marketing campaigns still need humans in the driver's seat, and the "cappuccino in the evening" moment that explains why cultural context can't be automated. What you'll learn: ✈️ How Skyscanner decides which markets get marketing investment 🤖 Where AI earns its place in the localization workflow (and where it doesn't) 🌍 The risk of "AI slop" and cultural flattening in creative content 🛠️ How to build an AI localization engine that actually sounds like your brand 🔍 What AI search means for SEO across 40 languages 💡 One thing every marketing manager can do this quarter, even without a localization team Whether you run localization in-house or work with external partners, this episode is full of practical insights on making AI and humans work together intentionally. 🔗 Connect with Antonella on LinkedIn and follow Skyscanner Experience on Medium for more.

How SoSafe Went from Manual Localization to a Scalable Program with Maria Caravaca Gomez

How do you go from manual, ad-hoc localization to a program that actually scales? 🤔 Maria Caravaca Gomez, Localization Lead at SoSafe, shares how she built the company's localization program from scratch. And yes, we got to see this transformation up close 💪 In this episode, we cover: 🔧 Why every request used to start from zero and what changed 🛠️ How to choose flexible tools that grow with your tech stack 📋 Why glossaries and style guides need to come before AI or machine translation 🎯 How to allocate resources across market tiers and content types 📊 Measuring ROI, from efficiency wins to pipeline impact 🤝 Navigating the change management side of localization transformation Maria also shares the one assumption she had that turned out to be completely wrong, and her advice for SaaS teams overwhelmed by the complexity of going global 🌍

Your Localization Setup Won't Scale. Here's How to Fix It, with Nicola Calabrese

In Part 2 of his solocast series, Undertow Founder Nicola Calabrese gets practical about building a localization program that actually works as you grow. If you're still copy-pasting translations into your CMS or relying on scattered Google Docs, this one's for you. Nicola breaks down the four pillars every scalable localization program needs: 🎯 Strategy: aligning localization with your business goals, prioritizing markets, and making smart budget decisions 👥 People: why AI doesn't replace the humans who make localization work, and the roles you need on your team ⚙️ Technology: the tech stack that saves your marketing team from hours of manual work, from translation management systems to automation and task management 📋 Processes: how documented workflows keep things running smoothly and make onboarding new languages (or new team members) way easier He also walks through how to build a business case for investing in localization, including how to calculate the real cost of having your sales reps spend their time translating instead of selling. Spoiler: there's a lot of money left on the table. One of the most useful parts of this episode is the minimum viable experience framework. When you enter a new market, you can't localize everything on day one. Nicola explains how to map the customer journey and pick the assets that matter most, from your top-performing Google Ads to the onboarding emails your new users will actually read. You'll also hear about: 🔗 How translation management systems connect with your CMS, code repo, and help center to create a single source of truth 🤖 Where AI really adds value in localization workflows (hint: it's not just translation) 🧩 Emerging roles like AI workflow specialists and AI-aware linguists 📊 How to maintain quality as you scale, through content segmentation and keeping humans in the loop The bottom line? AI is a copilot, but it still needs a captain. A scalable localization system is part people, part tools, part governance, with AI amplifying the whole thing, not replacing it. Whether you're just getting started with localization or looking to level up your current setup, this episode gives you a clear framework to work with. 🎧 Missed Part 1? Go back and listen to "AI Is Changing Localization and Here's What Matters" for the full picture. This is The Multilingual Content Podcast, powered by Undertow. We create and manage localization programs for B2B SaaS companies so they can grow globally.