Thirty-six years ago, francophile Lauri Leesi taught Estonians French on television. At the time, translators were optimistic: If you knew languages, you would always find work. But now that artificial intelligence exists, the situation has changed.

"There is definitely an oversupply [of translators], and there are certainly people who are already thinking about whether they need to change their profile, retrain, or whether there is less work available. Some have had to give up full-time in-house translator positions and now work freelance. This trend is very clear at the moment," Triin van Doorslaer, lecturer in written translation at Tallinn University, told Monday's evening news show "Aktuaalne kaamera."

It is estimated that a couple of thousand people in Estonia earn a living from translation. A 2021 study by the University of Tartu found that the average translator is a woman aged 36–50 with a higher education in philology and more than 20 years of work experience.

Nele Nikopensius, project manager at Luisa Keelelahendused, the largest language services company in Estonia, explained how the job has changed.

"If previously the translator was the creator of the text, now they are an editor of machine translation. They have to identify errors in the text, find spelling mistakes and contextual errors. In short, they must make the text logical and well-written," she said.

Although workloads have not decreased, prices have fallen. In 2019, the average rate was €12 per page of text but now there have been procurement offers of under €8.

The need for translators will not disappear entirely and those who will remain are likely to be specialists, for example, in medicine or technology.

But new ethical questions are arising as AI develops.

"Take medical translation, for example. Who is responsible if someone suffers a serious problem or even a fatal consequence from taking a medication whose leaflet has been incorrectly translated? Who checks, who is responsible — does the machine take responsibility?" van Doorslaer said.

The most attractive positions for translators are in European Union institutions, where every document must be available in all EU languages. And there is a lot of work to do. For example, more than 100,000 pages were translated into Estonian at the European Commission last year. Discussions have also taken place about whether artificial intelligence could replace humans.

"For now, the position is that a human must review these translations, especially when it comes to legal acts," said Elis Paemurd, deputy head of the European Commission Representation in Estonia.

At the European Commission, 55 people are involved in translating texts into Estonian.

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