#169 United Language Group CEO Nic McMahon on Language Access and Outcomes

SlatorPod

Nic McMahon, CEO of United Language Group (ULG), joins SlatorPod to talk about the language service provider’s (LSP) mission in connecting language and culture to create meaningful outcomes.
Nic recounts his journey in the language industry, from junior project manager at SDL to ascending to the role of CEO of ULG. He highlights ULG’s goal to go beyond translation services and prioritizing outcomes, cultural connectivity, and bridging gaps for better accessibility and engagement.
The CEO explains that one specific area driving demand for ULG is the welfare cycle of non-English speaking communities, where the LSP aims to ensure access, equality, transparency, safety, and privacy in their language services.
When working with municipalities and private sector healthcare providers in the US, Nic emphasizes the importance of understanding cultural influences within the target audience's network. Nic shares that HIPAA is a significant factor in the healthcare industry, particularly in relation to translation services, and is intertwined with transparency and patient safety.
Nic discusses how ULG uses workflow automation, translation memory, and call management technology to help remove manual processes and improves the efficiency of translation and interpreting cycles. AI and machine translation have seen rapid adoption in recent years, with AI-driven neural machine translation (NMT) being used in 60% of projects at ULG.
The pod rounds off with ULG’s outlook, where they are particularly interested in leveraging AI, such as optical character recognition, language recognition, and NMT to enhance outcomes and engagement.

Chapters

1. Intro and Agenda (00:00:00)

2. Professional Background (00:01:25)

3. United Language Group's Elevator Pitch (00:03:07)

4. Why is Healthcare a Priority? (00:05:19)

5. Public vs. Private Sector RFPs (00:09:59)

6. Focusing on Engagement (00:13:05)

7. HIPAA Compliance in the Language Industry (00:16:15)

8. Grant Work (00:20:12)

9. Technology Stack (00:23:02)

10. AI Adoption (00:26:12)

11. Translation Pricing (00:31:30)

12. Funding Environment (00:34:48)

13. ULG's Outlook (00:37:49)