Inside DeepL & the Future of Language AI with Elena Carpanese and her Career in Localization

Today I chat with Elena Carpanese, a Localization Manager at DeepL, about her multilingual background, her career in localization and the language technology industry, and the future of language AI. Originally from Italy, Elena studied English, German, and Spanish in the UK and joined DeepL as one of its early employees, working on both translation quality evaluation and content localization.Elena's work involves leading a team of in-house linguists, managing localization across 13 languages, and consulting product teams to ensure the company's products reflect linguistic accuracy and provide an intuitive user experience across different markets. She also tells us how DeepL collaborate with a wide network of external linguists to maintain translation quality across all its languages supported (over 100).Lastly she talks about agentic AI and its potential impact on language workflows, including early experiments her team has run and how these tools can reduce repetitive tasks across industries like legal, healthcare and manufacturing.Key TakeawaysLocalization at DeepL is both linguistic and strategic: Elena and her team use language AI to localize everything from UI to marketing copy but also advise product teams on terminology, user journeys, and language-specific UX decisions.DeepL supports over 100 languages with a focus on customer needs and data quality. They release new languages based on market demand and whether high-quality data exists to train reliable modelsAgentic AI is opening new possibilities beyond translation such as auditing localized interfaces automatically, gathering terminology from large datasets, and automating repetitive tasks in industries like legal, manufacturing, and techAbout Elena CarpaneseElena is a professional localisation manager at the language AI-pioneer DeepL, having worked there for 5 years in both the Cologne and London offices.Elena on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/elena-carpanese-b70574112/DeepL's website: https://www.deepl.com/enAbout Sonia KampshoffSonia is a translator turned multilingual digital marketer specialising in paid media, and now also a podcaster. Growing up bilingual, languages have been a constant in her life.In 2025 she launched a podcast where together with her guests she explores the huge variety of jobs and career opportunities open to people with language skills. She is available to speak on podcasts and stages about marketing, languages, work and podcasting.Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/workingwithlanguagesLinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/soniakampshoff/Website: https://moreperfect.digital/If you enjoyed this episode please share it with someone who may like it too, and subscribe to the podcast.✉️ Join my free newsletter☕ Support my work, buy me a coffee