Scaling Global Content with AI with Simon Hodgkins

Simon Hodgkins is helping global brands solve one of the fastest growing business challenges of the AI era: how to create content at scale that still feels local, trusted, and accurate. As Chief Marketing Officer of Vistatec, he is leading a company that has spent nearly 30 years helping the world’s largest organizations translate, localize, and optimize content across languages, cultures, and markets.In this episode, Russ and Simon explore how the explosion of AI generated content has created both massive opportunity and new complexity for enterprises trying to grow globally. Simon explains why faster content creation alone is not enough, and how poor localization, inconsistent outputs, and weak governance can quickly damage trust, compliance, and brand reputation.They dive into how Vistatec combines AI with human expertise to help companies manage written content, video, audio, and multilingual customer experiences at enterprise scale. Simon shares how tools like AI dubbing, output verification, and workflow orchestration are helping brands expand into new markets faster while maintaining quality and control.The conversation also covers why many AI models still struggle outside major languages, the importance of in market linguistic experts, and how companies can avoid common mistakes when scaling customer facing content internationally.Along the way, Simon offers practical advice for leaders navigating global expansion, why collaboration with trusted AI integrators matters, and what the future of content transformation looks like as businesses move beyond translation into truly localized growth.Topics Covered:[00:01] Welcome and intro, Simon Hodgkins and Vistatec’s AI award win[00:33] Vistatec’s 30 year evolution from translation to global content solutions[02:01] The global content explosion in the AI era[03:15] Why AI adds both speed and new risk for brands[04:09] How translation used to be slow, expensive, and uncertain[05:08] Why trust, governance, and verification now matter more than ever[07:38] How Vistatec AI differs from traditional translation vendors[08:20] AI dubbing and multilingual voice content at scale[09:02] Verifying AI outputs for tone, style, and precision[10:12] Using AI to orchestrate humans and machines together[11:44] Moving from translation to content transformation[13:56] Protecting brand voice across dozens of languages[16:34] Managing compliance in regulated industries at scale[19:49] Why Vistatec sees AI as a growth enabler[20:33] How AI changes workflows for enterprise customers[23:27] Unlocking new markets through localization[27:20] Common mistakes companies make with AI content[30:27] Advice for leaders scaling global content strategies[32:28] Why language remains one of business’s biggest barriers