Technology-driven changes in the UK legal translation market: a practice-based study of NMT and its impact on freelance translators’ workflow

Recent advances in Neural Machine Translation (NMT) have reshaped the language services industry, with the number of language service providers offering machine translation services nearly doubling between 2018 and 2026 (EUATC, 2026. ELIS 2026 results & report. https://euatc.org/eu-relations/elis-2026-report/). Human post-editing has become standard practice, raising questions about how NMT is influencing translators’ workloads and workflows. While its application in high-stakes domains, such as medical and legal translation, has grown, concerns remain regarding accuracy and ethics, where human oversight is essential. This paper focuses on the experiences of legal translators in the UK through a small-scale survey. It explores three dimensions: (a) translators’ use of NMT in their professional practice, (b) participation in available training opportunities, and (c) shifting client expectations regarding accuracy and remuneration in specialized domains. Results show that NMT adoption has been more common among the less experienced, post-2010 cohort of legal translators. However, uptake of official training opportunities was low among participants. Several respondents reported concerns about workflow changes, rising quality expectations, and pressure to meet unrealistic client demands.