AI and Language Automation: Opportunity or Calamity for Localization Services Providers?

Localization (also referred to as "l10n") is the process of adapting a product or content to a specific geographic locale or market with the aim of giving it the look and feel of having been created specifically for a target market, no matter their language, culture, or location. Language translation and cultural adaptation are obviously a big part of localization, and globally visible companies heavily rely on sophisticated technology and localization engineering to get the job done. Localization is a complex process--some of it is automated by tools, but much of it is still a human-driven, manual undertaking. So it's no wonder that recent AI advances in Machine Translation (MT), as well as the allure of automated one-click translation platforms have caused a stir in the translation and localization industry and some fear that this development might spell doom for language professionals and perhaps even be the end of language service providers (LSPs) altogether. So, is complete push-button localization imminent or hyped?