Despite the widespread integration of Artificial Intelligence (AI) across various enterprise functions, translation workflows and multilingual operations often lag significantly in automation, according to DeepL’s recently published 2026 Language AI report, “Borderless Business: Transforming Translation in the Age of AI.” Released on March 10, the report highlights that while businesses invest broadly in AI, critical functions touching sales, legal, customer support, and global expansion remain the most underautomated components within the enterprise technology stack.

The report, which surveyed business leaders across the United States, United Kingdom, France, Germany, and Japan, reveals a substantial automation gap. A striking 35% of international businesses still manage translation processes entirely manually, with an additional 33% relying on traditional automation coupled with systematic human review. Only 17% have embraced next-generation AI tools, such as large language models or agentic AI, for their multilingual operations. This indicates that a significant 83% of enterprises have yet to transition to modern language AI capabilities, despite their investments in AI elsewhere. The findings further expose that enterprise content volume has surged by 50% since 2023, yet 68% of companies continue to operate with workflows designed for a bygone era. Jarek Kutylowski, CEO and founder of DeepL, succinctly stated, "AI is everywhere, but efficiency is not. Most companies have deployed AI in some form, yet few achieve real productivity at scale because core workflows remain designed around people, not systems."

The increasing deployment of language AI in mission-critical areas underscores its evolution into essential business infrastructure. DeepL’s research identifies global expansion as the primary catalyst for language AI investment at 33%, followed by sales and marketing at 26%, customer support at 23%, and legal and finance at 22%. These are not peripheral content tasks but core business functions driving significant strategic value. Further research from DeepL in December 2025, which surveyed 5,000 senior business leaders across the same five markets, found that 54% of global executives anticipate real-time voice translation to be essential in 2026, a notable increase from 32% currently. The UK and France are leading early adoption at 48% and 33% respectively, while Japan lags at 11%, signifying considerable regional disparities in enterprise readiness.

DeepL, now serving over 200,000 business customers across 228 markets, is actively deploying advanced AI solutions. At the AI & Big Data Expo in London in February 2026, Scott Ivell, vice president of product marketing at DeepL, noted that 2,000 global customers are utilizing AI agents for critical tasks such as report analysis, sales targeting, and legal document review, demonstrating the practical application of language AI.

A key differentiator for DeepL is its focus on the enterprise trust spectrum, particularly data sovereignty for regulated industries like financial services, healthcare, legal, and government, where it often becomes a deciding factor in platform selection. DeepL boasts ISO 27001, SOC 2 Type 2, and GDPR certifications and offers Bring Your Own Key (BYOK) encryption for enterprise clients. This feature allows organizations to revoke data access instantly, a level of control that many large language model providers do not offer, effectively placing data beyond anyone’s reach, including DeepL itself, at the customer's discretion. Sebastian Enderlein, CTO at DeepL, characterized 2026 as a year of execution rather than mere experimentation for AI, anticipating a significant scaling of AI applications post-pilots and proofs of concept.

DeepL’s product strategy in 2026 mirrors the broader shift in enterprise AI from single-function tools to autonomous workflow execution. DeepL Agent, made generally available in November 2025, is engineered to navigate diverse business systems and execute multi-step workflows seamlessly across CRM, email, calendars, and project management tools, all without requiring complex integrations. Crucially, the agent incorporates enterprise-grade security and data sovereignty by default, a deliberate choice targeting enterprises with sensitive documents that cannot be sent to public cloud endpoints like those offered by OpenAI or Microsoft. Stefan Miedzianowski, DeepL’s chief scientist, views the current period as a pivotal transition on the technology adoption curve, declaring 2026 as "the year of the agent," marking the move from innovators to the early majority in enterprise-scale adoption.

The “Borderless Business” report underscores that 71% of business leaders identify transforming workflows with AI as a priority for 2026, expecting returns in customer experience, employee productivity, and time to market. The significant gap between this ambition and the mere 17% of companies that have actually modernized their language operations represents the precise market DeepL is targeting with its secure, advanced language AI solutions. DeepL is scheduled to be a Platinum Sponsor at TechEx Global, participating in the AI & Big Data Expo and co-located events at Olympia London on February 3 and 4, 2027.