Viestarts Vidiņš has taken over the post of CEO at Latvia-based language services provider Ad Verbum as of May 2023. The change became effective after Vidiņš’s sister stepped down. The new CEO, his sister, and their late mother founded the company in 2002 and it remains a family business.
Vidiņš has been involved in the LSP in different capacities since Ad Verbum was established, starting out as a translator when he was still in his teens. As the company grew, so did his responsibilities, spending a few years in charge of business development. In 2016, Vidiņš took on an advisory role at Ad Verbum while managing other family business ventures, including real estate and renewable energy, returning in 2023 to take on the CEO role.
When asked about his vision for the company as he takes on the even greater responsibility of leading it into the future, the Ad Verbum CEO told Slator that “technological advancements have been so extensive that our approach is starting to switch to human-machine hybrid workflows. This includes MT post-editing, but we’re also looking into Large Language Model developments.”
Vidiņš sees a parallel between current developments in the industry and what happened two decades ago, after the dot-com bubble had burst and the company had just started operations. “CAT tools were on a meteoric rise, and they helped greatly improve the quality and speed of translations. I think that we are now in the early stages of a similar trend with NMT and LLMs. Ad Verbum flourished on the back of increased CAT tool usage in the industry, and I will work to do the same in the age of AI,” he said.
The new CEO also told Slator that, under his leadership, the LSP’s operational focus will be on efficiency gains. This includes translation workflows, processes, and management in general, centered around AI and MT.
Vidiņš also plans on staying tuned to industry changes while keeping the company’s commitment to its customers as an ISO and EN 15038:2006 certified agency.