Following the Conversation at AAPOR26: Themes We’re Watching Closely

The annual conference of the American Association for Public Opinion Research (AAPOR) is being held May 13 – 15, 2026 in Los Angeles, CA. While our team will not be on-site at AAPOR26 this year, we’re still very much engaged with the public opinion research industry, ideas, and conversations being held at the event.

Conferences like AAPOR26 are important moments for the public opinion research and language industries. They join practitioners, partners, and leaders to explore what’s next. As the sessions start later this week, we wanted to share a few themes we’re following and how they align with what we see each day while working with clients in public opinion research.

1. AI: LLMs, NLP, and Generative AI

From the session agendas and speaker previews, it’s clear that LLMs, GenAI, and translation continue to be a topic of discussion. We find that organizations are implementing their own technology programs, and we can share our perspective:

• AI has been around since the 1950s and Neural Machine Translation (NMT) since the mid-2010s. NMT has been widely adopted by providers of translation services as an optional part of the translation process workflow, always with a human expert at the core.
• Generative Artificial Intelligence (GenAI) and LLMs continue to revolutionize workflows in many industries, including language services.
• We can employ AI-related tools including NMT for certain languages and types of content, as well as GenAI for tasks that are related and can add value to translation when appropriate. Currently the use of LLMs is not recommended for translation itself. As such, humans remain central to the translation process.

Our project management teams hear from clients looking to mature their automation strategies. We train our staff to use AI tools responsibly. We find that automation works best with AI as a tool in the overall toolkit, and humans continue to play a crucial role in maintaining translation quality and minimizing potential issues from AI use. 

2. Multicultural, Multilingual, and Multinational Research

We provide translation services for many prominent market and public opinion researchers. This includes translating multilingual surveys.

For social researchers and opinion pollsters, accurate translation is essential to capturing meaningful, reliable insights. That’s where expert language services come in. Our project management team has put together a few tips to consider to help ensure success when working on multilingual research projects:

• Maintain consistent terminology
• Specify languages and locales clearly
• Share audience and content expectations
• Agree on timelines early
• Plan for language-specific constraints

See our recent blog for more information on these topics. Translating surveys is about ensuring your research is accurate, comparable, and culturally appropriate across every market.

3. Qualitative Research

An important aspect of social and opinion research is understanding, describing, and interpreting how others experience or make sense of their worlds. When multiple languages are involved, interpretation is important. When holding in-depth-interviews, focus groups, or other observations, having expert interpreters is critical to the accurate analysis of meanings, behaviors, and patterns of respondents.

When choosing an interpreter, some important considerations include:

• Know the interpreter fully understands the setting and end goal of the project
• Be clear of the language, any specific dialects, and industry or topic of the research
• Understand the venue, such as a focus group or telephonic in-depth-interview
• Have any needed equipment on-hand
• Help prepare the interpreter by providing study materials in advance

See our types of interpretation blog for more information. Following these steps will help provide a smooth workday for the interpreter, and give you the most value for your research dollars.

Joining the Conversation from Afar

Even though we’re not attending AAPOR26 in person, we’ll be:

• Following updates from speakers and attendees
• Sharing insights and reactions on LinkedIn
• Posting follow-up perspectives

If you are attending AAPOR26, we’d love to hear what’s resonating most with you. Tag or reach out to us as we’re always interested in continuing the conversation beyond the conference.

Looking to explore any of these topics further?
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