Episode OverviewJoshua Gould is Group CEO of thebigword, one of the world’s largest language service providers, handling around 50,000 assignments a day across translation, interpreting and localisation. He took the company through a majority private equity sale, stayed on to run it, and has spent the last few years rebuilding the business around AI orchestration, automated workflows and the WordSynk platform.

In this conversation, Josh walks through the journey from a £44-a-week room and a sales job at Coors Brewers to running a tech-enabled language group across more than 80 countries. He’s refreshingly blunt on what AI actually does inside a real operation, why “AI strategy” is the wrong starting question, and how the unsexy work of fixing broken processes is what compounds.

If you’re a leader being told to “have an AI strategy in 90 days”, this one is for you.

Key Learnings

• Why AI is “like taking speed” and what that means for broken processes
• How thebigword drove operations from 20% of revenue down to 9% (and why that doubles profit)
• The questionnaire Josh would send to every department head on day one of an AI mandate
• Why companies that called themselves “internet businesses” all failed, and what that tells us about today’s “AI businesses”
• The difference between data-informed and data-driven decisions
• Managed risk over blind gambling: how to size AI bets when token costs are unpredictable
• Why a zip manufacturer is suddenly more attractive to buyers than a flashy tech business

Resources mentioned:

• thebigword: https://www.thebigword.com
• WordSynk platform
• Joshua Gould on LinkedIn