Smartling, the LanguageAI™ translation company, today announced it has been named No. 3 in Business Services on Fast Company’s prestigious list of the World’s Most Innovative Companies of 2026. This year’s list shines a spotlight on businesses that are shaping industry and culture through their innovations. Alongside the World’s 50 Most Innovative Companies, Fast Company recognizes 720 honorees across 59 sectors and regions.
"We’re thrilled to be recognized by Fast Company and grateful for every customer and Smartling team member who made this possible," said Bryan Murphy, CEO of Smartling. "In 2025, leading enterprises moved past the pilot phase and started running AI translation infrastructure at scale. As a result, they were able to scale faster globally, for a fraction of the cost. We're building a platform that combines cutting-edge AI with translation you can trust, making global growth accessible to any company."
In 2025, Smartling’s AI-driven translation grew 218% year over year as enterprises moved from experimentation to production deployment. Smartling expanded its platform significantly: new AI agents now autonomously handle routing, error-checking, hallucination detection, and quality review, removing the manual bottlenecks that made translation slow and expensive. On average, customers saw costs drop by 60% and turnaround time improve by 6x compared to traditional methods.
The results are clear. A Fortune 500 software company saved $3.4 million in a single year with Smartling while maintaining near-perfect quality scores across 50 million words, while Coinbase translated crypto content into 21 languages in under two months. Launching in early Q2, LQA (Linguistic Quality Assurance) Agent will help localization teams scale AI Translation by delivering instant evaluations across more content—integrated seamlessly with existing workflows.
The World’s Most Innovative Companies is Fast Company’s hallmark franchise and one of its most anticipated editorial efforts of the year. To determine honorees, Fast Company’s editors and writers review companies driving progress around the world and across industries, evaluating thousands of submissions through a competitive application process. The result is a globe-spanning guide to innovation today, from early-stage startups to some of the most valuable companies in the world. On the 2026 list, Smartling joins the ranks of Google, Nvidia, Adidas, Walmart, and more.
“Our list of the Most Innovative Companies is about spotlighting organizations that don’t just adapt to change — they drive it,” said Brendan Vaughan, editor-in-chief of Fast Company. “The companies we honor this year are redefining what leadership looks like in 2026, pairing bold ideas with measurable impact and turning breakthrough innovation into real-world value. They are setting the pace for their industries and offering a blueprint for what sustained innovation can achieve.”
The full list of Fast Company’s Most Innovative Companies honorees can now be found at www.fastcompany.com. It will also be available on newsstands beginning March 31, 2026.
About Smartling
Smartling’s LanguageAI™ platform is revolutionizing digital content translation and localization. Recognized as the top translation management system by CSA Research and G2 users, Smartling uses AI and machine learning to eliminate manual tasks, integrate with existing techstacks, and deliver translation quality at scale — all at a fraction of the cost and turnaround time of traditional translation. For more information, visit www.smartling.com.
About Fast Company
Fast Company is the only media brand fully dedicated to the vital intersection of business, innovation, and design, engaging the most influential leaders, companies, and thinkers on the future of business. Headquartered in New York City, Fast Company is published by Mansueto Ventures LLC, along with fellow business publication Inc. For more information, please visit www.fastcompany.com.
Media Contact
Sarah Lehman
Smartling
sarah@sixeastern.com
