Power minds of the new age

Every breakthrough begins with a conversation. Behind every innovative company, there is a leader with a vision, a challenge to pursue, and a story worth telling.

With Power Minds of the New Age, I invite founders, executives, innovators, and industry pioneers to share not only what they are building, but why they are building it. This interview series aims to go beyond headlines and corporate announcements, exploring the people, ideas, and decisions shaping the future of technology, business, and society.

I hope this series offers readers new perspectives, meaningful conversations, and a closer look at the individuals driving innovation across industries.

I am pleased to welcome Gridly CEO Anna Albinsson as the first guest of the series. Under her leadership, Gridly has become a trusted partner for game studios and global organizations. While helping teams manage and localize content in more than 20 languages, the company embraces AI without losing sight of the human expertise required for great storytelling.

GRIDLY: 20 YEARS OF EXPERIENCE

Gridly is an AI‑powered localization management platform built for global teams that need to manage multilingual content at scale. By combining automation, structured workflows, and human‑in‑the‑loop quality control, Gridly enables companies to deliver high‑quality translations faster, more consistently, and more efficiently. The company’s Gridly Localization Agent integrates advanced AI with enterprise‑grade workflow orchestration to enhance translation quality while reducing operational workload.

Gridly was founded in 2021 as a spin‑off from LocalizeDirect, a localization technology company established in 2009. Together, the two companies bring nearly 20 years of experience in developing tools for the global localization industry.

GRIDLY SERVES MORE THAN 30 COUNTRIES

Gridly supports 150+ customers across 30+ countries, with key markets including Sweden, Japan, and North America. The company also serves customers in Turkey.

GRIDLY IN NUMBERS

• Founding Year: 2009
• Number of Employees: ~45
• Annual Revenue / Turnover: €2 million
• Headquarters: Helsingborg, Sweden
• Offices: Sweden and Vietnam
• Global Presence: Team members working remotely across multiple countries
• Nationalities Represented: 10+ Gridly’s team reflects the global nature of the localization industry, bringing together diverse backgrounds and multilingual expertise.

PORTRAIT / GRIDLY

Gridly CEO Anna Albinsson has an academic background in political science and holds a Bachelor’s degree in Political Science from Lund University. Her early work sparked a lasting interest in how people make decisions — both within society and inside organizations.

Throughout her career, Albinsson has operated at the intersection of data, technology, and commercial leadership. Before joining Gridly, she held senior executive roles at data and technology companies, including Dun & Bradstreet, where she worked on data‑driven decision‑making and digital transformation. She has always been fascinated by how technology can solve real business and societal problems.

Outside of work, Anna spends most of her time with her family and stays active through sports. Over the years, she has coached youth basketball teams, won the Swedish national table tennis championship, and today enjoys competing in padel. Sports have taught her teamwork, resilience, and continuous improvement — qualities she carries into her leadership.

Gridly CEO Anna Albinsson explains her motivation for joining the company:

“I joined Gridly because I saw the opportunity to help build something truly unique. Localization is one of those industries most people never think about, yet it enables global businesses to reach customers everywhere. When I saw what the team was building and how much potential there was to transform the industry with AI, I knew it was a challenge I wanted to take on. Our goal is to become the company that defines the next generation of AI‑powered localization workflows.”

Albinsson highlights what sets Gridly apart from other companies:

“Everyone talks about AI models, but we believe real value comes from combining AI with structured workflows, context, governance, and human expertise. That’s exactly what we’re building with the Gridly Localization Agent. In the short term, our focus is helping customers move from experimenting with AI to successfully deploying it in production. In the long term, I want Gridly to be the global platform companies think of when they need to manage multilingual content. Large‑scale, AI‑powered localization. Technology is advancing incredibly fast, but my job is to make sure it creates real value for people. That’s what motivates me every day.”

WHY AI ALONE ISN’T ENOUGH:

HOW GRIDLY IS TRANSFORMING GAME LOCALIZATION

The rapid rise of generative AI has changed how software companies think about content operations. While many businesses try to automate everything possible, Swedish SaaS company Gridly takes a more balanced approach. Speaking about the company’s strategy, CEO Anna Albinsson emphasizes that AI is a powerful enabler — but it cannot replace human expertise.

Gridly built its reputation primarily in the gaming industry, where localization is far more than translating words. A game’s dialogue, narrative, humor, and emotional tone all shape the player experience, making accurate localization a critical part of game development.

(Image generated by the Gemini AI assistant.)

“TRANSLATION IS NOT JUST ABOUT LANGUAGE”

The philosophy behind Gridly’s approach is simple: “Translation is not just about language.” Every story must feel natural to players regardless of where they live — preserving the original experience while adapting it to local audiences.

Today, gaming companies remain Gridly’s largest customer segment. However, the company is expanding into other industries where multilingual content management is equally essential, including financial services (FSS). Behind the scenes, Gridly combines modern collaboration practices with advanced technology. The company relies on agile methodologies and Slack to keep teams connected and ensure projects progress efficiently in distributed environments.

AI has naturally become an integral part of this workflow. Gridly’s AI capabilities are powered by large language models (LLMs), enabling teams to automate significant portions of content creation and translation. But Albinsson is careful to point out that AI still has clear limitations. While today’s models perform exceptionally well in widely spoken languages like English and Spanish, the challenge increases dramatically when working across more than twenty languages — each with its own cultural context, idioms, and linguistic nuances.

GRIDLY CONTINUES TO COMBINE AI WITH PROFESSIONAL HUMAN TRANSLATORS — NOT FULL AUTOMATION

These nuances are crucial in game localization. A word‑for‑word translation may be technically correct, but fail to capture the narrative, emotion, or personality intended by game developers. For this reason, Gridly continues to combine AI with professional human translators rather than relying solely on automation.

The company’s approach has evolved rapidly. Just two years ago, localization projects depended almost entirely on human translators. Today, AI handles a significant portion of the workflow, enabling teams to deliver large‑scale translation projects much faster while maintaining quality through human review.

As a result, operational efficiency has become one of management’s top priorities. At the same time, the explosive growth of ChatGPT has accelerated customer expectations, making AI adoption no longer optional — but essential for companies competing in global content operations.

GRIDLY WORKS WITH MULTIPLE AI PLATFORMS

Gridly defines itself as an organization that trusts and embraces artificial intelligence. Rather than relying on a single provider, the company works with multiple AI platforms and selects the best tools for each specific task. Among the technologies Albinsson highlights are DeepL, Claude, and Grok, reflecting a strategy built on flexibility rather than platform dependency.

Beyond technology, one of the company’s most significant achievements has been finding a strong product‑market fit. Albinsson notes that reaching this point required substantial effort, experimentation, and close collaboration with customers. Understanding the real challenges content teams face is what shaped the platform into what it is tay.