The LanguageLine team had the pleasure of attending Procurex England 2025 on the 21st May in Liverpool - the UK’s flagship event for public sector procurement professionals. With over 1,800 delegates and 100+ exhibitors, it brought together key decision-makers, thought leaders, and suppliers from across England’s £380 billion public procurement marketplace.
This was our first time exhibiting at Procurex, and it delivered beyond our expectations. We met with a diverse range of public and private sector organisations, all exploring how innovation, value, and technology can reshape public services from the perspective of communication and language support. The energy and insight across the floor were a powerful reminder of the sector's ambition and urgency - and we were thrilled to be part of the conversation.
Key Themes: Innovation, Efficiency, and Social Value
Several themes echoed throughout the day: the implementation of the Procurement Act, the importance of Social Value, digital transformation, and of course, the growing impact of AI. Delegates were keen to understand how these areas are converging under the broader language-support umbrella to reduce costs, enhance delivery, and support inclusive, community-focused procurement strategies.
LanguageLine's services naturally align with these goals.
Our conversations at the stand revolved around our ability to drive cost efficiencies without compromising on quality. From transitioning organisations from traditional face-to-face interpreting to on-demand voice and video interpreting - including our customised supporting equipment (such as our Interpreter On Wheels) and the LanguageLine App - to embedding AI-enabled translation and localisation workflows, we demonstrated how language services can be a driver of both digital transformation, efficiency and inclusion.
The Power of Human Connection
Overwhelmingly, it was our customised supporting equipment, known to our clients as the Interpreter on Wheels – or IOW - which drove the most interest at the stand. Built to move easily around busy environments to support on-demand interpreting sessions and increase staff efficiency, the IOW is a rolling cart that houses an iPad which runs the LanguageLine App. Upon demonstration, attendees were impressed with the quick connection times and that it was a human interpreter on the call – it seemed most people anticipated AI!
The topic of AI in interpreting emerged more generally as a theme. Many visitors that we spoke to, given the services they tend to use most, were inquisitive around the current possibilities around AI within real-time interpreting.
Most held concerns and reservations around assurance, security and the true capabilities of the current technology. In conversation, there was understanding and appreciation of the current limitations with AI in a live, conversational setting, when considering softer elements such as context, nuance, cultural sensitivities, and the way that tone can impact the meaning of what is being said. There was also appreciation around the more practical elements such as the way live conversations can flow erratically, with multiple voices speaking at once and overlapping, and the way that background noise can impact efficacy.
With that, there was significant interest in an exciting service we are currently developing which uniquely has the ability to combine AI and human capabilities; an early intervention service for low-risk, controlled situations utilising an AI solution, but with the safety and assurance of being able to drop-out to a professional human interpreter at a point of choosing by either party.
Supporting Procurement Goals – How Can We Help You?
Developed over 40 years, LanguageLIne’s services are used thousands of times everyday to support interactions in health, local and central Government situations. They are relied-upon by police forces and all ambulance services in the UK.
We know that changing suppliers can feel complex. However, for non-LanguageLine clients, obtaining gold-standard services to improve accessibility, safety and efficiency, is far easier than you might think.
Our services are available through compliant framework agreements including Crown Commercial Service, NHS Shared Business Services, NHS London Procurement Partnerships, NHS Procurement In Partnership, NEPO, Helplines Partnership, Healthtrust Europe, ESPO, BlueLight Commercial, INTRAN and Procurement Services Frameworks.
Whether you're aiming to enhance accessibility, improve budget efficiency, or drive measurable social value, we have the services, infrastructure, and people to support your goals and the means to turn this into reality for your organisation.
What We Offer
We provide 360° language coverage:
- Interpreting: voice, video, app, face-to-face
- Translation & localisation: digital content, documents, eLearning, regulatory materials
- AI Solutions: combining industry leading AI technology solutions with highly specialist human expertise
All this, with rigorous security, scalability, and access to world class linguists.
A Final Word
Our team came away from Procurex energised. The importance of Language, once overlooked, is now clearly a fundamental part of the conversations around digital transformation. Without accessible communication, inclusion suffers, and service delivery stalls. The emerging technological possibilities are high on the agenda. However, there remains an appreciation that skilled humans are still a fundamental and essential part of the language support landscape.
We’re here to help your organisation solve its language access challenges.
If you spoke to our team at the event, we’d love to continue the conversation. And if you didn’t make it to our stand, get in touch - we’ll show you how language services can unlock value across your organisation.
LanguageLine Solutions – The public sector’s most trusted language partner.
If you have got language access requirements, we are here to help - we can support you in procuring trusted, high impact language access solutions that deliver the services your teams need, in the most cost-efficient way.
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