Translator vs UX Designer: which is more exposed to AI?
A 23-point gap separates these roles — UX Designer is the more defensible seat.
Translator sits at 85% time-weighted AI exposure against 62% for UX Designer, a 23-point gap driven by the 56% of translator work time that current models can already substitute outright. UX Designer holds a larger human-critical core — 42% of the role's time sits in work like "stakeholder facilitation" that models score poorly on. Both roles sit inside Arts & Design, so the exposure difference reflects task design rather than a change of field.
Seven dimensions, side by side.
What actually creates the gap.
Translators spend 56% of their time-weighted week on tasks a current model can produce end-to-end, against 28% for UX Designers. The single largest contributor is "translate general business documents", graded at 95% and worth 22% of the role's time. That one task accounts for more of the gap than any difference in seniority, tooling, or industry.
- Translate general business documents95% · 22% time
- Produce first-pass subtitles92% · 8% time
- Localize marketing and web copy90% · 14% time
- Translate technical documentation88% · 12% time
- Client relationship management12% · 2% time
- Interpret in sensitive live settings18% · 3% time
- Cultural adaptation consulting24% · 2% time
- Write UX copy and microcopy82% · 8% time
- Generate wireframes and low-fi mockups78% · 14% time
- Create UI assets and icons76% · 6% time
- Stakeholder facilitation14% · 8% time
- Strategic design decisions18% · 12% time
- User interviews and research synthesis24% · 16% time
Both roles lean on cognitive, procedural, creative — that is the part of your experience that travels intact. The real divide is social: UX Designers score 68 there against 30 for Translators, a 38-point spread. That is the gap you would actually have to close.
| DIMENSION | TRANSLATOR | UX DESIGNER |
|---|---|---|
| Social | 30 | 68 |
| Judgement | 44 | 78 |
| Creative | 58 | 84 |
UX Designer appears in our dataset as a mapped adjacent career for Translators: the move lowers exposure by 23 points, landing at 62%. Switch difficulty reads moderate — capability profiles are 26 points apart on average and both sit in the same family.
Score your own exposure in 8 questions →Common questions.
Is Translator or UX Designer more at risk from AI?
Translator. It scores 85% time-weighted AI exposure against 62% for UX Designer — a 23-point gap. 56% of translator work time is already fully substitutable by current models, versus 28% for UX Designers.
Which pays more, Translator or UX Designer?
UX Designer, by roughly $41k at the median ($98k versus $57k). Note that the higher-paying role here is also the less AI-exposed one, which matters if you are weighing pay against durability.
Can a translator switch to being a ux designer?
UX Designer appears in our dataset as a mapped adjacent career for Translators: the move lowers exposure by 23 points, landing at 62%. Switch difficulty reads moderate — capability profiles are 26 points apart on average and both sit in the same family.
Which role is growing faster, Translator or UX Designer?
UX Designer, at 8% projected ten-year growth versus 2% — a 6-point difference. Growth and AI exposure are separate signals: a role can grow in headcount while the content of the work is substantially rewritten.