Artificial intelligence language technologies in multilingual healthcare: Grand challenges ahead

A narrative review presented at the 26th Annual Conference of the European Association for Machine Translation (EAMT) in June 2026 finds that AI language technologies, increasingly powered by large language models, are being embedded in multilingual healthcare workflows but that fluent output does not guarantee clinically safe or equitable communication, with performance varying across languages, accents, tasks, and workflows. Author Vicent Briva-Iglesias proposes seven grand challenges for the next phase of research and deployment, arguing that progress requires accountable sociotechnical design, calibrated human oversight, and stronger collaboration across MT/NLP, translation studies, HCI, clinical practice, implementation science, and policy.

Abstract AI language technologies AILTs , increasingly enabled by large language models LLMs , are becoming embedded in multilingual healthcare workflows for translation, rewriting, documentation, interpreting, and messaging in language-discordant settings. Yet fluent output is not the same as clinically safe or equitable communication: performance varies across languages, accents, tasks, and workflows, and efficiency gains can hide errors, reduce traceability, and shift responsibility across clinicians, translators, interpreters, and health systems. This narrative review synthesises recent peer-reviewed evidence across written communication, spoken communication, and emerging agentic workflows. Using the Human-Centered AI Language Technology HCAILT lens, it examines capabilities, evaluation practices, implementation patterns, and recurrent errors through reliability, safety culture, and trustworthiness. We identify key convergences and contradictions in the literature and propose seven grand challenges for the next phase of research and deployment. Progress, we argue, requires not only better models but also accountable sociotechnical design, calibrated human oversight, and stronger collaboration across MT/NLP, translation studies, HCI, clinical practice, implementation science, and policy.- Anthology ID: - 2026.eamt-1.48 - Volume: Proceedings of the 26th Annual Conference of the European Association for Machine Translation Volume 1 https://aclanthology.org/volumes/2026.eamt-1/ - Month: - June - Year: - 2026 - Address: - Tilburg, The Netherlands - Editors: Dimitar Shterionov https://aclanthology.org/people/dimitar-shterionov/unverified/ , Eva Vanmassenhove https://aclanthology.org/people/eva-vanmassenhove/ , Mirella De Sisto https://aclanthology.org/people/mirella-de-sisto/unverified/ , Fred Blain https://aclanthology.org/people/frederic-blain/ , Javad Pourmostafa Roshan Sharami https://aclanthology.org/people/javad-pourmostafa-roshan-sharami/ , Lisa Lepp https://aclanthology.org/people/lisa-lepp/unverified/ , Chiara Manna https://aclanthology.org/people/chiara-manna/unverified/ , Argentina Anna Rescigno https://aclanthology.org/people/argentina-anna-rescigno/ , Alina Karakanta https://aclanthology.org/people/alina-karakanta/unverified/ , Ayla Rigouts Terryn https://aclanthology.org/people/ayla-rigouts-terryn/ , Manuel Lardelli https://aclanthology.org/people/manuel-lardelli/ , Natalia Resende https://aclanthology.org/people/natalia-resende/unverified/ , Elena Murgolo https://aclanthology.org/people/elena-murgolo/unverified/ , Janiça Hackenbuchner https://aclanthology.org/people/janica-hackenbuchner/ , Anna Zaretskaya https://aclanthology.org/people/anna-zaretskaya/unverified/ , Miquel Esplà-Gomis https://aclanthology.org/people/miquel-espla-gomis/unverified/ , Thierry Etchegoyhen https://aclanthology.org/people/thierry-etchegoyhen/unverified/ , Dagmar Gromann https://aclanthology.org/people/dagmar-gromann/ , Rachel Bawden https://aclanthology.org/people/rachel-bawden/ , Barry Haddow https://aclanthology.org/people/barry-haddow/unverified/ , Sara Szoc https://aclanthology.org/people/sara-szoc/unverified/ , Mikel Forcada https://aclanthology.org/people/mikel-l-forcada/ , Helena Moniz https://aclanthology.org/people/helena-moniz/ - Venue: EAMT https://aclanthology.org/venues/eamt/ - SIG: - Publisher: - European Association for Machine Translation - Note: - Pages: - 760–773 - Language: - URL: https://aclanthology.org/2026.eamt-1.48/ https://aclanthology.org/2026.eamt-1.48/ - DOI: - Cite ACL : - Vicent Briva-Iglesias. 2026. Artificial intelligence language technologies in multilingual healthcare: Grand challenges ahead https://aclanthology.org/2026.eamt-1.48/ . In Proceedings of the 26th Annual Conference of the European Association for Machine Translation Volume 1 , pages 760–773, Tilburg, The Netherlands. European Association for Machine Translation. - Cite Informal : Artificial intelligence language technologies in multilingual healthcare: Grand challenges ahead https://aclanthology.org/2026.eamt-1.48/ Briva-Iglesias, EAMT 2026 - PDF: https://aclanthology.org/2026.eamt-1.48.pdf https://aclanthology.org/2026.eamt-1.48.pdf