Welcome back to The Global Crowd—a proudly unpolished podcast built on spontaneous conversations with leaders from the globalization and international growth community who refuse to take life too seriously.

Today, we welcome Olga Beregovaya, VP of AI at Smartling, community pillar, music producer, horse whisperer—and one of those rare humans who can face chaos with elegance, curiosity, and great boots.

From building AI programs to wrangling 22 punk rockers at a border crossing, Olga’s life reads like a setlist nobody could plan—but every track hits.

🎙️ In this episode, we talk about:

• How one structural linguist became the queen of AIs (with a side hustle in tour buses)
• Punk bands, border patrol, and the unexpected strength of expat community
• The disgusting biological betrayal that is the film on boiled milk
• Why the best business strategy sessions might be happening in bars
• The haunting disappearance of one very special pair of rocking socks
• What it’s like to live inside the AI hype—and still call BS on half of it
• And the repeated public shaming that comes from not watching your friend’s podcast before agreeing to guest on it

It’s been cut to a reasonable length, censored for safety, but remains unfiltered, a little weird, and occasionally tender.

Olga made us laugh, made us think, and maybe made us cry a little.

You’ve been warned. Thanks for listening.

#TheGlobalCrowd #AI #globalization #international #machinetranslation #punkenergy #podcast #translation #thankyou

List of chapters:

00:00 – An unscripted podcast with seven pages of pleases

02:25 – From syntax to stage lights

04:35 – Explaining AI to a five-year-old (and other impossible tasks)

10:37 – Things we wish we never had to localize

13:07 – The afterthought era must end

15:21 – The punk producer in a business suit

19:47 – Inside and outside the Soviet Union: Wherever you go, your music follows

24:27 – The most epic concert… she never got to hear

26:02 – Calling the socks private investigator

28:36 – Rock & roll? Yes. But someone has to do the paperwork

30:52 – Fighting ducks, meeting dead people in elevators, and upsetting the gods of keys

36:01 – Bungee jumping in Siberia and other great decisions

36:55 – Russian superstitions, ranked and feared

38:20 – AI’s future: less talk, more tools

38:53 – Practice what you preach (and benchmark it)

41:38 – Everything About Agentic AI with Olga Beregovaya

42:24 – Getting real about multilingual GenAI

45:29 – The data goldmine hiding in plain sight

47:00 – Learning AI, one sacrificed weekend at a time

50:11 – Consensual rabbits, ditching regret, and finding the way out

54:44 – How to make the Queen of AIs cry