The working practices of Polish literary translators in 2025: questionnaire results

Abstract

Based on a questionnaire completed by 80 Polish literary translators, this paper
presents trends in the use of reference materials, hardware and software (including
text editors, CAT tools, and AI services), translation workflows, and translators’
views on the skills required for literary translation. Some of the changes associated
with the introduction of generative AI services based on large language models
have already been felt among literary translators, as evidenced by the 2024 questionnaire and by statements issued by CEATL addressing ethical and economic
issues, such as transparency in AI use and copyright concerns related to the use of
translations as training data. In the Polish context, recent research on new tools in
translators’ working practices has focused primarily on machine translation (MT)
and has only marginally addressed literary translation. This paper broadens that
perspective by examining a larger group of literary translators and another aspect
of AI tools: the use of generative AI in a literary translator’s practice for research
and editing support, situating AI tools within the broader context of the translator’s digital toolkit. Compared with the results of earlier questionnaires on Polish
literary translators’ working practices (Guttfeld 2019), the 2025 study shows that
the use of AI services among literary translators remains (still) declaratively rare
and conservative, mostly replacing dictionaries or native-speaker feedback, and
266 Dorota Guttfeld
is accompanied by concerns regarding AI reliability and its potential long-term
professional costs. The paper concludes by discussing the pedagogical implications of these findings for academic literary translator training.