How Yoshiki Sato uses Even G2 to work across language barriers, stay present with customers, and turn better understanding into clearer action.
A Career Beyond His First Language
Yoshiki Sato knows what it's like to have something important to say but struggle to find the right words.
Originally from Japan and now based in Singapore, he leads AI Solution Engineering across six ASEAN markets. His work takes him across different countries, cultures, and languages, where he leads teams, works with customers, and helps solve complex technical challenges.
English is not his first language. And frequently, it isn't the first language of the people he works with either.
For Yoshiki, language is more than a means of communication. It's an essential part of how he leads. Whether he's aligning teams across markets, guiding technical discussions, or helping customers make important decisions, he needs to understand different perspectives, communicate complex ideas, and bring people onto the same page.
Doing all of that in a second language adds another layer of difficulty.
"The most difficult thing for me is doing multiple tasks while speaking in a second language," he explains.
In any given conversation, Yoshiki has to listen carefully, process technical information, recall relevant details, and decide how to respond, often within seconds. When the stakes are high, even a small misunderstanding can make it difficult to follow what comes next.
"If I miss even a single detail, I lose track of the whole picture."
It was this constant pressure to keep up with conversations while leading teams and working with customers across different markets that first drew Yoshiki to Even G2.
He wasn't looking for a way to speak perfect English. He wanted to communicate with greater confidence, stay focused on the people in front of him, and make better use of the knowledge and experience he had built over his career.
And as he began using the glasses, he found that the language challenges he faced weren't always his alone. Sometimes, they belonged to the customers sitting across from him.
Let the Customer Speak Naturally
During a recent business trip to Bangkok, Yoshiki found himself in a familiar situation, only this time, he wasn't the one struggling with the language.
He was meeting with a customer's technical team. Several engineers had complex questions they wanted to ask, but they couldn't fully express themselves in English. They knew the technology and understood the problems they needed to solve. What stood in their way was the language.
For Yoshiki, who had spent years navigating important conversations in his own second language, the situation was all too familiar.
Rather than asking the engineers to find the right English words, he invited them to speak in Thai.
"Some customer engineers could not speak English, but they wanted to ask me very detailed technical questions. I simply allowed them to speak in Thai," he recalls.
With Live Translation on Even G2, Yoshiki could follow their questions directly in his field of view as they spoke.
The engineers could explain their problems in their own language, without having to simplify their questions or worry about getting every English word right. Yoshiki could focus on understanding the technical details and finding the right answers.
"I could understand what they said, and then I could answer them properly," he says.
What changed wasn't just the language of the conversation. The engineers were free to explain what they really needed, and Yoshiki could engage with their questions in greater depth.
For someone whose work depends on understanding customers and helping them solve problems, that made a meaningful difference.
"In short, it gives me very strong confidence," he says.
The experience also reflects something Yoshiki believes is fundamental to his profession.
I believe true salesmanship means listening properly to the customer's voice."
Having experienced language barriers himself, Yoshiki understands that being less fluent in English doesn't mean someone has less knowledge to share. Giving customers the freedom to speak naturally allows him to hear more of what they have to say, and ultimately serve them better.
That focus on making conversations comfortable also helps explain another important consideration in his choice of smart glasses.
Before purchasing Even G2, Yoshiki had explored almost every AI smart-glasses product on the market. While the technology interested him, one design decision ultimately stood out.
"Finally, I decided on Even because it does not have a camera."
For someone who spends much of his working day in meetings with customers, the camera-free design matters. He can benefit from the technology without introducing a camera into conversations where trust and personal connection are essential.
For Yoshiki, technology is most valuable when it helps him understand the person across the table, without getting in the way of the relationship.
Carry the Conversation Forward
For Yoshiki, understanding a customer's needs is only the beginning. As a leader overseeing AI Solution Engineering across six ASEAN markets, he also needs to turn those conversations into clear priorities, informed decisions, and meaningful progress.
His work involves moving between different customers, technical challenges, and teams across markets. Each conversation brings new information to consider, questions to follow up on, and decisions that may shape what happens next.
But when so much attention goes into understanding and responding during a conversation, keeping track of every important detail afterward can be another challenge.
Yoshiki has found a way to make those conversations more useful long after they end.
During multilingual meetings, Live Translation on Even G2 helps him follow what customers are saying. Afterward, he takes the transcript and uses AI to create meeting notes tailored to his own responsibilities.
"After the meeting, I copy and paste the transcript from the G2 live translation feature and let AI create my own personalized meeting minutes," he explains.
For Yoshiki, a general summary isn't enough. He needs to know what the conversation means for his work: which customer concerns require attention, which questions remain unanswered, and what needs to happen next.
"Instead of generic meeting minutes created by AI, I can leave my own personalized action items and records by using G2."
The difference, he says, is noticeable.
"Then both speed and quality improve."
With a clearer record of what was discussed, Yoshiki can spend less time reconstructing conversations from memory and more time deciding how to move things forward.
And as a leader, that clarity matters beyond his own to-do list. Understanding what customers need, identifying the right priorities, and keeping work moving across different markets all depend on the quality of the information he carries from one conversation to the next.
For Yoshiki, a successful meeting isn't just one where everyone understands each other. It's one where that understanding leads to better decisions, stronger collaboration, and meaningful action.
Beyond Perfect Language
Language can shape how a person is heard, but it shouldn't determine how much they have to offer.
For Yoshiki, that's where Even G2 makes the greatest difference. It doesn't replace the knowledge, experience, or judgment he's built throughout his career. It helps him bring more of those strengths into every conversation, while making it easier for others to contribute theirs.
And for someone whose work is about bringing people together across borders, that goes far beyond personal productivity. It means fewer barriers between people and their ideas, greater confidence to contribute, and more opportunities to turn different perspectives into something meaningful.
Because the best conversations aren't necessarily the ones where every word is perfect. They're the ones where everyone has something to contribute, and everyone has a chance to be understood.
As Yoshiki puts it:
"The quality of what I say is more important than the perfect language skill. That is my experience."
