Freelance and Literary Translation in 2025: Is It Still Viable?

Hello, I’m a translation student who is about to graduate from university. I’m worried that everything I’ve studied might end up being useless, because I feel that the era of traditional translation is over with the rise of AI, which evolves every day. So, is there still work out there? I want to become a freelance translator, and I’d like to ask people with experience in this field: is there plenty of work available, or has the rise of AI caused the market to dry up? Thank you.

Currently, I’m working on literary translation. I believe AI is still unable to produce excellent literary translations, because they require conveying style and tone, involve interpretation, and demand understanding references and researching the context of the book.

I also want to know: does freelance translation pay well? And what about literary translation specifically?

a side note : i wrote this post in my second language arabic, translated by ai to english, so yeah...