What is Real-Time Translation and How is it Changing Global Expansion Strategies
We have all been there. Whether trying to read a menu while on vacation in Málaga or attempting to give directions to a tourist from Amsterdam, language barriers can be frustrating. In business, however, those barriers are more than a frustration. They can be a detriment to international growth. However, real-time translation technology is changing that and helping companies achieve their global expansion strategies.
What Is Real-Time Translation?
Real-time translation enables instant communication between individuals who speak different languages. That means conversations are translated from one language into another while a person is speaking or typing.
While real-time translation may seem valuable for international companies, high-quality solutions are relatively new to the market. Translating personal and business communications involves more than simply translating words, as language is nuanced and not always literal.
Consider common phrases like “run to the store” or “jump on a call.” Word-for-word translations may not adequately convey the idea of quickly going to the store or taking a phone meeting. Corporate speak also becomes problematic because those phrases can be even more abstract. “Circle back” or “low-hanging fruit” may be confusing if translated literally.
Some idioms are harmless in an international corporate setting. However, relying on direct, word-for-word translations could inadvertently offend your global customers or coworkers, leading to lost sales and damage to your reputation. For real-time translations to be useful, they have to be accurate and culturally appropriate.
What Are the Impacts of Real-Time Translation on Global Business?
Real-time translation has the potential to transform global business by increasing the efficiency and clarity of internal communication, reducing time-to-market, and enhancing the localized customer experience, ultimately leading to opportunities for increased revenue.
Better internal communication
English is the lingua franca for international business today. However, there are highly skilled workers in countries where English is not commonly spoken. For example, Brazil is an extremely attractive market for global technology companies. Yet, only 5% of the population speaks English on some level, and only 1% are fluent.
Real-time translation enables a programmer in São Paulo to collaborate with counterparts in Delhi and Manila, quickly identifying and resolving bugs, regardless of their proficiency in English.
Training and education also benefit from real-time translation. You can subtitle and dub your training videos at scale to reach global employees in any language.
Current and emerging technologies can combine talk-to-text, text-to-speech, and speech recognition to automate dubbing and subtitles, increasing efficiency while remaining culturally sensitive and linguistically accurate. Automated and customized solutions enable faster, more cost-effective localization, meeting the business needs of growing global companies.
Decreased time to market
Localizing your content to each new market is key to global success. Human + AI-powered, real-time translations can reduce costs and increase efficiency, allowing you to localize your presence and reach more customers faster.
Additionally, you can expand your presence, both locally and internationally, at scale. For example, AI translations let you subtitle and dub videos into multiple market-specific languages quickly and simultaneously.
Improved customer experience and increased revenue
Making a good first impression is essential when entering a new market. Localizing your content is an effective step to ensure your customers feel comfortable doing business with you. One survey showed that 76% of shoppers prefer purchasing products with information in their own language.
Translating customer service chats and voice calls in real time lets customers know you understand them and can resolve their issues and answer their questions. Instant, accurate, and natural interactions build trust and loyalty.
What Are the Challenges of AI Translation?
Despite advancements in AI translation, challenges remain, including inaccurate translations, the inability to convey nuance or figures of speech, and difficulties with low-quality inputs, such as typos and incorrect punctuation.
Inaccurate translations and trouble with idioms
Language is more than characters or letters put together to form words. Those words communicate ideas, and some are complex and unique to the country or region. Therefore, AI alone is only part of the solution. For the most accurate and natural translations, you need AI plus human validation.
Low-quality inputs negatively affect output quality and efficiency
Someone is likely to mistype in a synchronous text conversation between two people who speak different languages. We’re human and often work and type quickly. AI may struggle to translate typos, poorly punctuated text, or incorrect capitalization. This leads to inefficiency, as both people have to spend time clarifying a low-quality input.
The stakes are even higher if you rely on AI to translate customer service chat support. Customers may abandon the chat if the translations are incomprehensible due to human input error.
Global Strategy Use Cases
Localizing your brand and business presence is key to success and should be a major part of your global strategy. AI-enabled, real-time translation makes localization faster, cheaper, and more efficient, enabling you to reach more customers in more markets.
Here are some ways to use new translation technology to execute a successful global strategy.
Video translation
Humans are visual creatures. We often prefer video and multimedia to reading page after page of text. Implementing AI dubbing and subtitling for your existing videos enables you to distribute content to global audiences at scale.
Use cases include:
Training videos for employees
Product videos and demos
Internal communications
Customer service
Customer service (or the lack of it) can make or break your relationship with your shoppers. Resolving an issue quickly and to the customer’s satisfaction generates loyalty and increases lifetime value.
Advances in real-time translation enable you to provide excellent customer service anywhere in the world through live, cross-language chat support, self-service issue resolution on your website, and via email.
Localized marketing
Real-time translation speeds up and improves the localization of marketing campaigns. Combined with a human touch, ad campaigns, blogs, videos, and social media can be powerful and effective in every market.
What Does the Future Hold for Real-Time Translation?
The future of real-time translation is bright, holding possibilities for advanced wearable devices, accelerated workflows, and faster global strategy implementation.
Advanced wearables
Google, Apple, and other brands have launched devices that enable consumers who speak different languages to communicate in real-time. From earbuds to smart glasses, we may soon be able to talk with anyone anywhere without a language barrier. Synchronous, international meetings with multinational teams could be just around the corner.
Accelerated workflows
AI makes workflows faster and more efficient by automating tasks. Cross-language communication, translated in real time, further increases efficiency and reduces costs. Teams from around the globe can communicate accurately and quickly. This builds team cohesion and speeds up problem-solving and creative thinking.
Faster global strategy implementation
Real-time translations reduce time-to-market and accelerate time-to-revenue by automatically translating your existing training, marketing, and product materials into any language. As the world continues to change and crises arise, businesses that are flexible and can pivot quickly will enter fast-growing markets effectively.
Real-time translation is revolutionizing the way organizations expand globally. As technology advances, it will be easier to communicate in real time, and language barriers will significantly reduce.