Are you struggling to keep up with translations for your business? Machine translation technology may be the answer. With ever-evolving advances in artificial intelligence and natural language processing, machine translation offers a fast and affordable solution that can help reduce workloads while producing high-quality results.
In this article we will discuss the benefits of machine translation in more detail, and which one to choose; automated translation services or human-powered translation services.
What Is Machine Translation?
Machine translation is an automated process of translating one language into another using computer software. It uses natural language processing, a branch of artificial intelligence, to analyse and understand the source text in its original language before translating it into the target language.
This technology has revolutionised the way we communicate across languages and can now provide real-time translations of entire documents or conversations with a few clicks.
What Are the Advantages of Machine Translation?
Here are some of the benefits of machine translation:
Cost Savings
Machine translation can significantly reduce costs associated with hiring professional translators. With machine translation, businesses can quickly and easily translate large volumes of text with little to no human intervention. This saves time, reduces errors, and lowers costs.
Multilingual Support
Machine translation makes it possible for businesses to communicate with customers and partners in multiple languages. This is essential for companies with global reach, as it allows them to serve customers in their native language and build stronger relationships.
Increased Accuracy
Machine translation technology has come a long way in recent years. Many MT engines use artificial intelligence and machine learning algorithms to improve translation quality over time. As a result, businesses can expect a high level of accuracy, especially for common phrases and sentences.
Customisation
Some MT tools allow businesses to customise translations to match their specific industry or brand. This ensures that the translated content is consistent with the business's voice and messaging, which is important for maintaining brand identity and building customer trust.
Terminology Consistency
Terminology consistency refers to the use of consistent terminology across translations, which is important for maintaining accuracy, clarity, and readability. For example, if a term is translated differently each time it appears in a document, it can lead to confusion and errors.
Machine translation systems often use terminology management tools to ensure that consistent translations are used for specific terms or phrases. These tools can be pre-loaded with approved translations for specific terms and phrases, which the machine translation system can then use to ensure consistency.
Scalability
Machine translation is also highly scalable, meaning it can easily handle large volumes of text
without sacrificing quality. This makes it an ideal solution for businesses that need to translate content quickly and efficiently, particularly when working with tight deadlines.
Competitive Advantage
By using machine translation, businesses can gain a competitive advantage over competitors who are not using this technology. This is particularly true for businesses that operate in multilingual markets, where communication in different languages is a key factor in success.
Machine Translation or Human-powered Translation?
Why not both? The benefits of machine translation we discussed above, don’t necessarily mean the human translation is entirely replaceable as some may claim.
Both types have their advantages, and If you want your business to thrive you’ll need to take the best of the two options.
A common approach is to use machine translation as a first pass to quickly translate the text, and then have human translators review and refine the translation. This is known as post-editing, and it allows for faster and more cost-effective translation while still ensuring high quality.
Pre-editing is another approach that can be used in conjunction with machine translation to improve translation quality and efficiency. Pre-editing involves optimising the source text before machine translation, with the goal of reducing errors and improving the output of the machine translation system.
You can also depend on machine translation for certain types of content, such as high-volume user manuals, where speed and cost is more important than style, and use human translation for more creative or marketing-oriented content where style and nuance are critical.
Don’t know what’s the best approach? At e-Arabization we will study your business needs and type of content you’ll be translating to determine the language solution that will provide the best results.
Book a consultation today to learn more about our machine translation services.