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Machine Translation (MT) research is 70 years old. However, the technology became mainstream only within the past decade, after tech companies started offering MT services on the internet. Over the years, MT has significantly improved. This has opened unprecedented opportunities for companies to further connect with customers around the world and enhance their internal communications with global employees.
Lionbridge now offers the Smart MT solution, which enables customers to use best-in-class MT for the entire customer experience. In fact, for the first time, companies can Localize everything™.
Statistical Machine Translation (SMT) and Neural Machine Translation (NMT) are the most common types of MT. Statistical Machine Translation relies on statistical models and large amounts of language data to predict the best translation. Neural Machine Translation also leverages large amounts of language data, but it uses different types of neural network models to render MT. Typically, Neural Machine Translation generates better results than Statistical Machine Translation, which is slowly being phased out.
Typically, however, human translators produce the best localization results when compared to machine-only translations. When companies need superior quality, they will often incorporate the services of human translators, who will refine MT output through post-editing services.
Just getting acclimated to MT and its terminology? Then, look at our cheat sheet to familiarize yourself with some of the most common terms.
Companies can incorporate MT into their content lifecycle in a variety of ways. They typically use one of the following strategies:
MT will continue to advance in the foreseeable future. Improvements to quality will drive more adoption. This will increase localization cost efficiencies. It will also help meet the growing demand for translation services that the finite pool of human translators cannot handle. MT will enable companies to localize more content into more languages. As such, they will be able to enter more markets and offer enhanced digital experiences to audiences in existing and new markets. Lionbridge MT experts track and analyze the latest MT trends. Visit the Lionbridge Machine Translation Hub to learn more.
There are a variety of ways to apply MT. You can use the technology to translate your website or other product-related collateral. You can communicate with people inside and outside of your company without hiring native speakers. The technology can be used to staff help desks to better serve customers in more markets. It can increase office productivity by enabling employees to translate internal documents. Use MT in the following ways:
MT enables companies to handle a growing amount of content and increase communications across digital channels. It helps them scale the dissemination of their content in both existing and new markets despite fixed marketing and localization budgets. MT enables companies to compete effectively.
Yet, some leaders hesitate to use MT at scale because they fear their customers will have poor experiences. Extensive research counters those concerns with findings that indicate end users are willing to accept less-than-perfect quality.
A survey of 8,709 consumers in 29 countries found:
(Source: “Can’t Read, Won’t Buy – B2C,” CSA Research, June 2020)
As the quality of MT significantly improves, a growing number of companies are turning to the technology to meet the needs of end user who expect more personalized and localized digital experiences. It is imperative for companies to utilize MT to compete with and surpass competitors.
By making MT part of the content lifecycle, companies can improve the experiences of non-native audiences. When MT is executed properly, it enables companies to achieve a consistent brand voice across languages and different content types. There is a caveat. It is not possible to achieve a consistent brand voice when using free MT services. This approach can, indeed, result in poor customer experiences because these free services frequently deliver average or poor-quality translations.
MT’s cost efficiency unlocks extraordinary opportunities. Companies can now make their products and digital experiences available in many more markets. The ability to Localize everything is here. With ever-growing improvements in MT quality, companies that implement the technology effectively can expect to grow their presence in multiple markets without incurring additional costs.
Interested in learning more about how to put Smart MT to work for you? Reach out to us.