Machine-driven translation services are rapidly expanding, thanks to advances in artificial intelligence (AI) and large language model technologies. Though imperfect, machine translation (MT) creates more access to accurate, speedy translations. MT isn’t ideal for every situation, though—its application depends on your project, its scope, and the translated material’s intended purpose.
MT uses software to translate text or speech from one language to another. It also automates the translation process using machine learning (ML) and AI to draw from vast amounts of language data.
While MT can’t yet replace a human translator’s accuracy, tone, and ability to understand social nuances, it’s useful for quick, low-stakes translation between source and target languages.
MT is the best choice for large-scale projects that require straightforward translations, such as:
Here are a few scenarios where MT might be the best option:
Quick text communication: Companies with a global presence often need to translate their documents, websites, or applications into multiple languages. Here, MT enables fast and efficient localization. Translate an email or a note into a target language to stay on the same page as your recipient.
Technical documents: MT is useful for translating technical documents since they rely less on nuance and more on strict interpretation. While accuracy is still important (ask anyone who has assembled a consumer item using foreign-language instructions), MT software is accurate enough to convey instructions and preserve the text’s intent.
Social media management: MT can analyze simple posts in various languages to help companies understand customers and respond in their native language. Some social media platforms like Facebook offer a translation option that converts text to the user’s current language settings with just a click.
International events: For live events like conferences or sports competitions, where participants come from various linguistic backgrounds, MT tools can immediately translate speeches or commentaries. They can also provide post-session transcriptions and notes for everyone to reference.
A native language human translator uses their understanding of both the source and target languages to create a faithful translation with the full nuance and tone of a native speaker. A human translator’s skill exceeds MT’s current capabilities to capture natural language.
Human translation is best when:
Here are some scenarios where human translation might be the best choice:
Legal documentation: Precision and accuracy are vital to complex legal terminology. These documents require factual accuracy to render decisions. Errors could potentially lead to legal consequences, misapplication of the law, or delays in reaching a resolution.
Medical records and reports: Medical records have health and legal consequences, so it’s essential to translate this information accurately. Miscommunication or misinterpretation of terms may lead to adverse health outcomes.
Publications: Books, magazines, and any content that can’t be edited post-publication require human translation. This ensures total accuracy and fidelity to the original text.
Brand marketing: Ensuring brand message consistency across different languages requires a human touch. A native language translator maintains the original content’s nuances and creativity while making it relatable for a foreign audience.
Culturally sensitive material: Content that must adhere to cultural norms and sensibilities benefits greatly from human translation. Skilled translators can interpret context better than machines, ensuring culturally sensitive translations.
With so many options, finding the best MT tool for your needs can be tough. Let's take a look at how the top tools compare.
Translating content word-for-word can distort the message. To prevent this, Amazon Translate uses a neural network. Its neural machine translation (NMT) tool considers the context of source sentences and previously translated content, which allows translations to retain the original text’s meaning and maintain fluency.
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Best for: Small- and medium-sized businesses (SMBs), mid-market, enterprise
Use case: Use Amazon Translate to convert books and technical manuals into over 75 languages and sell them through Amazon’s self-publishing services.
Known for its reliable quality, DeepL Translator helps professional translators work faster. Because it uses an ML model, the tool becomes better at translating your text over time. That means less time spent editing translations.
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Use case: Use DeepL to translate sensitive and proprietary information by marrying human translation skills with the speed of MT.
CrossLang’s philosophy is that specialized knowledge is a must to effectively apply MT. This app ensures a close match to brand tone and terminology for specific use cases. Rather than provide the usual generic solutions, it instead focuses on customization.
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Use case: CrossLang’s online publishing integrations make it ideal for ecommerce users and content creators who need a streamlined way to serve web content in many different languages.
Google Translate is among the most popular MT software tools. For many of its 100+ available languages, it uses neural translation technology to deliver accurate, natural translations.
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Best for: SMBs, mid-market
Use case: Google Translate is great for translating internal business communications and collaborating on internal projects, emails, and other business-related translation needs in popular languages.
Rounding out this list is Microsoft Translator, which—like all the tools here—connects with Smartling. It handles document and text translation with NMT as the default for all supported languages.
Features: Dictionary Lookup finds alternative translations, and Dictionary Examples helps you understand the context of selected words. Batch translation is available. There's no limit on the number of characters you can send in a single translation request. Custom Translator supports industry-specific translation. This increases content accuracy and translation quality during the translation process.
Pros: With just a single request, you can translate source text into multiple languages at once. Translator is scalable and works across Microsoft products, including Office, Edge, SharePoint, Bing, and more. Microsoft Translator stores no customer data or submitted text in data centers. It also holds several compliance certifications, including HIPAA, ISO, SOC, and FedRAMP.
Cons: Depending on the language pair, Microsoft Translator sometimes translates text less accurately than Google Translate, DeepL, and other alternatives. Users have reported that this tool doesn’t always do well with the nuances of various languages. For example, it may not translate slang appropriately.
Best for: Mid-market, enterprise
Use case: Microsoft Translate is useful for customer support scripts, internal communications, and web localization.
Why pick one engine when you can have access to the best fit for your brand and content? Smartling’s NMT Hub integrates with all major MT engines listed above, but it also goes beyond a list of engines to deliver services with the right level of automation or human intervention. These services include:
Smartling’s NMT Hub uses AI to select the best MT engine to instantly deliver the highest-quality translation results. This results in reduced post-editing efforts on a large scale (some customers see a reduction of over 350%) and ensures the best engine choice for raw publishing scenarios.
And while popular MT engines may break placeholders or tags, causing errors in your applications, Smartling’s NMT Hub identifies and corrects these errors with pre- and post-processing rules before your translations deliver.
The NMT Hub also benefits from the advantages of Smartling’s translation software. It gives users the ability to handle all language content and translation needs at scale and administer MT and human translation across complex formats from a central workspace.
Smartling is more than just a translation software. It’s a flexible, full-service solution that gives fast-growing companies access to next-level human and machine translation services for scalable content transformation.
Watch a demo of Smartling today to see how we deliver the best combination of speed, scale, and accuracy.