Recent advancements in AI technology and automatic translation have become the hottest topic in the industry for many reasons. While there are skeptics who fear the potential impact AI may have on human translation, there are many people excited at the prospects of easier, and even more efficient translation. In an increasingly globalized world, in which markets are expanding at a record pace, AI plays a significant role in the way companies and businesses handle communication. AI and machine translation have answered the need for rapid, large-scale translation at a lower cost.
That being said, AI has its limitations despite all the benefits it may bring to a business. There is still a big gap in machine translation text and cultural nuances and emotional context. This is where transcreation can be used – a method in which the initial emotion, tone, and style of the original text are maintained in the translation.
Understanding AI in Translations
AI translation technologies and machine translation systems such as Google Translate or DeepL, have become an integral part of modern translation. These tools use natural language processing (NLP) and machine learning to automate the translation process, which makes it faster and cost-effective. There are several types of AI translations:
- Statistical Machine Translation (SMT): This method uses mathematical models based on large amounts of bilingual data. It includes three components: a translation model, which finds word and phrase correspondences between languages; a language model, which predicts the most likely word sequences in the target language; and a decoding algorithm which selects the best translation. SMT doesn’t require deep linguistic knowledge and adapts easily to new languages and text types, which makes it very useful. On the other hand, however, it struggles with idiomatic expressions and requires large amounts of data to train. SMT still remains valuable for languages with limited resources, even though it’s mostly replaced by Neural Machine Translation (NMT).
- Neural Machine Translation (NMT): NMT uses AI to learn and improve language translations, simulating neural networks in the human brain. It offers higher accuracy than other translation methods and simplifies the process of adding new languages. It works by incorporating training data, which can be generic or custom, depending on the user’s needs. Generic data comes from past translations and provides a translation tool for various applications, while custom data focuses on specialized fields, like engineering or programming, ensuring more accurate translations. NMT has quickly become the standard in machine translation due to its performance compared to other types of AI translation.
Considerations for Businesses using AI translations
There are several things businesses must consider before using AI translation:
Budget: Neural Machine Translation is oftentimes more expensive to train than SMT, but quality is usually better, which may justify the cost.
Industry: Some industries require complex or technical language, which may benefit from the advanced capabilities of NMT.
Language Pairs: SMT works best for language pairs, especially those with similar syntaxes, such as Latin-based languages.
Amount of Content: NMT is less suitable for small projects because it needs large volumes of text for training.
Content Type: There are types of content that work best with higher-quality translations and human post-editing. Internal documents or communications will work fine with MT, however.
By automating repetitive and high-volume tasks, AI reduces operational costs and accelerates time-to-market for international products and services. This scalability is particularly beneficial for industries such as e-commerce, where rapid translation of product descriptions and customer reviews can directly impact sales.
Pros of AI translation
- Speed: one of the main advantages of using AI is its speed compared to human translators. Large volumes of text can be translated quickly, which can be especially useful for various scenarios such as technical manuals, website content, or legal documents.
- Cost: AI translation can be cost-effective compared to hiring human translators, especially for large texts. Even though there are costs associated with training the AI, once it’s trained it can work 24/7 without needing breaks or payment for overtime.
- Consistency: AI systems follow a set of rules and algorithms, which can make them more consistent than human translators. AI translation can provide more consistent translations than human translators.
Cons of AI translation
While there are several benefits to AI translations, there are a few limitations businesses need to consider as well:
- Quality: While AI translations have improved a lot in recent years, they still fall short of human translators, especially when it comes to nuanced or creative content. AI systems struggle with context, humor, idiomatic expressions, and subtle language cues.
- Localization: AI translations struggle most with localization, which involves understanding cultural nuances and norms. AI systems can miss these details, and lead to inaccurate translations or translations that do not suit the target audience.
- Limited Languages: AI translation does not support all languages, and more importantly the quality can vary between languages, limiting its effectiveness.
The Role of Transcreation in Enhancing AI Translations
AI has a lot of benefits, but it also has several limitations such as quality discrepancies, and a lack of cultural understanding. This is where transcreation comes in. Transcreation is a blend of translation and creative adaptation, which makes it useful where AI translations fall short. Transcreation focuses on aligning the cultural, emotional, and linguistic expectations of the target language by maintaining the intent, style, tone, and context of the original content.
Transcreation is particularly valuable for marketing, advertising, or literature where emotional resonance and cultural relevance are essential. Transcreation is a way for professionals to speak directly to consumers while preserving the brand’s identity while tailoring the content to the specific culture.
Why is transcreation important?
Transcreation will help you resonate with your audience, which can lead to more attention toward your brand, which can lead to more sales, for example. It can also help with:
- Raise brand awareness
- Drive new business
- Build an emotional connection with your audience
- Build brand trust
- Increase conversion rates
- Avoid cultural mistakes that can harm your reputation
- Show cultural sensitivity
Case Studies and Examples
One example we can take a look at comes from Japan. We’ve all heard the famous “Have a Break, Have a Kit Kat” slogan that’s used globally. However, when KitKat was introduced in Japan (as “Kitto Katto”), the slogan was changed to resonate with the local audience. In Japanese, “Kitto Katsu” (きっと勝つ) sounds like “surely win,” turning the chocolate bar into a symbol of good luck. This clever wordplay transformed KitKat into a good luck charm and is especially popular during exam season. That marketing not only boosted sales but also embedded the brand into Japanese culture, showcasing how a small change can create a deep emotional connection with local audiences.
Implementing a Hybrid Approach
A hybrid approach that combines the efficiency of AI with the accuracy and creativity of transcreation, is the best option for businesses seeking to optimize their global content strategies. AI can handle the bulk of translation tasks, and human translators can refine the key marketing messages, slogans, or other cultural content.
Businesses can strike the perfect balance between cost-efficiency and cultural relevance by integrating both AI and transcreation. The hybrid approach allows businesses to scale globally while maintaining local connection with their audience.
Conclusion
In conclusion, AI and transcreation can work synergistically to maximize ROI in global marketing and communications strategies. While AI offers speed, scalability, and cost savings, transcreation ensures that content resonates culturally and emotionally with local audiences. By leveraging both technologies, businesses can create multilingual content that is not only accurate but also impactful, enhancing their global presence and driving success across diverse markets.