Imagine being the beneficiary of a translation process that is efficient, cost-effective and consistently delivers high-quality output. The mainstreaming of translation automation, leveraging a variety of customizable cutting-edge models, has helped make this scenario a reality.

What is Translation Automation All About?

Unlike machine translation, automated processes still involve translation by humans. However, replacing some manual steps with automated ones can result in improved communication and coordination among the project team. The timeframe of a project can be shortened significantly and human errors can be greatly reduced. For example, automation that manages the workflow of a project ensures that work is distributed to the correct person as soon as it is ready, eliminating bottlenecks that come from waiting on information from translators or project managers. Translation automation benefits include:

• Quick content updates for frequently changing websites and other platforms.
• Reduction in project management time, since the workflow is automated from the initial inquiry until the project is complete.
• Consistent timelines to ensure deadlines are met and projects are completed on time.
• Efficient workflow with timely file transfers and the ability to quickly move between process steps.
• Lower project costs by eliminating unnecessary human involvement.
• Higher quality work by lessening opportunities for human errors to occur.
• Implementation of repeatable, scalable, and reliable steps, increasing the speed of the project.
• Elimination of issues with different time zones by making the project visible and available 24/7.
• Guarantee of file security, since no files are exchanged through emails.

How to Incorporate Automation into the Translation Process

While it is clear that automation greatly enhances translation, there are often questions about the ease of being able to implement automated features. There are, however, many efficient avenues available for putting automation into practice, including:

Artificial intelligence (AI)

As the use of artificial intelligence continues to grow, companies are finding new ways to combine AI with translation automation to achieve superior real-time translations. For example, the US Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) is testing software that is quick enough to follow basic conversations. One of the software’s applications is to assist troops in Iraq by translating English to Arabic and Arabic to English. A primary advantage of AI in translation is that it can swiftly capture language nuances that can be difficult to achieve in other types of machine translation. This enhances opportunities for popular tools, such as virtual assistants, to become available in numerous languages.

Translation Proxies

Using a translation proxy can significantly increase the speed of content preparation. By capturing the HTML and text components from a website’s presentation layer, the proxy eradicates the need for alterations to the code, while rapidly queuing text strings for the translation process. The translations can be either completely automated in real time, or they can come from translated sentences that are stored and ready for use. With the content available in a proxy service, multiple versions of a platform or website for every target language are no longer necessary.

Cloud Collaboration

One of the easiest ways to add automation to a translation process is to use a cloud for shared documents. With cloud collaboration, individual assignments throughout the translation process progress significantly faster than through email. Project team members are automatically alerted when they are needed to step in to help, and projects are moved to the next stage with the help of triggers that are customized for the workflow.  In addition, everyone involved with the translation has visibility into the work status and timelines, ensuring that nothing gets overlooked.

Internationalization (i18n)

Internationalization is a process of developing and designing products, applications or documents in a way that makes it easier to localize them for foreign markets in the future. It’s a key tenet of process automation in translation. If a business decides to localize software, internationalization facilitates the required language variations and text encodings. As a result of internationalization, localized content is adjusted for the target language, ensuring that the content is accurate and is correctly formatted for the program.

Computer Assisted Translation (CAT) Tools

CAT tools, computer programs that help facilitate the translation process, provide another important avenue for automation. By operating on translation memories, CAT tools use a database that maintains repeated sentences and phrases, as well as their equivalent translations. With the help of these translation memories, translators can use each other’s input, allowing them to know the precise word that was used to translate a term. CAT tools provide numerous benefits, including automating several process that are typically manual, providing collaboration tools, and allowing for translation consistency throughout the content.

The language industry is ranked as one of the top areas to start a company, and it’s pretty clear that the translation demand will continue to soar. Add to this the need to deliver precise customization for enterprises, adapting to their unique challenges, so as to deliver effective content and communication across every conceivable major language pair.

Incorporating automation into the translation mix helps achieve these objectives seamlessly, and ensures business are future-ready with superior translation and localization options.