Machine translation, also known as automatic translation, uses computer software to translate text from one language to another without human involvement. The best machine translation software provides comprehensible and linguistically accurate translations in real time, which is accomplished with engines using AI.
More recently, advanced AI has become capable of distinguishing contexts and generating highly accurate translations. This kind of accuracy is especially critical in customer service communication and in domains like finance and travel, where clarity and context are key.
With increasing labor shortage and a mounting need for efficiency, machine translation tools have fast become a crucial component of customer service success. AI-powered machine translation solutions like Language IO power support agents to help their customers in any language, reducing miscommunication and lowering response times and wait times.
In this guide, we’ll go through some of the essential features of the best machine translation tools for customer service and some criteria you need to look for when evaluating machine translation solutions.
What are the best machine translation software features?
Let’s look closely at some of the best machine translation software features and capabilities that could significantly strengthen your customer service function.
Accuracy and context awareness
When it comes to machine translation and AI, there are different types of technology that businesses use for customer service. Large language models (LLM) are systems and algorithms that have been trained on massive amounts of data to process, predict and generate natural language. For example, autocomplete and predictive text on your messaging apps are language models.
These immense deep learning models are capable of self-learning and unsupervised training. From basic grammar and syntax to voice, tone and intent, these models learn to understand a variety of information. An example of an LLM-based model is Google’s PaLM 2.
LLMs are built for more general purpose applications, however. LLMs are trained on large volumes of all kinds of data and are more generic. Which means, your translation will be the most likely, but not necessarily the most accurate.
For applications like customer service, where the brand voice and accuracy are critical, you need more advanced technology. This is where neural machine translation (NMT) comes in: Neural machine translation (NMT) is the latest evolution of machine translation.
NMT takes machine translation several steps further. It leverages large artificial neural networks, such as transformers and recurrent neural networks (RNNs), to predict the likelihood of correct translations as well as continuously improve the accuracy of real-time translations.
The language models for NMT are built and improved through an iterative training process that involves exposure to millions of sentence-specific translations between language pairs, gradually adjusting its output to identify and minimize translation errors over time.
NMT is more focused and specifically tailored on data based on your industry, subject matter, terminology, etc. This means NMT will give you the translation that’s the most accurate in that specific context.
Language IO’s AI-powered translation also goes one step further and imposes your business’s specific glossary on these translations. This self-improving glossary and this AI layer learn from every interaction and ensure that company- or product-specific terms and even slang or misspellings are always translated accurately.
Takeaway: Look for advanced technology that can provide high-quality, accurate translations while capturing nuances and context. This kind of technology leverages deep learning and AI to deliver more natural and fluent translations.
Language coverage
The number of languages supported by a translation software is crucial: This determines the range of languages a solution can handle effectively. This might seem simple and straightforward, but you want a solution that has coverage in the languages you need. Language IO, for example, provides accurate high-quality translations in more than 150 languages. No matter what language your customers speak, you can find coverage and support for it with us.
Even in the breadth of languages covered, you need high quality as well as the means to evaluate machine translation quality. It’s not enough if a machine translation solution is just able to translate in French; it needs to translate accurately and intelligibly in that language, or the translation is rendered useless. This becomes especially critical in rare languages, where it’s more difficult and expensive to get highly accurate translation.
Another way to look at it is with language pairs: It’s important to not just look at the language availability, but also consider the source and target language pairs. Some translation solutions require English as a middle language. When you translate text from one language to another and then another, you’re liable to lose more in translation. Therefore, it’s crucial to find a solution that takes the middle language out of the equation and can directly and accurately translate from the source to the target language.
Different languages treat different domains and industries differently. Some languages might just borrow industry-specific terminology from English, while others might have their own way to reference these terms. It’s critical to ensure that your translation technology can address this kind of need, especially if your business works in a niche category.
It’s also worth noting that most translation software companies are always working on expanding their language support. Many providers keep working on adding new languages and improving existing ones. Having visibility into that roadmap is also important.
Takeaway: When choosing a machine translation solution, businesses should consider the specific languages they need for their target markets, the quality of translation and performance in each language as well as in each language pair, and support for industry- or domain-specific phrases in each of these languages.
Data security and privacy
When it comes to security and privacy, machine translation solutions must prioritize several key practices with the collection, handling, encryption, retention and deletion of data. This is especially crucial in an area like customer service, where customers provide sensitive information like identity proofs, account information, payment details, etc. The translation solution you use must be able to encrypt personally identifiable information (PII) and provide maximum security for your customer data.
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With AI solutions being in the news every day for cyberattacks and data breaches, it’s critical for businesses to have stringent rules and established guardrails that their third-party translation vendors must adhere to. Every translation solution must be evaluated for a security-first approach to avoid privacy risks and losing customer trust.
The best machine translation software solutions employ robust data encryption methods. For example, Language IO automatically detects and masks PII even before the translation takes place. There are also a few encryption standards like using a secure, TLS 1.2-encrypted and authenticated connection for communications security over computer networks.
Many machine translation companies might promise security, but still store all the customer communication, presumably to train their software. If these communications include PII, any business working with these translation solutions is not safe from the risk of data breaches. No one wants their data languishing in a server somewhere in the world, waiting to be breached.
Language IO has a strict zero data retention policy. This means, we delete any customer conversations immediately after the translation is complete. In other words, we don’t store any customer data ever — not even to train our translation models.
Another key aspect of security is compliance with the latest global security standards like ISO 27001, GDPR, SOC 2 and HIPAA. Language IO adheres with all these as well as CCPA, PCI and the EU-US Data Privacy Framework. In fact, Language IO is the only translation solution to be certified against the latest 2022 version of ISO 27001, setting us apart from others.
You must also watch out for how these translation solutions treat partnerships and vendors. Any security protocols must also extend to subprocessors, contractors and other platforms the translation solution works with. For example, Language IO only works with machine translation engines that contractually agree that they will not store customer data.
Aside from these, the best machine translation solutions also follow strict protocols and have secure infrastructure to ensure that data always remains safe. These include stringent access control policies, where their employees and contractors only get limited access to data, a solid Business Continuity Plan (BCP) and continuous monitoring for threats, among others.
Takeaway: When selecting a machine translation solution, businesses should thoroughly review the provider’s security measures and ensure they align with their own data protection requirements. It’s crucial to choose a provider that not only offers powerful translation capabilities but also prioritizes the confidentiality and security of your business data throughout the entire translation process.
Multi-engine approach
The multi-engine approach is a sophisticated feature available in some of the best machine translation software. This approach leverages multiple translation engines to produce higher quality translations.
Different translation engines have varying strengths in different domains and language pairs. That means the engine that delivers the best translation output for English to Korean might not be equally impressive when translating from Afrikaans to Dutch. This also extends to domain-specific languages; some engines might deliver sophisticated translations in the legal field, while another one might excel in IT and technology-related content.
By comparing outputs for different language pairs from multiple engines, the best machine translation technology can intelligently identify and select the most accurate and contextually appropriate translations, leading to more consistent results.
This also means that the best translation software is more adaptable: The multi-engine approach allows the system to adapt to different types of content and language pairs by selecting the most suitable engine for each specific translation task.
And if one translation engine is down? The best machine translation solution immediately switches over to the next best model, ensuring that you always get the best translation possible.
Language IO, for example, aggregates the world’s leading machine translation engines and intelligently selects the best model based on the context, content type, language pair and domain. This means you’ll always get the best translation for any given conversation, consistently.
Takeaway: The multi-engine approach represents a significant advancement in machine translation technology, offering businesses the potential for more accurate and contextually appropriate translations across a wide range of content types and language pairs.
Integrations
Integration capabilities are a crucial feature of modern machine translation software solutions for businesses: Integrations allow for automated translation processes, reducing manual effort and improving efficiency. Not only that, advanced integrations allow businesses to customize machine translation engines for specific domains or content types, improving translation quality.
Leading machine translation solutions provide APIs for easy integration with custom applications and cloud services, enabling real-time translation capabilities for applications, websites, and customer support systems.
The best machine translation software also supports translation across all the key communication channels — email, live chat, chatbot and knowledge bases.
Language IO integrates with leading CRMs, which means support agents can translate right where they work without having to toggle between windows or press multiple buttons. This kind of seamless integration increases productivity and also keeps support secure and accurate by eliminating inefficient processes. This also reduces onboarding and training time, helping teams start translating and seeing ROI right away.
Takeaway: Businesses must look for robust integration capabilities. This will help them create a more efficient, accurate, and scalable translation process that seamlessly fits into their existing technology stack and workflows.
Performance
Speed and scalability are crucial aspects of machine translation software, especially for businesses dealing with large volumes of support content. This is one of the biggest advantages of machine translation over human translation: Machine translation systems can process text at incredibly high speeds.
The speed becomes especially critical when you’re translating real-time communication in support, like live chat or chatbots. Powerful machine translation can process millions of words almost instantaneously, which also comes in extremely handy when translating large volumes of complicated text, like documentation or user-generated content.
The scalability part of high-performing machine translation solutions comes in when you’re dealing with fluctuating volumes of content. This scalability is essential to power customer support, especially in domains where volumes can surge seasonally or geographies where you can’t always instantly hire new agents in every language.
Takeaway: Fast and scalable machine translation solutions decrease turnaround times and lead to immense cost savings, since it reduces the need for human involvement in the translation process and helps businesses stay flexible and operate on a truly international scale with unprecedented efficiency.
The advancements in machine translation technology — particularly through AI-enabled features, from NMT and contextual understanding to real-time capabilities and sophisticated customization options — offer a wealth of tools designed to enhance translation quality and efficiency.
Especially when it comes to customer support, high accuracy, coverage in the languages you need, robust data protection, seamless integrations and high speed are vital in machine translation technology.
The right machine translation software can empower businesses to break down language barriers, enhance customer engagement, and unlock new opportunities in an increasingly interconnected world. Embracing these technologies will help organizations not only communicate effectively but also thrive on the global stage.
