AI-Based Translation for Your business – Pros and Cons

A number of fields benefitted from artificial intelligence, and it should come as no surprise. After all, it can be used to take care of a wide range of tedious tasks, ranging from detecting cancer cells faster than medical professionals to finding leaks in miles-long pipelines. So, provided that you know how to use them, AI-based tools can help to increase your productivity and accuracy quite a bit.

When it comes to translation, artificial intelligence has come long way. Translation software has become consistent, accurate, and accessible, with Google Translate and personal assistants like Siri and Alexa being able to do translation for you in the blink of an eye. In addition, such software can be constantly updated and improved using large datasets and human feedback. Unfortunately, such software does have its downsides. If you were to develop an AI-based translation service on your own, it would come with huge initial costs. In addition, AI-based translation is far from being perfect and is still reliant on actual human translators; for example, translation in science or of legal documents always needs to be overseen by someone who knows the language as well as the relevant niche.

If you are thinking about developing or using an AI-based translation service, you will find a short list of both the upsides and the downsides in the article below.

Pros of AI-Based Translation

AI-based translation has several advantages. First of all, it is faster than traditional translation services. If you are used to manually translating texts, you know that it can take hours to translate just a few hundred words. When using an AI-based service, you get the translation in less time, and you probably do not have to pay for it as much as you would have to pay if you were to hire a human translator.

Another great advantage of AI-based translation software is its accessibility. Nowadays, it is available for just about any device, be it a smartphone or a laptop. As such, it can be used as a personal translator that will help you communicate with others on the go, regardless of where you are or what language the people that you are talking to speak.

Moreover, such software is constantly being improved using user feedback and large sets of data, which means that it can be made to be more accurate and more efficient with time. Artificial intelligence is also very versatile, so you can use it to translate a variety of different languages and text types.

Finally, an AI-based translator service is available for you to use at any time. You do not have to wait for a human translator to become available in order to get the translation you need.

Cons of AI-Based Translation

To provide you with the best AI-based translation, its developers need to be able to collect and analyze a lot of data. So, if you are looking to develop an AI-based translation tool quickly and cheaply, it is likely to end up being inaccurate and unsuccessful.

Another problem associated with using artificial intelligence is that it is often unpredictable. One day, it will work perfectly fine and produce an accurate translation, and the next, it will not cooperate at all. As such, if you are planning to use an AI-based translation service, you will need to make sure that you have an alternative plan in case the tool that you are using fails to produce a satisfactory translation.

In addition, the results of AI-based translation are still not very accurate. AI-based translations still have to be read and edited for accuracy and clarity by human translators.

Finally, artificial intelligence tends to have issues with the context. It simply does not understand the context in which the text it is translating is going to be used or the meaning behind certain words, so it will not always be able to produce a proper translation.

How Can You Benefit from AI-Based Translation?

Ideally, AI-based translation services should be used as supplementary tool. In other words, it should be used to create a base for an accurate translation. Later on, it will be corrected, edited, and expanded upon by a human translator. When used in such a way by a team of translators, it can help to increase the entire team’s productivity and profitability significantly.

On the other hand, AI-based translation has plenty of downsides that might slow you down, particularly if you are dealing with highly specialized texts or texts that include a large number of idioms, wordplay, and cultural references.

Can AI Replace Translators?

As it stands, artificial intelligence is far from being able to replace human translators. However, that does not mean that it cannot be used as a supplement for human translation. It can help you to increase your productivity and accuracy without necessarily taking over the work of a human translator.

In Conclusion

While AI-based translation is not perfect, it can be a very useful tool. If you are a professional translator, it should be able to help you to increase the accuracy and the speed of your translation.

However, in order to genuinely benefit from it, you will need to do your research and find a tool that suits your needs and your expectations. The best way to do that is to browse different discussion boards dedicated to translators. Other than that, asking other translators for advice and recommendations is always a viable option. You’ll soon see it’s all worth the effort.