You’ve heard the hype around machine translation, but is it right for your business? Machine translation is unlikely to replace human translators completely, and it isn’t right for every project. However, it can help your organization meet the challenges of doing business with people from across the globe.
Here are five powerful reasons to use machine translation.
Machine translation is faster.
There’s one area where machine translation has a definite edge over human translators: speed. Computers can translate text exponentially faster than even the fastest human translator.
Machine Translation makes it possible to translate vast amounts of data.
Because machine translation is so much faster than human-powered translation, it’s the only practical way to handle large amounts of data that need translation. One of the most compelling examples of this would be cross-border eDiscovery.
Can you imagine trying to find enough linguists to translate terabytes worth of data? The expense and the amount of time required would be prohibitive, and most of the documents won’t be relevant to the case. Machine translation makes it possible to produce a rough translation of everything, cheaply.
Then, computer programs search the translated content and find documents that are relevant to the case. Human translators can review only the relevant documents for relevancy and accuracy.
Machine translation is also often the only practical way to translate large amounts of user-generated content, which has become increasingly important in the age of social media.
Machine Translation improves security and compliance.
We’ve all heard the saying, “to err is human.” However, with consumers and regulators alike focusing more on data security now than ever before, forgiveness rarely comes without hefty fines. Machine translation can help improve data security and compliance by reducing the need for human translators to access sensitive data.
Machine translation also makes it possible to implement compliance monitoring at scale, as well as to maximize the effectiveness of your compliance budget.
However, for machine translation to benefit compliance, it has to be done on a secure platform. Free cloud-based translation platforms can compromise your sensitive data and leave your organization vulnerable.
Machine translation results in more consistent translations.
Whether you’re communicating with customers or with internal stakeholders, a consistent brand voice is essential. Using a customized machine translation engine (with human post-editing) can lead to more consistent translation, as terms get translated the same way each time.
Machine translation saves money.
For many organizations, this is the chief attraction of machine translation. It’s just cheaper to have a computer do the translations than it is to pay people to do the same job. With machine translation, you can save anywhere from 35% to 98% of the cost of a human translator.
Of course, this advantage only applies if you use machine translation appropriately. When used indiscriminately, MT can lead to errors that cost more to correct than you’d have spent on human translation in the first place. Your translation agency can help you determine when and how to deploy machine translation to maximum advantage.
If you still have questions about machine translation or translation in general, our team is ready to answer them. Contact us today!
