With more businesses expanding into global markets, the need for accurate and professionally translated content also increases. Language connects a community, and it is a means to clear communication among people living in the same region. However, how a business approaches its content translation might be different. Today, most companies use either human translations or AI-generated translations, or a combination of both. It is important to evaluate which method is suitable for your unique business and how it will help you fulfil your translation objectives within budget.

Here in this article, we will be analyzing the pros and cons of translating your content through AI tools and professional linguists.

AI Vs Human Generated Translations

AI Vs Human Generated Translations

AI Content Translations

The use of AI tools for business translation generation is becoming more common these days with the advancement of technology. Let’s take a look at how these tools can help you and what their possible drawbacks are.

Pros 

Quick translations – the major advantage of AI tools is their ability to generate quick translations within seconds. If your cloud-based localization management platform has an MT tool, it will help you seamlessly manage your translation tasks and generate translations from one platform only.

Cost-effectiveness – Unlike human translation, AI costs you way cheaper. It will reduce your dependence on professional linguists and you get away with high volumes of translations without investing in a huge human workforce.

Flexibility- you can use AI translation tools anywhere using any device if you have access to credentials. Moreover, scaling your business is much simpler if you have a professional MT tool in place.

Cons 

Inconsistent translation– you can’t expect an MT tool to provide highly in-context and consistent translations. There will be issues related to the accuracy, consistent content tone, and context of the original message.

Lack of cultural resonance– the MT tools that you are using might not have enough cultural references to generate culturally appropriate translations. AI tools might not be the best choice if you are looking for high cultural relevance in your translations.

No customization- you can’t really do your translation customization using an AI translation tool. Most MT tools only take the source text and translate it into the target language, so you can’t give your AI tools a lot of instructions.

Human-generated translations

Traditionally, businesses have been hiring professional translators to do their professional translation project management. Here are some pros of hiring human translators for translations, and the possible cons that must be kept in mind.

Pros

In-context translations- human translators can better understand the context behind your source text and provide more relevant translations. The tone of the whole translation project will be consistent and professional linguists also help you keep the original voice of your brand alive through translations.

Culturally resonating translations– if you have hired native translators for translation project management, your translations will be culturally appropriate, and you don’t have to worry about any sort of cultural offense.

Full customization- when you hire professional translators for translation projects, you can give them instructions and contain references to translate the content as you want. You can add as many customizations as you want and get fully personalized translations for your brand.

Cons

Time-consuming- managing strict translation deadlines and delivering the project on time can be an issue if you are totally relying on your translators. Human translation takes time, and there are high chances of delays.

Expensive– Professional human translators are mostly expensive and if you are hiring many translators, it will cost you a great deal of money. Especially if you have in-house translators, you have to pay your resources full-time salaries on a monthly basis. It is quite costly compared to buying an MT tool in a localization project management platform.  

Can be inconsistent -human translation can be inconsistent as well if you have multiple translators handling the same translation project. You can provide translators with a translation glossary, so they can follow the same translation tone and style. Otherwise, you will have different versions of translations in diverse tones for one single project.

Which is the best practice for cost-effective, accurate, and agile translations?

As far as speed, cost, and work efficiency is a concern, most companies go for AI translations. On the flip side, for ensuring accuracy and contextual translations, you rather choose human translations only.

However, to deal with current-day translation needs when accuracy, speed, and effectiveness are the priorities, the machine translation post-editing method is getting more popular. This method ensures speed, cost-effectiveness, and agility in your translations. At the same time, the accuracy and context of the content were taken care of through proper editing processes. So, if you want to have it all under one platform, then combining human proficiency with technology is the best option to choose.