Technology. No matter what the industry, we are all inundated with technological advances that hit us at an accelerated speed year after year. For the language services industry, technology has become a popular buzzword as language services providers (LSPs) and end-users eagerly look for the latest innovative translation software solutions to help them save time and money. XTM International, a company that specializes in developing technology that optimizes and automates the translation process, is one such translation software company leading the way.
As XTM International prepares for XTM Live on March 19-20 in Silicon Valley – a world-renowned region for progressive technology – Slator had the chance to speak about the latest technology advances with Shamus Dermody, XTM SVP Sales and GM North America.
Slator: Some critics believe that AI’s involvement in translation, at least for the foreseeable future, will remain rather limited. Proponents argue, however, that AI will play an increasingly important role in translation and localization processes. What are your thoughts on this debate?
Dermody: With any significant technology evolution, the optimists expect way too much, the pessimists have their heads in the sand, and the reality will most likely land smack in the center. Regardless, the current results are massive in terms of the amount of content that can be successfully processed and the speed at which this can happen.
Artificial Intelligence and machine learning, however, in forms like NMT have precipitated a massive ground-breaking change to our industry. For the immediate future this will be the most significant single evolution, at least in the context of the largest single task – that of content linguistic adaptation.
Slator: Speaking of NMT, some industry experts contend that as early as 2022, most businesses will have embraced the use of NMT for their translations. Is this also your contention, or do you see AI translations as handling more of the mundane, repetitive translation tasks leaving the more complex, creative translation tasks to the professional linguists?
Dermody: In a word, yes. In fact, most are already using NMT to a certain degree. We are currently witnessing this trend sweeping our industry. The line between what is creative and what is mundane is often defined differently though, from company to company and from vertical to vertical. “Creative” is not the only criterion. The other significant factor is the purpose of the text. The line will move over time and most likely sway back and forth with external changes, regulations and customer criterion – and of course with evolution in the output quality.
Slator: How is XTM currently maximizing its use of AI?
Dermody: XTM is working on a number of initiatives to aid the professional translator to complete their work faster, more accurately, and more cost effectively. XTM has long had a massive focus on process automation and has led the way in the introduction of AI solutions automation – the Localization Process – from the workflow perspective.
Current AI in XTM includes terminology extraction/MSEO keyword extraction, and an intelligent alignment engine. In the near future, some AI development areas include automatic placement of inline elements and bilingual terminology extraction. And further down the road, we’re looking at dynamic sub-segment matching, dynamic “learn” mode within XTM, especially for post-editing, bilingual terminology extraction from existing TM data, AI-enabled “predictive-typing”, AI-enabled robotic-based user enhancements, and AI-enhanced linguistic quality auditing processes.
Slator: You had mentioned MSEO. Multilingual SEO is a subject that is sure to attract a lot of attention as this technology has so many benefits, including the potential to increase a company’s global website traffic, improve the user experience, and build brand credibility as companies expand internationally. Can you further explain the XTM AI-enhanced terminology extraction utility which has proven to be very successful with many of your end-customers’ marketing teams focused on MSEO?
Dermody: With an additional layer of AI to provide a much higher level of accuracy than traditional terminology extraction technologies, XTM is able to scan source documents and provide a high-quality list of term candidates. The potential savings enjoyed by clients using this AI-enhanced translation management system feature are significant. A standard process to tediously gather these lists across a global corporation where they have not previously existed can be an enormous task that could take several weeks or even months.
An unforeseen usage of the terminology extraction technology across XTM’s client base is the innovative use of this feature by marketing departments as well as marketing companies as a keyword extraction technology for MSEO strategy. The list of terms extracted by XTM with some additional manual deletions has been found to save considerable time and a really strong place from which to start this process.
Slator: Can you tell us a little more about what to expect at XTM’s upcoming event, “XTM Live” in the San Francisco Bay area?
Dermody: We are very excited about this year’s XTM Live event. At a high level, we’ll be focusing on how AI can streamline workflow management. We’ll also be speaking directly about the benefits of AI for process automation.
So far, nearly 160 participants have registered to listen to and engage with 24 industry experts on a broad array of translation technology related topics. Our open discussion format allows for productive conversations across a wide array of industries and our second day will focus on training sessions on our translation management system, XTM Cloud. This year, we are hosting representatives from a wide array of industries, including automotive, software, manufacturing, retail, medical and pharmaceutical, gaming, banking and many more. It’s sure to be an exciting event!
Register Today
Looking for actionable insights to automate your workflow processes? Then XTM Live should be at the top of your 2020 “events-to-attend” list. The event’s open panel of leading industry experts will discuss translation management systems best practices, the automation of multilingual support content, continuous localization, and cognitive linguistic AI among many other hot topics affecting today’s global language services industry. You’ll also have the opportunity to meet one-on-one with the XTM team to discuss the latest industry insights. So, what are you waiting for? Reach out for more information and register today!
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