logo image
  • News
    • People Moves
    • Deal Wins
    • Demand Drivers
    • M&A and Funding
    • Financial Results
    • Technology
    • Academia
    • Industry News
    • Features
    • Machine Translation
    • — Divider —
    • Slator Pro
    • — Divider —
    • Press Releases
    • Sponsored Content
  • Data & Research
    • Research Reports & Pro Guides
    • Language Industry Investor Map
    • Real-Time Charts of Listed LSPs
    • Language Service Provider Index
  • Podcasts & Videos
  • Events
    • Design Thinking – February 2021
    • — Divider —
    • SlatorCon Coverage
    • Other Events
  • Directory
  • RFP Center
  • Jobs
MENU
  • News
    • People Moves
    • Deal Wins
    • Demand Drivers
    • M&A and Funding
    • Financial Results
    • Technology
    • Academia
    • Industry News
    • Features
    • Machine Translation
    • — Divider —
    • Slator Pro
    • — Divider —
    • Press Releases
    • Sponsored Content
  • Data & Research
    • Research Reports & Pro Guides
    • Language Industry Investor Map
    • Real-Time Charts of Listed LSPs
    • Language Service Provider Index
  • Podcasts & Videos
  • Events
    • Design Thinking – February 2021
    • — Divider —
    • SlatorCon Coverage
    • Other Events
  • Directory
  • RFP Center
  • Jobs

Advertise on Slator! Download the 2021 Online Media Kit Now

  • Slator Market Intelligence
  • Slator Advertising Services
  • Slator Advisory
  • Login
Search
Generic filters
Exact matches only
Advertisement
Why Enterprises Fail to Integrate AI and What to Do About It

1 month ago

December 18, 2020

Why Enterprises Fail to Integrate AI and What to Do About It

Machine Translation ·

by Seyma Albarino

On December 18, 2020

1 month ago
Machine Translation ·

by Seyma Albarino

On December 18, 2020

Why Enterprises Fail to Integrate AI and What to Do About It

Konstantin Savenkov sees the market as past the tipping point for widespread enterprise adoption of machine translation (MT). At SlatorCon Remote December 2020, he offered his advice to businesses: “If you can’t stop it, lead it.”

Savenkov is Co-founder and CEO of Intento, which helps clients identify and deploy the most appropriate and impactful AI services according to their needs. “For now, we’re focusing our efforts on the translation, mainly because here we see the massive gaps between AI capabilities and enterprise adoption,” he said.

According to Savenkov, enterprise integration of AI often fails, but not because the quality is lacking. “The very fact that AI is being treated as software accounts for the vast majority of those failed initiatives,” Savenkov said, adding that worthwhile MT integration requires processes, tools, and expertise different from those used for software. MT, in particular, demands continuous improvement rather than hands-off maintenance.

Advertisement

The good news is that MT has advanced to the point that a business can integrate an enterprise solution with real-time MT and immediately see a return on investment. The problem lies with the traditional pricing model for MT — a flat-rate discount that does not change depending on quality. Set the discount too low and the buyer cannot afford to translate all their content; a discount that is too high hurts post-editing linguists (and, ultimately, buyers as the translation quality drops).

“For now, we’re focusing our efforts on the translation, mainly because here we see the massive gaps between AI capabilities and enterprise adoption”

Popular alternative pricing methods are not foolproof, either. Savenkov advised against using cross metrics such as edit distance to measure effort because costs can become unpredictable and uncorrelated with actual effort. Similarly, running a test project at full rate to estimate a custom discount for a specific client cannot account for unpredictable effort.

Savenkov instead advocated service-level agreements (SLAs). Looking at a client’s content, a language service provider (LSP) estimates what percentage can be handled by MT, and what percentage of MT-translated segments will be perfect. The remaining content will need different editing tasks requiring a range of effort, and the LSP can then estimate the potential translation and post-editing effort and associated discount.

“The very fact that AI is being treated as software accounts for the vast majority of those failed initiatives”

Unlike a project-specific flat discount, the SLA approach allows LSPs to provide the full MT discount without contingency. This becomes important as the share of perfect MT segments reaches up to 70%, as providing such discounts without the SLA imposes too much risk.

“This can be expanded, as the SLA fulfillment depends not only on machine translation quality, but also on source content quality,” Savenkov explained. “A similar approach could then be applied to cover TM [translation memory] and repetition edits.”

Looking ahead, Savenkov said, “some of the largest translation vendors seem to be cautiously optimistic, while smaller LSPs with shorter supply chains and smaller contracts at risk are ready to go.”

TAGS

AI ServicesIntentoKonstantin Savenkovmachine translationMTNMTSlatorCon
SHARE
Seyma Albarino

By Seyma Albarino

Staff Writer at Slator. Linguist, music blogger and reader of all things dystopian. Based in Chicago after adventures on three continents.

Advertisement

SUBSCRIBE TO THE SLATOR WEEKLY

Language Industry Intelligence
In Your Inbox. Every Friday

SUBSCRIBE

SlatorSweepSlatorPro
ResearchRFP CENTER

PUBLISH

PRESS RELEASEDIRECTORY LISTING
JOB ADEVENT LISTING

Bespoke advisory including speaking, briefings and M&A

SLATOR ADVISORY
Advertisement

Featured Reports

See all
Slator 2020 Language Industry M&A and Funding Report

Slator 2020 Language Industry M&A and Funding Report

by Slator

Slator 2021 Data-for-AI Market Report

Slator 2021 Data-for-AI Market Report

by Slator

Slator 2020 Medtech Translation and Localization Report

Slator 2020 Medtech Translation and Localization Report

by Slator

Pro Guide: Sales and Marketing for Language Service Providers

Pro Guide: Sales and Marketing for Language Service Providers

by Slator

Press Releases

See all
iDISC Awarded ISO 27001 Information Security Management Certification

iDISC Awarded ISO 27001 Information Security Management Certification

by iDISC

XTRF Launches a Bi-Monthly Free Networking Event for Localization Professionals

XTRF Launches a Bi-Monthly Free Networking Event for Localization Professionals

by XTRF

150 Million Words Translated: the German EU Council Presidency Translator Sets New Records

150 Million Words Translated: the German EU Council Presidency Translator Sets New Records

by Tilde

Upcoming Events

See All
  1. Memsource MT Post-Editing Pricing Models Webinar

    Pricing Models for MT Post-Editing Workshop

    by Memsource

    · February 3

    Hear a panel of innovative localization professionals share different approaches for MT post-editing pricing.

    More info FREE

Featured Companies

See all
Text United

Text United

Memsource

Memsource

Wordbank

Wordbank

Protranslating

Protranslating

Seprotec

Seprotec

Versacom

Versacom

SDL

SDL

Smartling

Smartling

Lingotek

Lingotek

XTM International

XTM International

Smartcat

Smartcat

Translators without Borders

Translators without Borders

STAR Group

STAR Group

memoQ Translation Technologies

memoQ Translation Technologies

Advertisement

Popular articles

Why Netflix Shut Down Its Translation Portal Hermes

Why Netflix Shut Down Its Translation Portal Hermes

by Esther Bond

The Slator 2020 Language Service Provider Index

The Slator 2020 Language Service Provider Index

by Slator

Top Language Industry Quotes of 2020

Top Language Industry Quotes of 2020

by Monica Jamieson

SlatorPod: The Weekly Language Industry Podcast

connect with us

footer logo

Slator makes business sense of the language services and technology market.

Our Company

  • Support
  • About us
  • Terms & Conditions
  • Privacy Policy

Subscribe to the Slator Weekly

Language Industry Intelligence
In Your Inbox. Every Friday

© 2021 Slator. All rights reserved.

Sign up to the Slator Weekly

Join over 13,000 subscribers and get the latest language industry intelligence every Friday

Your information will never be shared with third parties. No Spam.