• Blog
• POSTED ON June 14, 2022

Human Or Machine Translation: Which Is Better For Businesses?

Once businesses reach a stage where they can expand to other regions, one of the first things they need to address is translating their content for their target markets, especially if it’s a foreign one. This is where a Singapore translation company can play a critical role in helping you navigate multilingual communication seamlessly. However, going about this task begs plenty of questions:

• Which translation agency is the best for the job?
• What are the target languages?
• How will the agency do the translation?

Another critical decision that business owners must make is between machine or human translation. To help you choose the best and most informed business decision, let us break down the pros and cons of each alternative.

Accuracy

Despite the notable progress made by AI for machine translation, they are still not up to par with talented linguists when it comes to accuracy. Their lack of human touch at present means they fail to understand the diverse global culture and connect with consumers.

For instance, certain cultures may find specific words or phrases offensive, which machine translation may not understand.

In contrast, human translation, done by linguists well-acquainted with all the nuances and culture of their native tongue, is proficient at tweaking content to favour the locals.

Humans can directly and accurately express your message instead of translating content in a more general and neutral manner and potentially giving vague meanings to phrases.

Quality

The quality you want will generally depend on what you need to be translated. For content that is relatively basic and not creative, such as general instructions or guidelines, machine translation can provide more than adequate results.

In addition, it may also be the better choice when you need content translated for a section of your business that is yet to bring in significant revenue or you are still testing the waters of a specific market.

On the other hand, if you prioritise accuracy, communicating with a live human being, and further critical details like proper localisation, human translation is the way to go.

The translated content will not only sound natural, fluent, and retain the original meaning but also convey your message in the same tone and capture the initial spirit of the source.

Consistency

Since machines can work tirelessly, unlike humans, they are more consistent in their translation work and consequently provide better quality in some cases.

This is mainly regarding consistency in style and terminology, an area where machine translation excels. Of course, with enough time and care, human translation can also provide the same level of consistency, just not at the same speed as machine translators.

Delivery speed

One of the most significant pros of AI-enabled machine translation is their unrivalled speed. However, most businesses prefer that critical factors like accuracy and quality are not compromised when favouring faster delivery speed.

Human translation will, of course, take more time to accomplish, but that does not mean they are slow. A professional translation agency in Singapore will work within specified deadlines and guarantee fast-as-possible turn-around times for error-free translations, eliminating the need to spend extra time doing further corrections.

Cost

Machine translation will always have the upper hand when it comes to cost. Since most of the work is handled by AI, the cost of translating content will be cheaper. However, note that this is only the initial step in the translation process.

To ensure the machine-translated content is up to your standards, you will also need an editor or proofreader to streamline your documents, incurring additional costs. In contrast, a reputable translation company can guarantee quality and error-free translations within a scheduled period that you can use for your purposes immediately.

Conclusion

Thanks to the interconnected digital space that can be utilised for business purposes, the need for translation services, be it personal or commercial use, continues to grow by the day.

With the availability of the machine and human translators, it can be challenging to choose which is best for your business. While the latter is the best overall choice for the most part due to the need of official translation of documents in Singapore, machine translation still has its purpose, and it is only set to become better over time.

If your business needs top-notch and professional translations, contact us at Eureka Translations, your one-stop service for prompt, precise, and peerless translations for words, ideas, graphics, and more.