Five signs that you need a translation partner, not just an AI tool
It usually looks something like this: someone in the team runs a text through an AI tool to get it finished before lunch. Someone else sends the same type of document to a freelance translator, without checking how similar texts were handled last time. A third person is sitting with a sensitive client text and wondering who is actually going to quality-assure it. Individually, the decisions feel reasonable. Together, they make it difficult to hold the whole thing together.
It is rarely a conscious choice – it just develops that way, one decision at a time, until no one has a full overview of terminology, tone or quality.
Here are five signs that it is time to stop handling translations on a case-by-case basis, and instead see what actually distinguishes a one-off translation from having a proper translation partner.
The terminology is starting to drift apart
An individual text can look completely reasonable. What becomes more difficult is maintaining the same terminology, the same tone and the same level of precision across, for example, ten texts, five languages and over three departments. Without someone taking responsibility for the whole, companies often end up with the same product or service being described in several different ways depending on who wrote the text and which tool was used.
Your employees are spending more and more time reviewing translations
AI was supposed to save time, but in practice, AI translations can mean that employees in various fields need to spend increasingly more time checking phrasing in languages they may not fully master. Time that they should otherwise be using for their regular duties. If, furthermore, they lack the appropriate language skills, there is a risk that precisely the most significant errors will be missed.
3. You are communicating in a language that no one internally can quality assure
The more languages a company works with, the harder it becomes to have someone in the business who can actually assess whether a translation is up to scratch. The organisation may then find it difficult to determine whether the text is accurate, sounds natural and is tailored to the target audience.
In fields such as medicine, law and economics, it is not enough for a text to be ”roughly right”: a mistranslated dosage, an ambiguous liability clause or a misleading figure in a financial report can have serious consequences if the error is not detected in time.
It is in that type of material that the difference between an AI tool and a professional translation becomes most apparent – and where it is crucial to know who is actually suited to review the text.
4. Every new project starts from scratch
Recurring material, such as product sheets, terms and conditions, training material and customer communication, ought to become easier to translate the more times it has been done. In practice, the opposite can happen, at least if each text is handled as a one-off project: a new person, a new tool, a new interpretation of the same concepts. Terms and conditions that were once carefully formulated in English can accidentally be given a different wording the next time they are translated, simply because no one remembers – or has access to – how it was resolved last time.
5. Nobody knows who takes responsibility if something goes wrong
An AI tool cannot itself take responsibility for a mistranslation. An authorised translator, on the other hand, is covered by clear professional requirements and must carry out their assignments in accordance with good translation practice, as does a reputable translation partner. In Sweden, the Legal, Financial and Administrative Services Agency (Kammarkollegiet), which authorises translators, has established that an authorised translator always bears full responsibility for their translations, regardless of whether the translator's stamp has been used or not.1 A corresponding responsibility does not exist with AI tools, which makes the issue of liability increasingly important the more AI is used in the workflow. Furthermore, a reputable translation agency has professional indemnity insurance if something goes wrong.
What does a translation partner do that the AI tool cannot do?
An AI tool can translate a text, but it doesn't hold together the entire surrounding process. A translation partner helps to choose the right method and the right linguistic expertise based on the text's content, target audience and area of application.
This may involve, among other things, managing and maintaining the company's terminology over time, selecting the right translator for the subject matter, and reviewing the material at a level corresponding to the risks and quality requirements. The partner can also assess when AI is a suitable support and when the text needs to be handled in another way.
Many organisations and companies have guidelines regarding how to handle AI translations. For example, Uppsala University recommends that all AI-translated texts are reviewed and edited before publication. For texts aimed at an external target audience, it is also required review by someone with good subject knowledge and very good command of the target language.2
For a company, the practical questions then remain: who should review, what expertise is needed and what quality requirements should apply? A translation partner can take responsibility for those assessments while coordinating project management, file handling, layout, confidentiality and delivery.
A translation partner that handles the whole process
The five signs above are rarely about a single issue. It is precisely the combination – inconsistent terminology, wasted time and resources, a lack of continuity, and uncertainty about who quality assures or owns the responsibility – that makes translations difficult to keep together.
Do any of these signs apply to your company? We at Språkbolaget can help you choose the right method, gather the terminology and coordinate the right language expertise from the first text to the finished delivery.
Read more about how we work, or Contact us for a no-strings-attached meeting.
Bibliography
- Legal, Financial and Administrative Services Agency, ”Good Translator Ethics” (The Legal, Financial and Administrative Services Agency's advice to authorised translators). https://www.kammarkollegiet.se/om-oss/kammarkollegiets-uppgifter/auktorisation-av-tolkar-och-oversattare/god-translatorssed ↩︎
- Uppsala University, ”AI and translation”
https://www.uu.se/en/staff/service-and-tools/communications-and-marketing/style-guides-and-language-support/ai-and-translation ↩︎