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Automatic translation: how to make the most of it

Have you ever wondered how apps like Google Translate work so fast? That’s the power of automatic translations. These translation tools are powered by technology that turns text from one language into another in seconds.

The main benefit of automatic translations reflects in speed and convenience. Whether you’re traveling, chatting with someone who speaks another language, or looking to quickly translate your website, it’s instant and easy. Plus, the tools are either free or extremely cost-effective.

So, if automatic translation is so great… Why would anyone hire professional translators? Keep reading to find out.

💡 Did you know?
Lokalise AI allows you to translate 10x faster and save up to 80% on translation costs–without any loss in quality.

What is automatic translation? 

Automatic translation is when a computer converts text from one language to another without human input. It relies on technology called machine translation (MT) to analyze the text, understand its structure, and produce a translated version almost instantly.

Here’s one example most of us have probably experienced. If you’re using Google Chrome as your web browser, you’ll notice that Google Translate is built into it by default.

Whenever you visit a website in a language different from your browser’s default language, Chrome will prompt you to translate the page. You can accept, decline, or adjust settings for future visits.

Automatic translation example on the Nike website
Example of Google Translate prompt appearing on the page within the browser when visiting Nike’s website in Japanese.

If you select “English” from the prompt, the entire content of the website will get immediately translated thanks to automatic translations.

While it’s fast and convenient, automatic translation isn’t perfect. It may struggle with complex ideas, specialized terms, or cultural nuances. That’s why it works well for casual use or getting the gist of a message, but might not be the best choice for critical or detailed translations, or for marketing campaigns.

📚 Further reading
Many question the reliability and accuracy of Google Translate, so we’d invite you to read our article about it. As you explore the topic, make sure to pay attention to tools like DeepL that use advanced algorithms to recognize patterns in language and understand context.

What is the difference between automatic translation and machine translation? 

The terms automatic translation and machine translation are often used interchangeably, but they can have slightly different meanings depending on the context.

Automatic translation refers to any translation performed without a human getting involved. Machine translation is a more technical term that refers specifically to the technology (or process) behind translating text using algorithms and computational methods.

So, while all machine translations are part of automatic translation, the term “automatic translation” can also be about concepts like integrated translation features in browsers (like you’ve seen in the example above).

What are the benefits of using automatic translation? 

As AI translation tools are becoming more advanced, they’re overtaking more traditional machine translation tools. You can feed them contextual information, like your style guide and glossary, which can lead to fewer post-edits and significant time savings.

Let’s see how both individuals and businesses can benefit from automatic translation. 

Cost savings

Automatic translation tools offer significant cost savings for both individuals and businesses. We mentioned Lokalise AI earlier, so let’s take it for example. By automating the translation process, it can reduce expenses by up to 80% without compromising quality.

💫 Get inspired
Thanks to automatic translations, Life360 managed to launch five new languages, translating over 100,000 words per language, achieving up to 80% reductions in both time and cost.

Speed 

For both businesses and individuals, time is valuable, and automatic translation delivers results almost instantly. Your company might be translating a webpage for global customers, or maybe you yourself might be trying to understand a foreign document. Either way, the speed of automatic translation makes it a go-to solution.

Scalability

Scalability is one of the biggest advantages of automatic translation, especially for businesses handling large volumes of content.

For example, a global e-commerce company with thousands of product descriptions can use automatic translation to translate entire catalogs into multiple languages within days instead of weeks. The process is scalable, the time to market is shorter, and you can expand your business faster.

Efficiency

Another good thing about automatic translation is that it can be seamlessly integrated into customer service platforms, chatbots, and websites. It can help you become much more efficient. It’s never been easier to have great multilingual support. Having access to helpful content or receiving immediate assistance in their own language is something global customers tend to value very much.

How to use automatic translation effectively 

To make the most of automatic translation, you need to know the tool’s strengths, limitations, and the right strategies to get the best results. Also, it’s very important to understand that automatic translation tools are heavily reliant on the quality of input.

How you work is equally important as the actual work you do. Let’s take a closer look.

Evaluate the priority of your content

Automatic translation is great for straightforward content. Think emails, product descriptions, or internal documents. However, it may fall short when dealing with specialized, sensitive, or highly creative texts (e.g., legal agreements, medical documents, marketing campaigns). In such cases, it’s best used as a first draft that can be reviewed and polished by a professional translator.

Here are some questions that can help you decide whether the content is safe to be translated automatically.

QuestionWhy it matters
Is the content straightforward and free of technical jargon?Complex terms or specialized language might confuse automatic tools.
Does it include cultural, emotional, or contextual nuances? Automatic translation struggles with idioms, humor, or dubious meanings.
Is the content high-stakes, such as legally binding or safety-related? Critical documents require precise and error-free translations.
Will the content be public-facing or represent the brand? Poor translations can damage your reputation.
Do I have the time and resources to review and edit the translation? Automatic translations often need refining to ensure quality and accuracy.

Choose the right tool

Selecting the right automatic translation tool depends on your needs and the content you want to translate.

For casual or personal use, tools like Google Translate or DeepL offer quick, accessible translations for simple tasks.

For businesses or large-scale projects, platforms like Lokalise AI provide advanced features like glossaries, style guides, and workflow integration. They are far more technologically advanced because they let you provide context.

More context means better accuracy and consistency across all your content, and less post-editing work. Human-like translations, at a fraction of the cost.

Our recommendation is to use tools that allow you to create glossaries and style guides. These features ensure that key terms and brand language are translated correctly every time. This is especially valuable for businesses managing multilingual content at scale, such as websites or user manuals.

💡 Pro tip
If you’re looking to translate a website, different online website translation services can be of help. Read through our list of recommendations, and you’ll be surprised with the number of ways you can go about it (automatic translation tools included).

Combine automation with human translators

If anyone tells you that you can use a tool to automatically translate content and don’t need to check it, run. We know that these tools are incredibly powerful, but you still need to pair automatic translation with human expertise. It’s a must.

Use automatic translation to handle the bulk of the work for large projects, like translating an entire website. Then have professional translators refine the details. This hybrid approach ensures both speed and quality, so you can have your cake and eat it.

Test before hitting “publish”

For professional content, especially customer-facing materials, you need to test things. Share the translated text with native speakers to verify its accuracy and cultural relevance. Make sure the content doesn’t break the design. See if it works well on all devices. It’s necessary to do quality assurance to catch errors that automated tools may overlook.

What will the future of automatic translation look like?

Automatic translation will continue to redefine how humans interact across languages. With the rise of neural networks and advanced AI, translation tools are moving beyond literal word-for-word conversions to truly understand the intent, tone, and cultural nuances behind the text.

But what does this evolution mean? How will it impact the translation industry?

It could mean that the days of clunky, robotic translations are numbered. And it could mean that underrepresented languages will get the attention they deserve. We would be democratizing communication in ways we haven’t yet fully imagined.

What’s less discussed is the integration of multimodal translation. Future tools won’t stop at text. They’ll also translate voice, video, images, and even gestures. Imagine watching a live speech in another language and seeing subtitles or hearing the speaker in your own language with near-perfect synchronization. This might be our reality.

How can Lokalise give you the best automatic translation 

The idea behind neural machine translation systems isn’t to fully replace humans.  Some aspects of the translation process can be fully automated — depending on the content — but the critical thinking and consulting that only humans can offer are still crucial. 

That’s why a localization and translation management system like Lokalise — one that helps automate, manage, and translate content to reach global audiences at scale — is your team’s best bet. 

Automatic translation Lokalise
Lokalise AI allows you to translate with context.

Here’s how Lokalise can help your team overcome language barriers: 

  • Lokalise AI, powered by OpenAI models, with automatic translation in more than 30 languages and the option to provide additional instructions regarding your preferred tone and industry — or even add your glossary and style guide — for more accurate, context-specific results
  • Translation memory software, saving past entries to offer the same, consistent translation when an identical or similar sentence turns up in the same context 
  • Translation quality assurance tools, including built-in grammar checks, multilingual glossaries, translation suggestions, and automated QA checks, minimize the risk of errors and ambiguity 
  • Lokalise Messages, a solution developed as a direct response to the growing need for automatic, real-time translation for customer support teams, making it possible to answer customer inquiries in dozens of different languages 

Plus, Lokalise supports third-party integrations (including Slack, Figma, Asana, Trello, Salesforce CRM, and WordPress) making it easy to incorporate this TMS platform into your existing workflow.

Ready to give it a try? Start your free trial today. We won’t ask you for credit card details, so it’s completely risk-free.

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