By Lloyd Farrow, Sales & Marketing Director at LanguageLine Solutions UK
As international markets become increasingly interconnected, financial institutions are extending their reach beyond domestic borders to access new markets and diversify their portfolios. In this global landscape, Artificial Intelligence (AI) has emerged as a crucial tool for firms, not only enhancing competitiveness but also fuelling innovation, enabling them to effectively meet the demands of a diverse global customer base.
According to a recent survey by Forbes[1], 65 percent of senior leaders recognise the positive impact of AI technologies on future business prospects. Among these sectors, the financial services industry stands out for embracing generative technology to spearhead its revolution and transformation within the sector.
We’ve already witnessed the implementation of AI to enhance back-office efficiencies like advanced fraud detection and security, compliance processes and even optimised investment strategies, risk management, and the automation of onboarding processes.The technology, it would seem, has spared no effort in making its mark on the market.
Now, as confidence and trust grow throughout the sector, we are seeing an increasing focus on how AI can improve customer-facing products and services.
Whether that takes the form of intelligent chatbots and IVR systems, AI-driven financial advice, or personalised promotions, the disruptive technology is opening a wealth of opportunities for companies to improve their customer experience.
One vital, yet often overlooked area where AI can add valuable support to financial businesses and their global operations is AI-powered translation and interpretation.
Language barriers
In today’s hyper competitive marketplace, institutions seeking to achieve international growth simply cannot afford to let language barriers impede their transactions and financial operations.
With businesses now sharing messages not only to a larger international client base, but also through a broader range of channels, including websites, apps, software, and even virtual and augmented reality experiences, there’s an increasing demand for localised multimedia content.
Driven by this need to deliver affordable, high-volume, high-quality multilingual content all over the world, translation and localisation has advanced rapidly, influenced by the rise and adoption of machine translation (MT), AI and Generative AI (GenAI).
Although AI tools like Google Translate have been around for some time, recent advancements in GenAI have introduced fresh capabilities. These include seamlessly integrating AI tools into established workflows and developing sophisticated models adept at handling complex localisation tasks with greater precision and efficiency.
This technological leap is ushering in a new era of customer interaction and playing a central role in bridging communication gaps between cultures. When combined with specialised AI-driven technologies like Neural Machine Translation (NMT), GenAI can serve as a linguistic assistant, enhancing output quality and significantly reducing the time and effort needed to produce accurate content in any language. This synergy results in more efficient, accurate, and precise translations, benefiting both businesses and consumers alike.
It also has the capability to provide comprehensive insights into customer behaviour and preferences. Through simulating how different product and service features meet the requirements of specific customers or market segments, GenAI assists companies in developing customised products and additional services that effectively meet the needs of their customer base.
In combination with readily available NMT tools like Google Translate, GenAI boasts advanced capabilities tailored for nuanced financial contexts. It is, however, not without its limitations.
A human touch
Given the availability of such advanced technology, organisations can be forgiven for asking whether professional translation services remain necessary. Why can’t AI be used in the place of human translators?
The simple answer is: the future of translation and localisation is not about choosing between human expertise and AI but rather about finding the optimal balance between the two.
Despite the impressive capabilities of tools like ChatGPT and other GenAI, they cannot fully replace human translation services. AI systems undoubtedly bring a level of efficiency, yet they may lack the nuanced understanding of communication, language development, and culture necessary to deliver multilingual content that is not only linguistically accurate, but also culturally relevant and contextually appropriate.
AI translation systems can process large volumes of text in a fraction of the time it would take a human translator. This rapid turnaround time is ideal for low-liability risk content, such as customer service communications, and particularly beneficial in fast-paced financial environments where timely communication is essential.
However, when working with highly sensitive financial documents, or content that requires deeper sentiment analysis, a human touch is still essential to ensure the most appropriate and accurate results.
AI will always require human input and expertise – both technical and otherwise – to reach its full potential in an ethical, responsible, and safe manner. Whether it involves training AI models with human-produced data or providing ongoing feedback to improve accuracy and functionality, the presence of real people behind the technology remains indispensable.
The role of professional experts to offer human oversight and review machine translation and AI output, therefore, is becoming increasingly vital to bridge the gap between efficiency, accuracy and risk mitigation. Even more so for sensitive financial documents where accuracy and compliance are paramount.
Professional post-editors – with a blend of linguistic skills, specialised sector knowledge and AI-based expertise – can contribute their focused attention to improve the quality of multilingual content and streamline workflow processes.
Engaging professional editing services can help financial firms to minimise the likelihood of errors and the need for revisions, resulting in potential long-term cost savings. Additionally, involving the right level of expert input ensures that models are trained accurately and effectively.
The dawn of a new era
AI holds immense potential to reshape the landscape of the UK’s financial service industries, yet we are merely entering the era of generative technology.
Despite its numerous, undeniable merits, it’s important to recognise the limitations of such technology. This is especially true when considering translation and localisation for the financial services industry.
Instead of viewing GenAI as a substitute for human involvement, organisations should embrace a collaborative approach. Here, technology serves as an empowering tool for colleagues, enabling them to engage in more meaningful tasks that improve customer services and broader business functions.
[1] https://www.ftadviser.com/your-industry/2023/08/10/opportunities-for-ai-to-improve-financial-services-is-immense/#:~:text=A%20 recent%20 Forbes%20survey%20 indicated,and%20automation%20 of%20 onboarding%20 processes.
