3 reasons investments banks should adopt AI translation tools now

Generally speaking translation is the last thing one would associate with global investment banks. However, I believe this is a mistake. Considering the increased use of artificial intelligence (AI) at front offices and AI technology is generally best-fit for mundane tasks, it is a great time to review where else AI can be leveraged. One such place is the translation department in the back office.

Over the last few decades, financial service companies have employed in-house translators to overcome language barriers. Generally, regulation, security, and commercial interests are the main rationales for building in-house teams. For example, regulators require UBS to distribute their English and Japanese research reports simultaneously in Japan. Another scenario is China's mandates Hong Kong based investment research firms to distribute their sell-side reports to their onshore clients in English and also Simplified Chinese (instead of only Traditional Chinese.)

3 reasons why AI improves translation teams at investment bank

1 - Both computer-aided translation (CAT) and neural machine translation (NMT) tools help translation teams take on much heavier workloads without significant investments in human resources. Leveraging either technology provides a much higher return on investment (ROI) vs the traditional human-powered teams. The reason is because software can analyze word and phrase repetitions and re-use translation memory to improve productivity and significantly decrease costs. This is a "trade secret" most outsourcing vendors don't share with their banking industry clients to further their own profitability.

2 - AI translation solutions re-energize your in-house translation team. AI technology is and will continue to be a primary proponent changing the translation industry in many years to come. Commitments to deploy and utilize new technology equips your employees with the the newest skills of the future. Considering the high turnover at many of these high-stress translation teams, you can imagine there are few incentives to leave and revert to traditional translation methods at another company. No one prefers to go back to the older ways after having worked with more efficient technology tools. This benefit also both ways, it entices potential high quality translators to join your team. The saying "All 'A' players want to work with the best" doesn't come from nowhere.

3 - Deploying an AI solution to a back office department paves the way for other AI solutions. For better of worse, translation is a necessary evil but less critical among an investment banks functions. Equipping a translation department with AI technology is a relatively low risk commitment providing hands-on experience for the bank's IT, security, and compliance teams (whom likely knows little about the technology and its deployment.) This allows AI technology vendors to educate the bank's internal teams about best practices and make way for initiatives to automate and streamline other important back office functions such as customer service, legal, and compliance.