How to evaluate whether machine translation (MT) is right for your business?

As machine translation (MT) technology continues to develop, more and more companies are beginning to use MT and explore its potential. However, the rapid development of MT has also brought many questions, and even some experienced localization experts are confused: Is machine translation suitable for my content? How to maximize cost savings? How to evaluate whether MT quality is qualified?

To help you answer these questions, we’ve simplified the process of evaluating machine translation applications and come up with three core questions to help you decide if MT is right for your business :

1. What is the business problem we need to solve?

Although it may seem simple, defining the business problem is the first step in evaluating MT solutions. Only by clearly understanding the business problem to be solved can the potential of MT be explored more targetedly .

2. How does MT solve this business problem?

After defining the business problem, the next step is to set specific criteria to measure whether MT can effectively solve the problem. Rather than simply evaluating the overall quality of MT, it is better to set specific goals or KPIs to evaluate its effectiveness in solving core business problems.

3. How to measure the success of MT ?

Finally, it is necessary to establish metrics to evaluate MT's performance in solving business problems and whether the previously set goals or KPIs have been achieved. Short-term effects can be measured by indicators such as post-edit distance (PED), BLEU score, and COMET, while combining direct evaluation and qualitative feedback to further evaluate the long-term value of MT.

With the breakthroughs in machine translation technology, it is particularly important to consider these three issues before using it . Many organizations realize after deploying MT that its potential has not been fully explored or that the selected solution has not met expectations.

Answering these core questions will help you systematically assess the potential of MT and maximize its value to your organization, whether you are evaluating whether MT is right for your content or comparing the output quality of different MT providers.

But what if machine translation is only used for “comprehension” or “summary translation”? How to deal with complex business problems that require multiple success criteria? The answers to these questions can be found in our newly released Machine Translation Highlights Report. The report provides best practices for MT evaluation and includes detailed case studies.

◀️：Key elements for creating global training content

▶️：Visual Learning: The Key to Improving Translation Training Effectiveness