Why Translation Quality Matters More Than Ever

You hit “translate.” The text looks fine… you hope. But what if it isn’t good enough? What if that product description, legal disclaimer, or marketing slogan is quietly alienating customers, damaging your brand, or even risking compliance?

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In a global marketplace where 75% of consumers prefer buying in their native language, not knowing the quality of your AI translation is a gamble you can’t afford to take. So, how do you know if yours truly makes the grade?

The problem with AI translation

Imagine ordering a premium steak dinner and getting a hamburger instead. That’s exactly what happens when AI translations look right on the surface but miss the mark beneath. Translation quality isn’t just about words matching – it’s about tone, context, cultural nuance and accuracy. These subtle factors make or break your success in new markets.

Times when AI translations failed hard

Without some measure of understanding your translated output, you’re in the dark about its level of accuracy – and the negative impact that a poor quality translation may have. Here are some examples of just that.

Facebook's "Good Morning" Becomes a Death Threat

In October 2017, a Palestinian man was briefly detained due to a Facebook AI translation error. He posted a picture of a construction worker next to a bulldozer accompanied by the Arabic phrase "good morning". However, Facebook mistranslated this to "attack them" in Hebrew. Israeli police, naturally alarmed by the supposed threat, arrested him on the spot.  The man was released once the mistake was discovered.

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The Olympic Swimming "Losers"

During the 2016 Rio Olympics, Google Translate mistranslated Brazilian swimmer names in Portuguese news articles, turning legitimate sports reporting into seemingly insulting content. Athletes' names were translated as various unflattering terms, creating confusion for English-speaking readers following the games.

Samsung's "Murderous" Translation

Samsung's AI translation service once famously translated the Korean phrase for "I love you" into "I will murder you" in English. This dramatic mistranslation could have caused serious misunderstandings in romantic contexts, showing how unchecked AI translation engines can sometimes produce completely opposite meanings from the intended message.

The underlying issues

These translation failures highlight several key challenges that AI translation systems continue to face:

• Context Understanding: AI systems often struggle with context-dependent meanings, idioms, and cultural references that require human understanding to translate accurately.
• Homophone Confusion: Many AI translators have difficulty distinguishing between words that sound similar but have different meanings.
• Cultural Sensitivity: AI systems may lack the cultural knowledge necessary to appropriately translate concepts that don't have direct equivalents in other languages.
• Technical Limitations: Current neural machine translation models can sometimes produce hallucinations or completely unrelated content when faced with unusual inputs.
  
  

While these examples are entertaining, they are important reminders that verifying the quality and accuracy of your AI translations is of utmost importance.

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That’s where Straker Verify steps in – a platform that helps you trust every word you publish, in every language you publish in.

How do I find out the quality of my AI translations?

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Straker Verify isn’t just another translation tool – it’s an AI-powered quality detective, designed to answer the burning question: how good are my AI translations?

By delivering every translation with a quality score, Verify takes the guesswork and risk out of multi-lingual communications.

How does Verify solve my translation trust problem?

You might be thinking: “to be 100% confident in translation quality, every single word must need checking.”

But checking every single word takes time. Too much time. Verify’s quality scoring allows focus on only what needs improving. Not every single word.

If you do need expert help, it won’t cost as much or take as long. 

Here’s what’s inside Verify:

• Quality evaluation: Uploaded content gets a quality score. By rating sections from “Bad” to “Best.” Verify highlights exactly where problems are, saving you from blind spots.
• Human expertise when needed: Got a “Best” score? Great – ship it. Got “Acceptable” or “Bad?”, route it to someone who can fix it. Send jobs to your localization team (if you have one) or external professional translators in a couple of clicks. 
• Tools to sound like you: Sharpen context by uploading domain-specific terminology, glossaries and brand tone of voice. And speed up future work and drive down costs by saving previous translations into translation memory. 
• Workflow automation: Build automated workflows to streamline your translation process. Set conditions based on source, content type, or quality score. No coders needed, just you and a drag and drop builder.
• Slides into your existing tools: If you’re using productivity and communication tools like Slack or Microsoft Teams, Straker Verify slots right into these. 
• Data Security: All AI tools are hosted on Straker’s ISO/IEC 27001 certified infrastructure for closed-loop security. Your data never leaves the platform or goes to third parties, keeping your content safe. 

But I’m not a localization pro. Is this overkill for me?

Verify is built for real business teams – not just language specialists. Whether you’re a:

• Marketing manager overseeing social media posts
• Support team localizing knowledge bases
• Product owner launching in new markets
• Legal team vetting compliance documents

Verify has you covered with a simple process: Upload → See Quality Score → Decide: Am I happy or does it need a human expert?

Won’t this slow me down?

Not at all. Compared to human-only translation, Verify speeds things up and saves money:

• Speed: AI quality analysis happens in seconds, replacing days of manual review. Human checks focus only on flagged content.
• Cost: Enjoy total budget control with a scalable, pay-per-use token model, so you only pay when you need it, with no charges in inactive periods.
• No strings attached: Cancel anytime, no upfront fees.

Human translation vs Straker Verify

A 10,000-word product manual translated fully by humans might cost around $3,000 and take 5 days to produce. While this document will be highly accurate, the turnaround time alone is not tolerable in today’s fast moving, high demand business environments.

What about the same document using Verify? 

Verify’s AI translation and quality evaluation is instant and will cost you about $47. But let’s also build in the cost of human translators fixing 1,000 words flagged as poor quality. This might take a day and brings your total to $347 – saving nearly 90% in costs, and provides an 80% decrease in turnaround time.

Sounds good, how do I get started?

It’s super easy:

Signup for your free trial at verify.straker.ai/signup. You get 3,000 tokens and 30 days to try out all the features. Upload your content and get your quality score in about 30 seconds.

Translation quality isn’t optional, its fundamental

As Nataly Kelly, Chief Research Officer at Common Sense Advisory and co-author of Found in Translation: How Language Shapes Our Lives and Transforms the World, eloquently states:

“As long as human beings speak different languages, the need for translation will continue.”

That's why Straker Verify exists. Instead of leaving your translations to chance, Verify’s AI instantly evaluates your content, highlights what's good, and flags what's not – so you can confidently decide your next move for your global business.

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