Localizing chatbot conversations by using real-time translation

Administrators can enable real-time translation in chatbot conversations so that end users can interact with the chatbot and the support agent in a language of their choice. You can leverage a real-time translation provider such as Google Cloud Translation Services version 2 or Microsoft Azure Translator Speech API version 3 to localize chatbot conversations. This functionality is available only if the IBM Watson Assistant is configured in your environment.

When you use real-time translation, you don't require localized IBM Watson Assistant Skill with localized intents, entities, and dialogs.

If you don't want to use real-time translation as an alternative method, you can localize chatbot conversations by using localized IBM Watson Assistant Skills for each language.

Benefits of enabling real-time translation for localizing chatbot conversations

Support for more number of locales when using real-time translation.
Eliminate the need to create multiple chatbot Skills for each language. If you have localized chatbot Skills, you can continue using them. To add new locales, you can enable real-time translation.
Ability to select chatbots for which you want to enable real-time translation.
Easily test real-time translation for chatbot before implementing it in the production environment.

Scenario: Enabling real-time translation for a chatbot

An organization - ABC, has implemented an IT chatbot to resolve all IT-related queries. The primary language of the IT chatbot is English. The organization wants to use real-time translation so its employees can interact with the chatbot in Japanese and French. The ABC company uses Google Cloud Translation Services for automatic language translation. In BMC Helix Virtual Agent, the administrator selects the translator provider (Google Cloud Translation Services) and provides the Google Translate API key. Before enabling real-time translation for the chatbots, administrators can test whether real-time translation works correctly by using the BMC Helix Innovation Studio UI. After confirming the translation works correctly, you can enable real-time translation in the IT chatbots.

The administrator at ABC uses the same Google Translate API service to ensure that localization is enabled for live chat with support agents.

Localization workflow by using real-time translation

The following image shows the workflow for enabling real-time translation in a chatbot:

Workflow for chatbot real-time translation.png

Result of enabling real-time translation for chatbot conversations

Employees of ABC can interact with the IT chatbot in English, Japanese, and French. When a French employee opens the IT chatbot and requests an additional monitor, the IT chatbot informs the employee that the request requires manager approval. The employee then requests to chat with a support agent. The agent asks the purpose of the requirement. The employee types the message in French, which is translated for the agent in English. The agent types the reply in English, which is translated into French for the employee. The interaction continues until the employee's request is resolved.

What happens if the user's language is not supported by real-time translation

If the user initiates a conversation in a language that is not supported by real-time translation, by default, the following message is displayed:

I have not been trained in your language but am able to translate on the fly. This may impact the quality of my responses.

Standard error messages

If the real-time translation configuration is incorrect, the following message is displayed:

An error occurred while connecting to the translation service call.

If the real-time translation configuration is correct, but the translation provider service generates an error, the following message is displayed:

An error occurred during translation <additional description from the service> .

Live chat localization

If the IBM Watson Assistant Skill configured with a chatbot is non-English, for example, in Japanese, then the agent receives messages in Japanese. To ensure that the agent receives the messages in English, you must enable translation in Live Chat.

Example of a chatbot conversation using real-time translation

The following image shows a sample conversation in Hindi (one of the unsupported locales of BMC Helix Innovation Suite) after enabling real-time translation:

Localizing chatbot conversations by using real-time translation_2.png

Locales supported by BMC Helix Innovation Suite for end users

As an end user, you can use real-time translation to interact with the chatbot in several languages that supported by translation providers such as Google Cloud Translation API or Microsoft Azure Translator API. Languages that use right to left script such as Hebrew are not supported by real-time translation.

Locales supported by BMC Helix Innovation Suite for administrators

As an administrator, you can access BMC Helix Innovation Suite without the need for localization or translation providers in the following languages:

Arabic—ar
Chinese—zh_CN
Danish—da
Dutch—nl
English (default)—en
English (Canada)—en-ca
French—fr
French (Canada)—fr-ca
German—de
Hebrew—he
Italian—it
Japanese—ja
Korean—ko
Norwegian—no
Portuguese—pt
Russian—ru
Spanish—es
Swedish—sv
Thai—th