The Bots Are Coming!


Automated and AI-Driven Programs for Business

By Elena Langdon

Automation and artificial intelligence (AI) are all the rage these days—for good reason. The technology behind once too-good-to-be-true tools like facial recognition and 3-D printing has advanced rapidly. Many of us own or pine for smart devices and use dozens of apps a day for personal purposes. So what about business? How much can automation and AI boost productivity and profit at work? And what are the no-go zones for this exciting area of development?

First, Some Terms

“Automation” and “AI” are often used interchangeably, but there are important differences. Automation refers to processes that can be undertaken through a chain of events that trigger each other without human interference. We’ve seen it in manufacturing for decades. Simple contemporary business examples are Hootsuite or Buffer, programs that help automate a business’s social media participation.

AI refers to machines undertaking processes and making choices on their own, based on their programming and what they learn from it. There are different levels of AI, and the most powerful two—levels at which a machine can understand human thoughts, and be self-aware, respectively—have not been reached. So what can be accomplished now?

The Digital-Assistant Revolution

While C-3PO from Star Wars or Ava from Ex Machina are not in our immediate reality, AI is a driving force behind many business applications.

Personal digital assistants such as Siri and Cortana are good examples of AI-driven programs that can boost productivity, save time, and facilitate our lives. With one of these programs, you can delegate scheduling, play music, and check the stock market, all without typing, thanks to voice recognition capabilities. Pen, paper, and typing can be eliminated from the entire process.

Google Duplex is a more recent digital assistant that takes automation to a new level. It makes calls to humans to schedule appointments, request information, and order food. Instead of speaking with a typical robotic tone, Google Duplex mimics real speech patterns and uses fillers such as “um” and “hmm.” Plus, this bot interacts with human responses and can carry on a conversation. For this reason, its reception so far has included a mixture of awe and trepidation.

Proceed with Care

Caution might be needed for that type of digital assistant, especially from ethical and privacy standpoints. Should a human receptionist know that he’s talking to a machine? Is he being recorded so Google can learn from the exchange? Nevertheless, most of the tasks accomplished by Google Duplex involve little personal risk. If your haircut gets scheduled at the wrong time, it would be a nuisance but not a big loss.

However, you should approach some types of AI-driven programs with caution when it comes to business because of the risks involved. For example, in language translation, the technology can’t yet match the human capacity for communication. Automatic translation engines are great for getting the gist of a letter or website, but using them for business can result in embarrassment, misinformation, and even financial loss.

Most companies put time and money into writing compelling and clear texts; foreign-language copy requires the same attention. Despite recent advances in deep learning, machine translation is not like Google Duplex—it does not sound human, and it’s much less eloquent. More importantly, accuracy is seriously compromised with automatic translation—just think of all the menus with indecipherable items such as “The water fries the potato” and signs saying, “Beware of safety.”

Apply the same caution for verbal translation or interpreting, which has made headlines with programs that combine machine translation with voice recognition. Holding a conversation with someone in a language you don’t know by using “translator earbuds” might work for casual exchanges with inconsequential outcomes. However, if you need to speak to an employee about her performance or to an international branch manager about next quarter’s sales goals, you cannot rely on AI to accurately transmit your message. Between speech recognition flaws, cultural differences, and the incredible creativity behind any human being’s speech, it’s best to stick to a professional interpreter for bilingual business communication.

Lawyer Up or Bot Up?

If creative speech is one reason not to trust the machines, what about legal discourse? Does it make sense for a business to rely on automated contract-writing programs or document-reviewing apps? As with many machine-based applications, such programs can work, albeit in a limited context for limited purposes.

AI-driven programs will review legal documents at a fraction of the cost of a lawyer. This review process takes humans significant time, and lawyers take years to master it, yet computers have apparently learned the skill. That said, even apps’ websites make it clear that the apps will not provide legal advice and should be used only for the specific purpose of reviewing documents.

The formulaic language and boilerplate nature of legal documents lends itself well to AI and frees up time and money for actual legal strategy. In some ways, it’s like translation—you can get some entry-level tasks done, just not anything that requires tactics or nuanced meaning. And of course, nothing involving any risk to your business.

Look Both Ways Before You Leap

So the next time you see an ad for a new app that looks like a miracle cure for what’s ailing your business, by all means, don’t ignore it. There are many good applications for automated and AI-driven programs. Just be sure to research the program and consider its uses. The more complex the task, and the more it involves human reasoning, the less likely it will work for business—at least in an all-encompassing manner. Work patterns and skills are certainly changing, but the bots aren’t taking over just yet.

Elena Langdon is a certified Portuguese-to-English translator and interpreter and an active member of the American Translators Association (ATA). The American Translators Association represents over 10,000 translators and interpreters across 103 countries. For more information on ATA and to hire a translation or interpreting professional, please visit www.atanet.org.

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