Optimise efficiency? Or empower your employees? Textshuttle opens up new possibilities for multilingual organisations.

Boost Efficiency with AI Translation

AI Translation isn’t a replacement for translators. But it does offer a reliable basic translation that provides language experts with a new foundation. This allows professional translators to focus on details and phrasing, making work easier and boosting efficiency by 40 to 60%. This creates new space for order management and linguistic direction for your Language Services department. Our Swiss Life case study demonstrates how it works.

Leading Swiss insurance company with around 10,000 employees
Internal Language Services department with 11.4 FTE staff focusing on the corporate languages English, German, French and Italian
Translation volume of around 14,000 hours spent on language services (translation, adaptation, post-editing, quality assurance, proofreading and review) each year
Translation technologies Trados Studio and Plunet used

Two considerations formed part of the approach to using AI Translation from its introduction: using resources efficiently and making the expertise of the company’s Language Services department visible across the entire organisation. Another challenge was actively involving professional translators in this ambitious paradigm shift to ensure efficient implementation across seven language combinations. Taking technical regulations into account, the solution had to be operated on the company’s own servers (as an on-prem product).

Holistic Linguistic Direction with Boost in Efficiency

The tailored Swiss Life solution has been used in the Language Services department since 2020. All orders are pre-translated using their Translation AI and edited by language specialists. This has allowed Swiss Life to enjoy a 49.2% increase in efficiency for translation orders and an actual 30% increase in efficiency compared to all activities in Language Services (2020). In addition, thousands of employees are benefiting from the linguistic direction in the business.

“We were able to use the Translation AI in 47% of all contracts and achieve an average 49.2% increase in efficiency for translations. The company-wide use of the Translation Interface also helped dramatically reduce use of open translation services.”

Vittorio Capparuccini, Head of Language Services

Communicate in Your Signature Style – in All Languages, across Your Team

Language barriers cause misunderstandings and uncertainty when advising, assisting or simply interacting with customers on a daily basis. Textshuttle helps you supply a simple and secure tool for your staff. This translation tool helps you communicate smoothly and skilfully in your own signature style in many different languages. This empowers your employees while ensuring that each message reaches your audience the way you like it. The Translation AI continuously replicates the latest iteration of the company’s own linguistic direction. Your company. Your voice. Find out how using Textshuttle in client communications pays off in our Migros Bank case study.

Leading Swiss bank with around 1,800 employees
Internal Language Services department with 4.8 FTE employees focusing on German, French and Italian
Translation volumes of 10,500 standard pages per year
Uses Across as a translation tool

Migros Bank has over 70 branches across Switzerland. This requires high standards of multilingual communication in all areas of the organisation. When Migros Bank built an internal team of language specialists, the initial challenge was finding suitable tools to assist efficient working process. AI Translation also had to make all languages used within the company available to all employees, complete with their own linguistic direction.

Business-Wide AI Translation

Textshuttle has been working with Migros Bank since 2017 and actively helped it set up its own linguistic centre of expertise in the initial phase. This centre handles the selection of suitable tools and helps manage valuable data for developing the company’s own Translation AI with professional translations. The Translation AI was initially introduced with a focus on corporate language in the Language Services department and was then made available to all employees at a later stage. After its introduction, Textshuttle conducted a research study, which found that the use of AI Translation in professional human translation saw productivity increase by an average of 35%.

“Textshuttle helps us smoothly integrate Translation AI with our own linguistic direction into our workflow. The option of a Translation Interface allowing all employees to access our Translation AI is warmly welcomed and frequently used.”

Beatriz Gonzalez, Senior Business Analyst

Manage Large Volumes of Text Automatically

Lengthy product catalogues with specifications and manuals are a mammoth task for translation services. AI Translation is the ideal tool for handling these volumes. We train our AI specifically in the terminology used, ensuring highly reliable results. For example, in the e-commerce sector, where adjustments are constantly being made and the products and services on offer are continuously being restructured. Textshuttle integrates seamlessly with your existing infrastructure, allowing you to focus on data management rather than translation. Find out how OBI automatically translates several millions of words each year with Textshuttle in our case study.

Construction and DIY retail chain with 640 branches in 10 countries
Linguistic centre of expertise in Switzerland with four FTE staff
Translation volumes of several million words per target language per year for stationary markets, the online shop and internal documents
Use of Trados Studio

OBI supplies over 100,000 different products and services in a variety of languages in its branches and online. Product descriptions and client communications must be made available to target audiences with a variety of linguistic needs, while ensuring efficiency and consistency of terminology. The number of products and constant adaptations is particularly challenging in e-commerce. It must be possible to use AI Translation in the CAT tool and other instruments and to use it consistently across the board.

Acceleration in E-Commerce Thanks to Translation AI

OBI began integrating Textshuttle’s Translation AI into its workflows back in 2019. Initially, a specialised Translation AI was developed for German, French and Italian. Additional languages, such as Slovenian and Hungarian, are constantly being added – including linguistic direction, of course. Today, the five-strong centre of expertise in Switzerland is the main contact point in Europe for translation and language technology. It manages all aspects of translation and technology, including the latest Translation AI.

“Translation AI helps us process selected orders automatically, such as the translation of product descriptions and other types of text in e-commerce, which usually undergo a post-editing process. Since early summer 2021, we have offered our internal clients AI Translation across Europe.”

Björn Döringer, Team Manager Language Services

Automate Processes Across Systems and Source Languages

Flights, hotels, rental cars and more: many different suppliers are involved in selling a complete travel package. And more often than not, their product and service descriptions come in many different languages. To ensure travellers can plan their journey without getting lost in translation, an automated process is needed to deliver on-brand itineraries right at the time of booking. Learn how it’s done in our DERTOUR Suisse case study.

Leading Swiss tourism company and proprietor of major tour operators such as KUONI and Helvetic Tours
Required an automated translation solution for tourism-specific terminology and syntax, mixed-language input, markdown formatting and text shortening
Places great importance on local language variants (German, French and Italian for Switzerland) that allow it to adapt content to target markets
Company-wide adoption through API implementation in several core systems

DERTOUR Suisse’s 1,000 employees run more than 70 travel agencies across Switzerland, along with multiple online presences. Naturally, their custom travel packages involve products and services from hotels, airlines, rental car dealers and insurance companies from around the world. Since these products and services are described in various languages, delivering an itinerary for each custom package in the client’s native language in real time is a major challenge.

Full Automation with Custom AI Translation Across Systems

Our tailored DERTOUR Suisse solution was deployed in December 2023. As a first step, it seamlessly fetches service descriptions from various systems across the company and compiles them into a multilingual itinerary. This mixed-source-language text is then automatically translated into the Swiss variant of German, French or Italian, or into English, depending on the client’s language. To make sure the itineraries always stay on brand, a customised AI translation engine that follows DERTOUR Suisse’s specific requirements for terminology, abbreviations, syntax and output text length was developed.

“From Madrid airport (MAD) translated as ‘angry’ to a king room with a view of the Las Vegas Strippers rather than the Strip, AI translation has its pitfalls for the travel industry. Key reasons for this include a lack of standardisation, industry-specific abbreviations and the high number of interfaces with suppliers. Together with Textshuttle, we were able to successfully tackle these challenges thanks to maximum flexibility on their end.”

Peer Günther, Application Manager

Add Languages to Suit Your Needs

We currently have 23 languages in our portfolio – and we’re always learning new ones. Textshuttle is also able to expand into new linguistic areas for clients on request. For instance, we created AI Translation for the public media organisation of Romansh-speaking Switzerland (RTR) – the first ever Translation AI for this comparatively small language community. Our AI Translation expertise is extensive. This also allows us to address specific needs and challenges. We explain our approach in the RTR case study.

Subsidiary of SRG SSR tasked with providing public services in Romansh
Use of the Translation Interface across the organisation and integration into its editorial system

With around 30,000 speakers, Romansh is the least widely-spoken official language of Switzerland. This makes supplying suitable and sizeable quantities of data a daunting task. RTR tasked Textshuttle with producing a proof of concept for the development of a translation model for Romansh to German and, subsequently, German to Romansh. Overall, 200,000 parallel segments have been used so far. These were sourced from existing freely available files such as legal texts, the constitution and cantonal press articles. For instance, we created AI Translation for the public media organisation of Romansh-speaking Switzerland, Radiotelevisiun Svizra Rumantscha (RTR) – the first ever Translation AI for this comparatively small language community.

Helping Preserve a Minority Language

Initial results were highly promising and language experts found them to be helpful in day-to-day practice. The Translation AI is easy to use for individual words, entire texts or Word documents in the Translation Interface and works similarly to open translation services that are available online. In the future, RTR will use Translation AI to make editorial work easier. With this solution, texts only need to be edited or corrected slightly.

“Thanks to the latest technology and development, we can actively benefit from this technology as a smaller linguistic region. Our Translation AI helps preserve the language and support local requirements.”

Bernard Bearth, Head of Data and Archives

Professionals Work with Textshuttle

Textshuttle is the ideal foundation partner for translation professionals and agencies. Our artificial intelligence is suitable for seamless integration into existing CAT (computer-assisted translation) and TM (translation management) systems. We also make managing terminology and style easier in our Cockpit. This helps us create a proven efficiency boost for you, thanks to high-quality basic translations available at your fingertips and a smart system that’s always learning. Find out more in our Supertext case study.

One of the most innovative language service providers with branches in Zurich, Berlin and Los Angeles
Around 100 employees and over 2,500 internal and external language experts
Over 6,000 client orders per month
Use of various translation technologies such as Trados Studio or Translate5
Own portal for the management of client projects and assignment of freelancers

Professional translators and agencies face the very real challenge of managing a growing number of languages for their clients across channels and formats. A language service provider’s main focus is on the diverse needs of its clients. The use of company-specific vocabulary and a distinctive linguistic direction for each client is at the heart of this approach. As a technology partner, Textshuttle supports Supertext in the implementation across a number of CAT tools and industries.

More Languages, More Channels – Translation AI for Experts

Textshuttle has developed a specialised Translation AI for Supertext for the target languages English, German, French and Italian. Different regional language variants have also been taken into account to meet local requirements and a variety of client needs. AI Translation is gradually being rolled out to internal and external language specialists across the agency. The ability to adapt the linguistic direction in the form of terminology and style guidelines for all clients is essential for efficient use.

“The Translation AI has helped us enhance efficiency and offer improved quality. Flexible options allow us to tailor linguistic direction specifically for all our customers.”

Lucas Maire, Chief Operating Officer

Efficient Translation of Highly Regulated Content

Medical devices are subject to many regulatory restrictions and require very high standards in terms of translation process and quality. Consistent use of specialised terminology and compliance with stringent data protection requirements are the key issues. This case study of Ottobock, a global manufacturer of prosthetics and orthotics, shows how Textshuttle’s AI Translation can be used profitably under these conditions.

Leading medical technology company in the field of orthopedic technology: Prosthetics, Orthotics, NeuroMobility, Exoskeletons, Digital O&P Solutions
More than 8,000 employees worldwide with 60 subsidiaries and more than 400 supply centres
Global Translation Management: 35 languages with focus on DE and EN, no in-house translators
Translation requirements: Out-sourced volume approx. 4 million words per year, in addition to internal communication between branches
Specialised 'niche terminology' (orthopedic technology)
Across in place as CAT tool

Ottobock is represented in 60 subsidiaries and more than 400 care centres worldwide in orthopedic medical technology. These complex medical devices are subject to strict regulatory requirements. Reliable translations accompany the entire process from development to production and distribution. The Language Service is faced with the challenge of delivering an ever-increasing volume of high-quality translations in over 35 languages.

Managing Complex Technical Language with AI Translation

In 2022, Textshuttle developed specialised models for AI Translation for Ottobock’s main languages German and English as an initial project. Together with generic models for additional languages, the specialised translation models were initially rolled out to the Language Service and later company-wide. Terminology is taken into account in all language combinations in the output of Translation AI, which is also accessible to all employees throughout the company via the Translation Interface. The stringent data protection and data security requirements are met by secure hosting in the Textshuttle Cloud, which is operated in Switzerland.

“AI Translation reduced order delivery times by a third, further demonstrating that the use of AI Translation enables faster delivery times while maintaining consistent quality.”

Kerstin Brümmer, Terminologist