Cisco has announced the availability (in preview beginning this month) of its realtime translation feature while also expanding the language library from more than 10 to more than 100 languages, ranging from Armenian to Zulu.
Users can create their own personalised Webex meeting experience by quickly and easily self-selecting the language of their choice from the most commonly used languages, such as Arabic, Dutch, French, German, Japanese, Korean, Mandarin, Russian and Spanish, as well as more localized languages such as Danish, Hindi, Malay, Turkish and Vietnamese.
The personalised language experience provides a path through one of the major hurdles in global business – the language barrier. Now users can engage more fully in meetings no matter the language of origin, enabling teams to communicate more effectively with each other, and opening new opportunities for businesses to build a more inclusive, global workforce.
For businesses, there’s a talent and cost benefit. The feature enables businesses to focus on finding the best talent regardless of wherever they call home or their native language.
A recent report from Metrigy on intelligent virtual assistants found that nearly 24% of participants have meetings that include non-English native speakers and of these, more than half have been using third-party services to translate meetings into other languages (incurring an average cost of $172 per meeting). Integrating intelligent virtual meeting assistants with language translation capabilities significantly reduces or even eliminates this cost entirely.
“The inclusive features of Webex help create a level playing field for users regardless of factors like language or geography. Enabling global realtime translations is another step toward powering an inclusive future, and an important component of driving better communication and collaboration across teams,” says Jeetu Patel, senior vice-president and GM: security and applications at Cisco.
“AI technologies play an integral role in delivering the seamless collaboration, smart hybrid work and intelligent customer experiences that Cisco is known to deliver.”