The News
Speaking Mandarin just got a bit easier.
Individuals using Microsoft Teams will soon be able to converse in languages they don’t speak, thanks to an AI agent that translates speech in real time, using the speaker’s own voice. A preview that includes nine languages will become available early next year.
It’s particularly helpful for businesses expanding globally and relying on remote work. While translation technologies via written text have existed for decades, including Microsoft’s own, there has yet to be a breakout champion in live speech-to-speech translation.
Microsoft’s new AI translator digs further into the growing $18 billion global interpretation market, but it may impact some 640,000 professional translators in the world. Last year, Google teased a similar AI-powered speech translation tool for customer service agents, but has yet to bring it to market.
Microsoft’s launch is part of a larger set of updates coming to Teams, including the ability to translate presentations into 40 languages and converse with chatbots that simulate internal human resources and IT personnel.