Breakthrough AI functionality allows real-time language translation via talk or text for teams using Relay
Since launching in 2020, Relay has enabled face-to-face language translation, allowing frontline teams to mitigate language barriers for their guests, patients, or teammates at the touch of a button. Today, the cloud-connected communications & safety platform – well known for its modern radio alternative and employee safety solutions – announced a pioneering approach to translating live voice and text communication for entire teams, located anywhere, across 25+ languages, all in real-time. Relay’s new patent-pending feature, called TeamTranslate, enables entire teams to select their preferred language so all messages they send or receive are automatically translated to the language each individual is most comfortable communicating in.
According to the 2023 US Census, nearly 30 million people in the US have limited English proficiency. Polls conducted by Relay show that over 80% of frontline businesses have non-native English speakers on staff. Clear and consistent communication is critical to the success of any business, but language barriers create big challenges for frontline businesses. Language barriers drive separation between teams, which hurts productivity and increases the risk of errors or even safety incidents. Hiring managers are forced to limit candidates to those who speak the same language as existing employees – shrinking an already constrained labor pool. Some businesses resort to hiring dedicated interpreters where clear communication is critical. More often though, leaders and team members suffer without a solution, resulting in frustration, isolation, and negative impacts because distributed teams are unable to communicate with one another throughout their workday.
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“TeamTranslate is an innovation that frontline teams can get value from immediately, with almost no changes to their workflows. With TeamTranslate, you could have a team of five people, who speak five different languages and are even distributed across five different geographic locations, all seamlessly communicating in real time with no additional training. All they need to do is use Relay,” said Relay CEO Chris Chuang. “TeamTranslate is also a prime example of how we leverage AI to create breakthrough products. Of course, translation technology is not new. What is new is how simple, fast, and scalable TeamTranslate is. TeamTranslate works for your entire team, whether that’s five people or five hundred, and translates the thousands of messages they might send across many channels, all in real-time. It’s rapidly gaining adoption because it ‘just works’, whereas other solutions in the past have been too clunky, costly, or ineffective. At Relay, our mission is to unleash productivity with transformative technology that is easy to use and simple to manage — we don’t believe innovation should come with a trade-off of introducing complexity into an operation.”
TeamTranslate is already being adopted across the Relay customer base in healthcare, hospitality, security and facilities management. A luxury hotel in Greenville, SC was part of the pilot program for TeamTranslate, given that many of its staff members are non-English speakers. “[TeamTranslate] is very useful for housekeeping given the fact that 90% of the staff [speaks Spanish]. It is a feature that we all depend on and would highly recommend.” said the Executive housekeeper, Grand Bohemian. Not only does TeamTranslate make teams more effective, but it also shows staff that the business is investing in their well-being, by putting tools in their hands that make them more comfortable and engaged – which will ultimately opens the door to less turnover and more career progression.
Relay’s TeamTranslate is not only a powerful solution to a widespread challenge in frontline work – it is seamless for teams to leverage. After selecting their preferred language, staff can simply use Relay’s push-to-talk capability to communicate with all other team members. When a team member receives a message, it will be automatically translated into their preferred language, no matter if they are speaking to 1 or 100 other people. The TeamTranslate feature works on Relay+ devices, which replace traditional two-way radios, but also on the Relay app for iOS and Andriod and the web-based dashboard, where it translates both voice-based and text-based communications in real-time. TeamTranslate can be configured with over 25 languages today and the list of available languages is expected to grow continuously over time.
Relay is a cloud-based technology platform that helps frontline teams improve communications, increase employee safety, and improve their operations. Relay helps frontline teams digitally transform their operations with the modern tools they need to be successful and the actionable real-time data they need to track performance and improve their operations. Software has not yet transformed the frontline world, and Relay is on a mission to change that.
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