Smartling supports a wide range of Neural Machine Translation (NMT) providers and Large Language Models (LLMs), including a pre-configured option called Smartling Auto Select LLM. 

You can use MT engines or LLMs for translation in various ways, including within translation jobs, linguist suggestions in the CAT Tool, instant file or text translation using Smartling Translate, Smartling's MT API, or through one of Smartling's MT integrations that deliver translations directly where they're needed. To learn more, see Introduction to MT and AI Translation in Smartling. 

The use of MT or LLM translation falls under Smartling's AI Hub. Please note that this is a paid product. For pricing information, please reach out to your Smartling Customer Success Manager.

Supported Providers

Smartling pre-configured Profiles (Auto Select LLM, Auto Select MT, and Language Adaptation) use Smartling-provisioned credentials and do not require a separate provider account. If you would like to bring your own key (BYOK) for a specific MT or LLM provider, you will need to activate an account with that provider and store your credentials in the AI Hub. For more information, see MT and LLM Provider Credentials (BYOK).

Smartling also supports copy source to target, where the source text is copied over to the translation. This can be useful when performing adaptation.

Built your own in-house MT service? Use it in Smartling—learn more in Bring Your Own MT Service Using the Common REST API Provider.

Locale-specific machine translation

Machine translation generally facilitates the translation of one language into another without accounting for locale-specific nuances. For example, most MT providers will generate the same translation output for German (Germany) and German (Austria). Regional or country-specific variations of the same target language are generally not taken into account.

However, there are some exceptions. The following providers support locale-specific machine translation for selected locale pairs:

• Smartling Auto Select MT: Supports locale-specific machine translation with a ready-to-use MT Profile and no additional configuration. Auto Select MT intelligently routes your content to the most suitable MT provider, then uses Prompsit to adapt the output to the target locale. Supported locale pairs:
  • French: French (France) vs. French (Canada)
  • Portuguese: Portuguese (Portugal) vs. Portuguese (Brazil)
  • Spanish: Spanish (Spain) vs. Spanish (Latin America)
  • English: English (United States) or English (Canada) vs. English (United Kingdom) or English (Australia), English (Singapore), English (Mauritius), English (New Zealand), English (South Africa)
  • Norwegian: Norwegian (Nynorsk) vs. Norwegian (Bokmål)
• Google MT: Supports locale-specific MT into the following locales (see supported languages for more information).
  • French (France) vs. French (Canada)
  • Portuguese (Portugal) vs. Portuguese (Brazil)
  • Chinese (Simplified) vs. Chinese (Traditional)
• Microsoft Translator: Supports locale-specific MT into the following locales (see supported languages for more information).
  • French (France) vs. French (Canada)
  • Portuguese (Portugal) vs. Portuguese (Brazil)
  • Chinese (Simplified) vs. Chinese (Traditional)
• Amazon Translate: Supports locale-specific MT into the following locales (see supported languages for more information).
  • French (France) vs. French (Canada)
  • Portuguese (Portugal) vs. Portuguese (Brazil)
  • Spanish vs. Spanish (Mexico)
  • Chinese (Simplified) vs. Chinese (Traditional)

Locale adaptation

Locale adaptation converts existing content from one locale to another locale of the same language (e.g., English (United States) to English (United Kingdom), or French (France) to French (Canada)). Unlike translation, adaptation preserves the original content as much as possible and only changes regional terminology, spelling, and conventions.

The following options support locale adaptation:

• Smartling Auto Select LLM: Automatically detects when source and target locales share the same language and applies an adaptation-specific prompt. No additional configuration needed.
• Smartling Language Adaptation: A standalone LLM-powered adaptation Profile. Use this if you need to configure different RAG settings or linguistic packages for adaptation work with non-project-based integrations.
• Prompsit (deprecated): A legacy rule-based adaptation engine with limited locale pair support. We recommend using Smartling Language Adaptation or Auto Select LLM instead. See below for supported locales.

Prompsit adaptation (deprecated)

Deprecated: Prompsit is being replaced by Smartling Language Adaptation, which provides higher quality adaptation across all Smartling-supported locale pairs. We recommend updating your workflows to use Language Adaptation.

Prompsit is a third-party adaptation engine that adapts text from one locale to another within the same language family. For example, Prompsit can adapt English (United States) source content to English (United Kingdom).

Prompsit supports five languages for locale adaptation (see supported languages for more information).

English:

• Adaptation from English (United States) to English (United Kingdom), and vice versa.
• Adaptation from English (United Kingdom) to English (Canada): This target locale uses the same translation output as English (United States).
• Adaptation from English (United States) to English (Australia), English (Singapore), English (Mauritius), English (New Zealand) and English (South Africa): These target locales use the same translation output as English (United Kingdom).

French:

• Adaptation from French (France) to French (Canada), and vice versa.

Portuguese:

• Adaptation from Portuguese (Portugal) to Portuguese (Brazil), and vice versa.

Spanish:

• Adaptation from Spanish (Spain) to Spanish (Latin America), and vice versa.

Norwegian:

• Adaptation from Norwegian (Nynorsk) to Norwegian (Bokmål), and vice versa.

To create an adaptation workflow with Prompsit, you will need to create an MT Profile for this provider. For easy access, no provider credentials are required. You can simply select Prompsit MT when creating a new MT Profile.

Info: If you would like to insert glossary terms into translations adapted with Prompsit, please opt for AI-Enhanced Glossary Term Insertion. Standard Glossary Term Insertion is not compatible with Prompsit.

Related articles

1. Learn more about Smartling's AI Hub. 
2. Learn more about Smartling's optimized LLM translation service, Smartling Auto Select LLM. 
3. Learn about creating and managing MT profiles or managing LLM profiles and prompts.
4. Learn more about translating with LLMs.
5. Learn about Smartling Language Adaptation for LLM-powered locale adaptation.