The digital world isn’t slowing down, and neither are your customers. They expect fast, around-the-clock support in their language. For global businesses, meeting that demand can be costly. Hiring multilingual agents in every region adds up quickly. That’s why more companies are turning to real-time translation tools. They offer a more scalable, cost-effective way to deliver consistent, high-quality service across languages.
In this blog article, I will guide you through how we, at Perficient, are addressing this challenge by leveraging Twilio’s ConversationRelay and AI translation technology to deliver real-time voice translation for contact centers. The result is a quick, accurate, and natural conversation with an agent who can speak in the customer’s native language. Pretty impressive, isn’t it?
What Is Twilio ConversationRelay?
For real-time voice translation with Twilio ConversationRelay, developers can access live Media Streams between the customer and agent, and improve their conversation in real-time. Think of it as a smart audio bridge that enables you to plug in AI features such as text-to-speech, real-time translation, speech-to-text transcription, or an LLM. As a result, it provides a strong basis for creating dynamic, multilingual voice experiences in modern contact centers.
Now, let’s see how the backend of our real-time voice translation demo is put together.
Twilio ConversationRelay captures live audio when a customer speaks in their native language, for example, Spanish, using Programmable Voice. That stream is then routed through WebSockets to maintain a quick and responsive connection.
The procedure reverses itself when the agent responds in English, recording their voice, transcribing it, translating it back into the customer’s language, and then turning it back into speech.
It’s fascinating how AI makes it possible to have seamless, two-way, real-time conversation between speakers of different languages without the need for a human interpreter.
Why It Matters
Real-time voice translation is revolutionizing the way businesses communicate with customers by enabling support in the customer’s language without needing an agent who speaks it natively.
But it’s not just about translating words. This method helps support teams truly understand what customers are saying, including the tone and emotion behind their message. That results in fewer misunderstandings, quicker resolution times, and a smoother overall experience.
More importantly, it helps build trust and empathy in conversations that might otherwise feel distant or disconnected. With that, customer satisfaction isn’t just possible, it’s almost guaranteed.
Challenges And Considerations
Real-time voice translation is a game-changer, but making it work seamlessly in a live contact center is a whole different story.
One of the biggest hurdles is latency. Even a slight delay, just a few hundred milliseconds, can disrupt the natural flow of a conversation and make things feel awkward or disjointed.
Then there’s the issue of accuracy. In industries like healthcare or finance, where precise language and industry-specific terms matter, generic translation tools can easily miss the mark.
And let’s not forget about privacy and compliance. When you’re dealing with live audio and sensitive data, you have to play by the rules, whether it’s GDPR, HIPAA, or PCI DSS.
That’s why building a multilingual contact center solution isn’t just about plugging in a translation tool. It takes careful planning, the right tech stack, and thorough testing to get it right.
At Perficient, our Customer Care practice is actively focused on minimizing latency in real-time voice translation for cloud contact centers. Leveraging Twilio ConversationRelay, we are optimizing low-latency audio streaming and integrating optimal ASR and translation models tailored to a specific industry. We also embed secure, compliant workflows that protect sensitive data while preserving natural conversational flow.
See It in Action
We’ve put together a live demo that walks through the full experience, from capturing the customer’s voice to translating it in real-time and vice versa within a cloud contact center.
Curious to see it in action? Or wondering how something like this could level up your contact center? Let’s connect, and we’d love to show you what’s possible.
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