Video Localization: Using AI Translations for Customer Education

Discover three methods to localize video content with AI for global audiences. Know which one works best for your customer education team!

Your users are spread around the world.

And serving these global users means speaking their language. Literally.

When your users speak different languages, they shouldn't have to struggle through your product tutorials, guides, and courses in English. AI video translations make it possible for Customer Education teams to create this localized content quickly and affordably, ensuring your resources match your users' language preferences.

But here's an important thing about translation that many miss: good translation captures nuance, culture, and context – elements that AI alone still struggles with.

‍ For CEd teams to make that shift from merely translating words to creating truly localized content, you need to balance AI efficiency and human cultural intelligence.

In this article, we'll show you where AI shines in video localization, where humans remain essential, and how to create the perfect workflow that works best for CEd teams.

What is AI Video Translation (And What it Isn't)

Video translation, put simply, makes a video accessible in different languages. With AI, you can automate this process of translating spoken language, subtitles, and on-screen text. Instead of spending hours manually translating each video or shelling out big bucks on expensive translation agencies, you can now translate videos in minutes, not weeks, with AI.

‍Translation contextualizes your explainer videos to make them more impactful and engaging for the native speakers of the target language. But let's be clear: AI translation isn't magic.

While it excels at speed and essential accuracy, it still struggles with:

• Cultural context and appropriate idioms
• Industry-specific terminology
• Emotional tone and brand voice consistency
• Regional nuance and colloquialisms

Now let’s consider where using AI translations can benefit CEd teams when it comes to your video workflows.

Three AI Video Translation Methods

There are three primary ways AI can localize customer education video content by translating it into a different regional language. But keeping a human in the loop remains crucial to ensure you’re capturing the right cultural nuances.

1. Subtitling

Subtitling keeps your original video and audio but adds translated text at the bottom of the screen in captions. Leveraging AI-powered translation tools will make the dialect switch more accurate for subtitles as large language models (LLMs) can ‘understand’ the broader intent of sentences and paragraphs.

‍You’ll often spot this on different social media platforms like YouTube that auto-translate subtitles in real-time. For instance, the subtitles in this Slack customer tutorial video can be translated into any language:

For customer education videos hosted on your knowledge base, website or help center, you can use AI to add subtitles to these videos and make them more accessible.

When to use subtitling:

• For short feature demo videos
• When visuals are more important than narration
• If you need quick turnaround times
• When your audience is somewhat familiar with the source language

AI can generate the first draft of translations quickly, but here's where human involvement matters:

2. Transcription

Transcripts provide a text version of the entire video content. These transcripts can then be translated into multiple languages to cater to a global customer base.

There are plenty of free and paid tools, like Veed and Descript, that transcribe videos. Once you’ve extracted the script, you can use AI to translate them into your customers’ preferred language and upload it along with your video. Here’s how we translated the script of the above-mentioned Slack customer education video’s script (auto-generated by YouTube) into German using Claude 3.5:

These translated scripts help your users search through the learning materials, annotate, and review them at their own pace. Moreover, the extracted scripts can also be used to create help articles or step-by-step guides. Apart from being cost-effective, transcriptions make customer education content more accessible to users with hearing impairments as well.

When to use transcription:

• For in-depth training sessions and webinars
• When users need to search through content
• If accessibility is a priority
• For technical content where precision is crucial

AI can quickly translate transcripts into different languages, but here’s where human intervention may be required:

3. Voiceovers

Voiceovers replace the original audio with narration in the target language. This creates the most natural learning experience for viewers. They can focus entirely on the visuals, and not get distracted by subtitles or have to refer to a translated script.

Traditionally, adding a voiceover to your video meant you had to accurately translate the script, hire voice actors, and ensure audio-video sync - this could take weeks! With AI, you can do away with all that. AI tools can extract the script from the original audio, translate it into the target language, and add realistic AI voiceovers of your choosing to match the video’s pace.

Customer education content like onboarding sessions, use case-specific product tutorials, and personalized troubleshooting videos are best translated using voiceovers. This delivers nuanced information in a personalized, engaging way and guides customer action.

When to use voiceovers:

• For onboarding sessions
• Use case demonstrations
• Step-by-step product tutorials
• When you want the most immersive experience

But, which of the above three methods is ideal for your customer education team? Let’s decode that next.

Benefits of Using AI Translations in Customer Education Videos

The primary goal of translating customer education videos is to enhance their efficacy for the target audience. AI tools solve three challenges when it comes to reaching that goal:

1. Upholding content quality: AI video translation tools streamline the translation process by automating speech recognition, language translation, and subtitle synchronization. They reduce human error, ensure consistency across multiple languages, and provide quick turnaround times.
2. Keeping the process lean: Key tasks such as transcription, translation, and synchronization can be done consistently within minutes, saving hours or days for customer success teams. This helps businesses quickly respond to customer requests for help content.
3. Maintaining relevance at scale: The speed of translating videos with AI allows teams to update content quickly and translate them into additional languages. This ensures that the customer support videos remain relevant even as the product evolves.

But AI video translation workflows can look very different across CEd teams. The nature of self-help content and your customers’ preferences play a big part in choosing the method of translation, and ultimately, your workflow. Let’s better understand each of these methods so you can make the right choice.

Choosing the Best AI Video Translation Method

When picking a translation method, one thing matters above all else: your learners' experience. Consider whether your chosen method will enhance or detract from the learning experience.

To that end, here are some important aspects to keep in mind for each of the methods:

When choosing subtitles:

If you’re adding subtitles to longer content like demos or training courses, consider the cognitive load on your users.

• Having to read subtitles while following visual instructions can be challenging, especially for complex product features.
• This might impact the learning experience if subtitles are the only translation method used across your resources.

When choosing transcriptions:

• For hands-on training videos, users end up having to divide their attention between reading and watching. Content that demonstrates procedures or features requires the learner to focus on the visuals.
• A good workaround is creating how-to articles with screenshots or GIFs instead.

When choosing voiceovers:

While voiceovers offer an immersive experience, teams should consider these factors during implementation:

• Lip-sync issues - When speakers are visible on screen, the mismatch between mouth movements and audio can be distracting
• Cultural authenticity - Plan for how AI voices will handle cultural speaking patterns, emotions, and emphasis typical to native speakers
• Technical accuracy - Establish a review process to ensure proper pronunciation of technical terms and product names

Pro-tip: Clueso solves these common voiceover challenges with state-of-the-art AI voices that capture natural speech patterns across 37+ languages and accents.

• Automatically sync audio with your video timing; just record your product or workflow on your screen with your rough narration, and translate it in one-click!
• Add pronunciation guidance for technical terms and brand names to our Pronunciation Dictionary, and get perfect pronunciation, no matter what language the output is in.

Speaking to the World with Your Videos

Video is powerful for teaching customers how to use your product. Translating those videos makes them even more effective for your global audience – whether with subtitles, transcribing, or voiceovers.

The most successful video localization combines AI's speed and scale with human cultural intelligence. This balance ensures your content is not just translated, but truly adapted for your international users.

Remember: AI is a powerful tool, but it's the human touch that makes your content connect emotionally and culturally with your global audience.

Frequently Asked Questions About Video Localization

Can I use AI to translate videos?

‍ Yes, AI video translation tools like Clueso can translate videos by giving them an AI voiceover, ensuring quick and accurate multilingual content for global audiences. Other methods include translating the subtitles and the transcript.

How do I change the language of a video using AI?

‍ Upload your video to an AI video translation tool like Clueso, select the target language, and the AI will handle transcription, translation, and voiceover generation. And this can be done in minutes, speeding up the entire video localization process.

How to auto-translate a video?

‍ Social media platforms like YouTube offer subtitle translation options to ensure wider accessibility for videos. Additionally, users can leverage AI-powered automation tools like Clueso to add realistic AI voiceovers to their videos in different languages.

Is there an app to automatically translate videos?

Yes, apps like Clueso translate videos into 37+ languages in minutes. All teams have to do is choose the target language based on their customers’ needs.