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Automatic Translation

Cognigy has integrated automatic translation capabilities to streamline the process of customizing Flows and Intents for various locales. This feature is helpful for users who need multilingual support without the need for manual translations.

Cognigy.AI is compatible with the following machine translation providers:

  • Microsoft Translator
    • Microsoft Azure Cognitive Services Translator1
  • Google Cloud Translation
  • DeepL Translation Pro

These providers offer several valuable benefits:

  • Freedom of Language Choice. You have the flexibility to choose your preferred translation language.
  • Supervised or Automatic Translation. Translation can be performed manually under your supervision or set to work automatically, depending on your needs.
  • Voice-Ready Translation. Our translation capabilities are equipped to handle all modes, making them voice-ready and adaptable to various communication methods.

Add a Machine Translation Provider

  1. Open the Cognigy.AI interface.
  2. In the left-side menu, select an Agent.
  3. In the left-side Agent menu, select Manage > Settings.

  4. In the Translation settings section, select one of the following providers:

    • Translation Provider API Key — enter your unique API key provided by Microsoft Translator. It's necessary for authentication and allows you to access translation services.
    • Request Retriers — specify how often Cognigy should attempt to call the translation provider if an error occurs during the initial request. For example, if you set it to 3, Cognigy will try three times before giving up on a translation request.
    • Request Timeout — determine how long Cognigy should wait for a response from the translation provider after making a request, measured in milliseconds. If the provider doesn't respond within this time frame, it's considered a timeout.
    • Sentence Cache Expiry Timeout — determine how long translations should be kept in the cache before they are considered outdated and removed. The default value is 84,600 seconds, which is equivalent to 1 day. You can set it to 0 for no caching.
    • Custom API Base URL — this setting is optional. If you have specific requirements or need to connect to a custom instance of the Microsoft Translator API different from the default one https://api.cognitive.microsofttranslator.com/, you can use this field to specify a custom base URL. It allows you to define the URL, including the protocol scheme, for example https://api-eur.cognitive.microsofttranslator.com, to tailor the API connection to your needs.
    • Custom Subscription Region — this setting is optional. It represents the location or region of your Azure MS Translator resource. You may need to use this field when calling this API, especially if you have specified a specific region in your Azure account.
    • Translation Provider API Key — enter your unique API key provided by Google Cloud Translation. It's necessary for authentication and allows you to access translation services.
    • Request Retriers — specify how often Cognigy should attempt to call the translation provider if an error occurs during the initial request. For example, if you set it to 3, Cognigy will try three times before giving up on a translation request.
    • Request Timeout — determine how long Cognigy should wait for a response from the translation provider after making a request, measured in milliseconds. If the provider doesn't respond within this time frame, it's considered a timeout.
    • Sentence Cache Expiry Timeout — determine how long translations should be kept in the cache before they are considered outdated and removed. The default value is 84,600 seconds, which is equivalent to 1 day. You can set it to 0 for no caching.
    • Translation Provider API Key — enter your unique API key provided by DeepL Translate Pro. It's necessary for authentication and allows you to access translation services.
    • Request Retriers — specify how often Cognigy should attempt to call the translation provider if an error occurs during the initial request. For example, if you set it to 3, Cognigy will try three times before giving up on a translation request.
    • Request Timeout — determine how long Cognigy should wait for a response from the translation provider after making a request, measured in milliseconds. If the provider doesn't respond within this time frame, it's considered a timeout.
    • Sentence Cache Expiry Timeout — determine how long translations should be kept in the cache before they are considered outdated and removed. The default value is 84,600 seconds, which is equivalent to 1 day. You can set it to 0 for no caching.
    • Custom API Base URL — this setting is optional. If you have specific requirements or need to connect to a custom instance of the DeepL Translate Pro API, you can use this field to specify a custom base URL. It allows you to define the URL, including the protocol scheme, for example https://api-free.deepl.com/, to tailor the API connection to your needs.

  5. Click Save.

Add a Locale

Cognigy virtual agents use English as the default language. However, you can customize the language of your Flow to match your requirements when needed.

To create a locale, follow these steps:

  1. Open the Cognigy.AI interface.
  2. In the left-side menu, select an Agent.
  3. In the left-side Agent menu, select Manage > Localization.
  4. Click + Create new Locale.
  5. In the Name field, enter a unique name of the locale. This name will be displayed in the Flow.
  6. From the NLU Language list, select a language for your locale.
  7. From the Fallback Locale list, select a locale that will be used as default when a specific language is not available.
  8. Click Save & Build.

Machine Translation for Flow Localization

In a Flow, you can change languages, localize Flow Nodes and Intents.

Switching a Locale during a Conversation

You can change a locale of a Flow during a conversation by using the Switch Locale Node.

Machine Translation for Node Localization

Localized Nodes are in color, while non-localized ones are grayed out. Within the Flow, you can set up multiple localizations, with fallback layers for locales without content.

You can configure the machine translation settings for all types of text output Nodes, including Say, Question, and other Node types.

To localize a Node using machine translation, follow these steps:

  1. Open now your Flow in which you want to localize Nodes.
  2. Select the locale with untranslated Nodes.
  3. Click a Node and select Add Localization.
  4. Select Add Translated Localization.
  5. Define the source locale for your translation by selecting a language from the Locale to Translate from list.
  6. Define the target language for translation by selecting a language from the Language to Translate to list.
  7. Click Confirm.

The Node will be translated automatically. In the Node editor, make sure to review the translated fields, paying attention to Tokens and Cognigy.Script, which should remain untranslated.

Machine Translation for Intent Localization

To localize an Intent using machine translation, follow these steps:

  1. In the upper-right corner of the Flow editor, select NLU.
  2. On the Intents tab, select an Intent that you want to translate.
  3. On the Intent page, click Add Localization > Add Translated Localization.
  4. From the Locale to Translate from list, select a locale to indicate the source locale for your translation.
  5. From the Language to Translate from list, select the language of the content you are translating.
  6. From the Language to Translate to list, select the language into which you want the content to be translated.
  7. Click Confirm.

Intent example sentences will be translated automatically.

Machine Translation for Multi-Intent Localization

To localize all Intents within your Flow using machine translation, follow these steps:

  1. In the upper-right corner of the Flow editor, select NLU.
  2. On the Intents tab, on the right side of the + Create Intent button, click vertical-ellipsis > Add Localisations to all Intents.
  3. In the Add Localizations to all Intents window, select Auto-Translate from another locale.
  4. From the Locale to Translate from list, select a locale to indicate the source locale for your translation.
  5. From the Language to Translate from list, select the language of the content you are translating.
  6. From the Language to Translate to list, select the language into which you want the content to be translated.
  7. (Optional) Activate the Overwrite already localized Intents setting to apply changes to all existing Intents within the current Flow locale.
  8. Click Confirm.

This process ensures that all Intents are automatically translated.

More information

  1. To use Azure Cognitive Services Translator you must select Microsoft Translator in Settings > Translation Settings ↩