BPO vendor Transcom is rolling out a real-time voice-translation tool that could spell the end of AI-powered chatbots in the contact center industry.
The tool not only challenges the role of chatbots — it has the potential to revolutionize the entire hiring process.
It could reduce the need to hire agents within the same time zones and eliminate the massive costs of training staff in multiple languages.
Integrated into Avaya’s Experience Platform, this tool is a game-changer for customer service agents whose jobs were on the verge of being replaced by robots.
The software combines speech-to-text and text-to-speech with multiple translation engines and custom dictionaries, allowing agents to communicate in over 100 languages, regardless of their native tongue.
This breakthrough means the Stockholm Sweden-based company can now hire agents from any low-cost country, offering 24/7 human-driven customer service. Executives say the tool could slash service costs by 25% to 65%, depending on the market.
“Language will never again be an obstacle on the road” to delivering CX services, Transcom says in its website, adding, “Automated Translation makes it as if any client or customer and any agent speak the same language.”
Erasing Time zones and Robots
The software could eliminate the need for BPOs to hire agents in the same time zone as their clients. Transcom explains on its website how this works.
Imagine you have two call centers, one in Portugal and another in the Philippines. If the Portuguese center suddenly experiences a surge in calls, resulting in many customers being put on hold, the workload can easily be shifted to agents in other locations. For instance, agents from the Philippines can immediately assist the Portuguese team, even if they cannot speak the customers’ language.
This means that “agents can work in all languages,” says Transcom.
Similarly, there will be no need for BPOs to deploy chatbots instead of human agents. With this tool, BPOs can hire agents in low-cost countries around the world and offer round-the-clock service.
If they choose, contact centers can also avoid expanding into new markets in search of agents, as they can utilize their existing agents to serve different clients across various regions.
Operational in Egypt and India
Jakob Westgren, Transcom’s Head of IT Products, told Nearshore Americas that the BPO has already implemented the tool in Egypt and India for nearly a year.

“Out of Cairo, our English-speaking agents have been supporting TUI’s customers in The Netherlands, Sweden, and Norway for a year now,”
“We also have ongoing projects with a German e-commerce brand and a North American mobility company out of India.”
While Transcom claims on its website that the automated translation is 97% accurate, Westgren notes that accuracy varies depending on the language in question.
“The quality usually depends on how big a language is, or more precisely, how much learning material the engine has available online and in other sources.”
Accent Neutralization
Transcom’s tool may also eliminate the need to train agents in various accents. The BPO has implemented an accent-neutralization tool in its operations in India and the Philippines. As a result, Westgren notes that agents can “focus on delivering exceptional service without worrying about pronunciation.”
In a video posted on its website, a Transcom agent speaks in English with a Swedish-speaking customer. Both parties communicate in their native accents, and the conversation is translated in real time so that they hear each other’s responses in their own language and the same accent.
Launching a translation tool was a long dream for Transcom. In a 2022 interview with Nearshore Americas, the BPO’s then Chief Commercial Officer for North America Don Berryman said: “There are billions of people in outsourcing markets who don’t speak English, so when real-time voice translation happens, call centers will have access to huge talent pools at low cost.”
Those days, Westgren said, “the technology wasn’t advanced enough to ensure the high quality the BPO required. With recent breakthroughs in generative AI, we’ve been able to develop a solution.”
Transcom has begun training its agents to use the translation software because, as Westgren says, there are still some “cultural nuances” to deal with.
“Cultural nuances differ for each market,” he says. “For example, agents in Cairo are used to providing service to UK customers, where it is common and polite to use the customer’s name and repeat it frequently during the conversation. In the Netherlands, however, that is considered unusual, and customers don’t like it.”
Westgren added that his company would soon roll out the software in nearshore locations, without naming the country.
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