Wordly survey says AI translation beats interpreters

Wordly has published survey findings showing that 66% of enterprise event professionals believe AI translation and captioning deliver better quality than human interpreters. The results suggest a shift in opinion among organisations running multilingual meetings and events.

The survey, conducted by Dimensional Research among 205 meeting and event stakeholders in the United States and United Kingdom, found that 25% believed human interpreters provide a better experience. Participants worked at organisations with more than 1,000 employees and were responsible for multilingual meetings and events.

Use of the technology appears to shape attitudes. Among frequent users of AI translation, 79% said it performs better than traditional interpretation, while 12% preferred human interpreters. Even among occasional users, 61% said AI delivers a better overall experience.

The findings come as businesses face growing demand for language access at meetings, conferences, training sessions and other corporate gatherings. The survey found that 88% of respondents had seen an increase in non-English-speaking participants, up from 77% in the previous year's research.

That shift is affecting internal priorities. Nearly every organisation surveyed, or 96%, said comprehensive language access is now an official priority, suggesting multilingual communication is becoming a standard operational requirement rather than a specialist service.

Quality and cost

Respondents also reported rising confidence in the technology. Some 93% said the quality of AI translation had improved noticeably over the past year, which the survey linked to advances in large language models and wider use in live settings.

Cost was another key factor. The research found that 95% agreed AI translation was easier and more affordable to deploy than traditional interpretation services, which often require scheduling interpreters, coordinating multiple languages and arranging on-site equipment.

For large organisations, those practical considerations can affect how much language support they are willing to offer. AI-based services can provide live translation and captions across multiple languages without the same staffing and equipment demands as conventional interpretation setups.

"Much of the public conversation around AI still focuses on risk, uncertainty, and what the technology cannot do," said Lakshman Rathnam, Founder and CEO, Wordly. "But organizations using AI translation are making decisions based on results, not assumptions. They are seeing meaningful improvements in quality, accessibility, and scalability, and that is changing expectations for how multilingual communication should work."

Broader use

The research also suggests companies are looking beyond live interpretation. Adoption of AI interpretation stood at 88% among respondents, while AI captioning reached 91%.

Interest in related outputs was also strong. The survey found that 58% wanted multilingual transcripts, 53% were interested in subtitle and voice-dubbing files, 51% wanted automated meeting notes and action items, and 50% were looking for marketing-ready summaries and content assets.

These responses indicate that buyers increasingly view translation systems as part of a broader communications workflow spanning before, during and after an event. In practice, that means demand is expanding from real-time spoken translation to written records, post-event content and repurposed media.

The study focused on enterprise organisations in two major English-speaking markets, making the findings particularly relevant for multinational employers and event operators serving mixed-language audiences. The sample covered stakeholders overseeing multilingual communications in business settings where accessibility and participation can affect employee engagement, customer communication and investor outreach.

Wordly says it has delivered more than 1 billion minutes of live translation and captioning since its founding, serving more than 5,000 organisations and 6 million users across more than 120 countries.

Overall, the survey suggests that practical experience with AI translation is reshaping how corporate event professionals judge quality, cost and access, with 79% of frequent users saying the technology performs better than traditional interpretation.