AI Search - multi-language issue

[Rob Sestito]

Hello,

I am looking for some much needed help when it comes to using AI Search, searching for articles in other languages.

We do have the system property to Enable Multi Language Search.

However;

While my profile is English, I search for an article in English, that is in another language, I cannot find it. If I change my profile language to the language of the article, and search for it using that language, I can locate the article. If my profile is the language that article, and I search using English, I cannot locate the article.

What would I be missing here? Is something additional needed to be indexed?
- OR -
The article I am testing this with was created in Brazilian Portuguese originally. Does it need to be translated into English as well in order to allow me to locate it in English?

Edit: I ended up requesting a translation from this article into English. From there, with my profile being English, I was able to locate the article through the search using both English and Brazilian Languages. Is that what is needed? For all articles to be translated?

Aside from this post: Enabling Multilingual Search with AI Search 

Anything else to make this easier? Is there something I missing (outside possibly having to have all articles translated into each language)?

Thank you very much in advance,

-Rob

[kmohammed]

When using AI Search to search for articles in other languages, it is necessary for the articles to be translated into the language that the user is searching in for the articles to be found in the search results. This is because AI Search uses natural language processing to understand the text and match it to the search query, so it needs to understand the text in the language that the search query is in.

Enabling the system property for Multi Language Search allows the search results to return articles in multiple languages, but it does not automatically translate the articles.

One solution for this is to have all articles translated into each language that is used in the organization. This will ensure that the articles can be found in the search results regardless of the language of the search query.

Another option is to use a machine translation service like Google Translate to automatically translate the articles before they are indexed by AI Search. This can be done using a script that runs before the articles are indexed, but it is important to note that machine translation may not always produce accurate results and it is always recommended to have the articles reviewed by a native speaker of the language.

It is also possible to add a translation field to the article table and store the translated version of the article in that field so that it can be used for searching.

In summary, it is necessary for the articles to be translated into the language that the user is searching in for the articles to be found in the search results when using AI Search. You can have all articles translated into each language that is used in the organization or use machine translation service to automatically translate the articles before they are indexed by AI Search or add a translation field to the article table and store the translated version of the article in that field so that it can be used for searching.

[Alex Coope - SN · Accepted solution]

@Rob Sestito 

So, currently with AI Search, it can't currently return results in all available languages (it is something I've requested as a future feature enhancement). This is partly due to the way NLP engines work. In that, it detects the language of the query to then know what keywords / synonyms etc to use to make a match.

That being said, as Heather writes in that blog post, it is possible to set a global fallback (but this is typically for other languages to fallback to an English result - as an example). The most up-to-date documentation on that feature is here,

Ultimately, you're not missing anything, it's just the current feature-set is to primarily be able to search in the language of the query,

Which then raises the UX question, is it good for the end-user to have a result served to them if they can't read it? Typically it is absolutely correct that it is best practice to translate all articles into the languages you offer. If the UI and the content is fully translated, then the user will understand how to interact with the interface they are looking at, as well as be able to find what they are looking for - assuming they don't have a good grasp of English,

Many thanks,
Kind regards

[Rob Sestito]

@Alex Coope - SN  @kmohammed 

Thank you both for your replies - the information you have provided makes sense and I appreciate it!

@Alex Coope - SN - I believe in you! Make that feature enhancement! haha

Thank you both again!

-Rob

[Alexandre D_]

@Rob Sestito and @Alex Coope - SN ,

We're also looking forward to this feature enhancement. Is there any news about it?

Best regards,
Alexandre Dourado