Translating & Interpreting Services
Translating and interpreting services enable a conversation between two or more parties who communicate in different languages — letting a business serve customers who speak little or no English.
This isn't a niche concern anywhere.
Most countries are deeply multilingual — in Australia, for example, the most recent census found people born in almost 200 countries speaking more than 300 languages, and similar diversity runs through the US, UK, Canada and Europe.
For many contact centres, communicating across languages is a basic requirement for access, inclusion, and reaching customers you'd otherwise lose.
It's also a field being reshaped fast by AI.
Real-time machine translation is opening up multilingual support at a scale and price that was impossible a few years ago — but it hasn't made human interpreters obsolete, and knowing where each fits is now the real skill.
What it is
Services that bridge languages — interpreting (spoken) and translation (written) — so people who speak different languages can communicate.
Why it matters
Populations everywhere are multilingual. Serving customers in their language is a matter of access and inclusion — and of CX and revenue you'd otherwise leave on the table.
What this guide covers
The definition, translation vs interpreting, why it matters, how to access services in Australia, the AI disruption, finding accredited providers, and FAQs.
What Are Translating and Interpreting Services?
Translating and interpreting services enable communication between people who use different languages.
In a contact centre, that usually means connecting an English-speaking agent and a customer who speaks another language — over the phone, in writing, or increasingly through technology.
They cover everything from a live phone interpreter joining a three-way call, to translating a letter, web page or form, to real-time AI translation built into the contact centre platform.
The common thread is removing the language barrier so the customer can actually be served.
Translating vs Interpreting: What's the Difference?
The two terms are often used interchangeably, but they're different skills for different jobs.
Interpreting (spoken)
Relaying information between parties verbally, in real time — for example, an interpreter on a phone call between an agent and a customer. It happens live and demands instant, accurate comprehension in both directions.
Translation (written)
Converting written text from one language to another — documents, letters, web content, forms. There's usually time to get it right, check terminology, and review.
💡 A simple way to remember it
Interpreters work with the spoken word; translators work with the written word.
A contact centre handling live calls needs interpreting; one sending letters or running a multilingual website needs translation. Many situations need both.
Why It Matters in CX
Language access isn't a "nice to have" bolted on at the edges — for a meaningful share of the Australian population, it's the difference between being able to use a service and being shut out of it.
🌏 Access & inclusion
Wherever you operate, a significant group of customers can't be served well in one language alone. Language support is how they get equal access to your service.
💛 Trust & experience
Being understood in your own language — especially in stressful moments like health, finance or hardship — builds trust and dramatically improves the experience.
📈 Reach & revenue
Customers you can't communicate with are customers you can't serve, retain or sell to. Language capability expands the market you can actually reach.
Sometimes it's an obligation
In some sectors — health, government, legal, emergency services — providing access to interpreters isn't just good practice, it's expected or required.
Getting language access wrong in those settings can have serious consequences for the customer and the organisation.
Accessing Services: Australia as an Example
How you access language services depends on where you operate — most countries have a mix of public schemes, professional bodies and private providers.
Australia is a useful illustration of how that landscape looks; check the equivalents in your own market.
TIS National
The Translating and Interpreting Service (TIS National) is run by the Department of Home Affairs for people who don't speak English, and for the agencies and businesses that need to communicate with non-English-speaking clients.
It covers more than 150 languages, with interpreting available 24 hours a day, every day.
The majority of TIS National services are free to non-English speakers — generally, the organisation being contacted accepts the charges for the service.
The Free Interpreting Service
A number of groups can access the Free Interpreting Service to serve anyone in Australia eligible for Medicare, including:
- Medical practitioners and pharmacies
- Non-government organisations
- Real estate agencies
- Local government authorities
- Trade unions and parliamentarians
Eligibility changes over time — check the current rules with TIS National.
Costs for other businesses
Organisations outside those groups pay under a fee schedule that typically charges in 15-minute intervals. You can estimate costs with the TIS cost calculator.
There are also many private translating and interpreting providers — so it pays to shop around. You can find translation & interpreting suppliers in the ACXPA Supplier Directory.
The AI Disruption
This is the part of the field changing fastest. AI-powered real-time translation has gone from clumsy to genuinely useful, and it's reshaping how contact centres think about multilingual support.
🚀 What AI unlocks
Real-time voice and text translation across 150+ languages, built into the platform — instant, available 24/7, at a fraction of the cost of arranging a human interpreter, and improving quickly as models get better at context.
⚠️ Where it still falls short
Machine translation still struggles with idiom, cultural nuance, emotion and ambiguity — exactly the things that matter most in sensitive conversations. Accuracy varies by language, and rarer languages are weaker.
Power is shifting to the customer, too
AI translation isn't only a tool businesses deploy. Consumers increasingly carry it in their pockets — and their ears.
Apple's Live Translation on AirPods, Google's Pixel Buds, and live-translate features built into phones now let people translate a conversation themselves, in real time.
That's a profound shift: a customer may no longer wait for you to arrange an interpreter — they bring their own.
It widens access, but it also means translation may be happening in your conversations whether you provided it or not, so speaking clearly and protecting sensitive information still matters at your end.
The editorial position: AI for scale, humans for the high stakes
AI translation is a genuine breakthrough for everyday, lower-risk multilingual support — order status, simple enquiries, general information — where speed and coverage matter and a small error is recoverable.
But for high-stakes interactions — health, legal, emergencies, complaints, hardship — where a mistranslation can do real harm, a certified human interpreter remains essential.
The emerging best-practice model is hybrid: AI to handle volume and routine, humans for the conversations where nuance and accountability are non-negotiable.
Don't forget privacy. Feeding customer conversations — often containing personal or sensitive information — into an AI translation tool raises real data-protection and consent questions.
Make sure any AI translation you use handles that data lawfully and securely.
Finding Accredited Providers
When you do need a human professional — especially for anything high-stakes — accreditation matters.
The certification body varies by country: NAATI in Australia, the ATA in the US, and CIOL or ITI in the UK, with ISO 17100 a widely used international standard for translation services.
Whatever your market, look for the recognised local credential. Australia's bodies below are a guide to what to look for.
NAATI
The National Accreditation Authority for Translators and Interpreters (NAATI) sets and maintains the national standards, and certifies translators and interpreters in Australia.
NAATI certification is the benchmark for professional, tested competence — look for it.
AUSIT
The Australian Institute of Interpreters and Translators (AUSIT) is the national professional association.
Members follow a strict Code of Ethics covering impartiality, confidentiality, professional development and declining work beyond their competence. AUSIT also runs a directory of providers.
Common Mistakes
Language support goes wrong in fairly predictable ways. The recurring traps:
❌ Relying on bilingual staff or family
Asking an untrained bilingual employee — or worse, the customer's child — to interpret is risky and, in sensitive settings, unfair and unsafe. Speaking a language isn't the same as being a trained interpreter.
❌ Using AI for high-stakes calls
Leaning on machine translation for health, legal or emergency conversations is where small errors become big harm. Match the tool to the stakes.
❌ Ignoring privacy & consent
Routing sensitive conversations through an AI translator without considering data protection and consent can breach privacy obligations.
❌ Having no human fallback
Even with AI in place, you need a clear path to a qualified human interpreter when a conversation gets complex, emotional or contested.
Frequently Asked Questions
What are translating and interpreting services?
They're services that enable communication between people who use different languages.
Interpreting handles the spoken word (such as a phone interpreter on a call), and translation handles the written word (documents, letters, web content).
In a contact centre, they let agents serve customers who speak little or no English.
What's the difference between translating and interpreting?
Interpreting is spoken and happens live — relaying information verbally between parties in real time.
Translation is written — converting text from one language to another, usually with time to check and review. Interpreters work with speech; translators work with text.
How much do interpreting services cost in Australia?
For non-English speakers, the majority of TIS National services are free — generally the organisation being contacted pays.
Certain groups (medical practitioners, pharmacies, NGOs, real estate agencies, local government, trade unions and parliamentarians) can access the Free Interpreting Service for Medicare-eligible people.
Other businesses pay under a fee schedule, typically charged in 15-minute intervals.
What is TIS National?
TIS National (the Translating and Interpreting Service) is run by the Department of Home Affairs.
It provides interpreting in more than 150 languages, available 24 hours a day, for people who don't speak English and the organisations that need to communicate with them.
Can AI replace human interpreters?
Not entirely. AI real-time translation is excellent for everyday, lower-risk multilingual support — fast, available around the clock, and covering many languages cheaply.
But it still struggles with idiom, cultural nuance and emotion, so for high-stakes interactions (health, legal, emergencies, complaints), a certified human interpreter remains essential.
The emerging model is hybrid: AI for scale, humans for the high stakes.
How do I find a qualified interpreter or translator?
Look for NAATI certification — the national standard for translators and interpreters in Australia.
AUSIT, the national professional association, maintains a Code of Ethics and a searchable directory of providers, and you can also find translation and interpreting suppliers in the ACXPA Supplier Directory.
Where to Next
Summary: Translating & Interpreting Services
Translating and interpreting services bridge languages so a business can serve customers who speak little or no English — interpreting for the spoken word, translation for the written.
With most countries deeply multilingual, that's a matter of access, inclusion, trust and reach, not an edge case.
How you access them varies by market.
In Australia, for example, TIS National provides government interpreting in 150+ languages, 24/7, free to many non-English speakers, with certain groups eligible for the Free Interpreting Service and others paying a per-interval fee.
For quality, look for the recognised certification in your country — NAATI in Australia, the ATA in the US, CIOL or ITI in the UK — and use professional bodies like AUSIT as your guide.
AI is the big shift: real-time machine translation — now even built into consumer devices like AirPods — makes everyday multilingual support fast, cheap and broad, and increasingly puts translation in customers' own hands.
But it still misses nuance, so high-stakes conversations need certified human interpreters, and sensitive data needs handling with care. Use AI for scale and humans for the high stakes, and you get the best of both.
