We’ve been thinking a lot about the use of AI in translating marketing programs to multicultural audiences. In our experience, a significant disconnect can happen between a brand’s commitment to DEI principles and using AI to translate their multicultural marketing programs.

While AI is an incredibly fast and powerful tool, using it to translate important brand information comes with risks. Most notably loss of accuracy and nuance, and its inability to handle idioms and express more complex and industry-specific language. While the allure of free AI tools, makes it incredibly tempting, for brands committed to equity, AI cannot fully comprehend the context of the source marketing material, nor your brand voice; delivering outputs that are stiff and rigid.

Now, let’s delve into the intersection of DEI practices with the use of AI in translating brand messages in lieu of transcreation or original in-language copywriting.

Will AI generated content reflect your brand’s commitment to equitable and authentic connections that reflect your customer’s culture, language, and mindset? Has the brand been thoughtful about the unique challenges their customers face on their path to purchase?

For 26 years our Boston-based agency has been working with Spanish and Portuguese-speaking customers, applying our own approach to adapt and align a general market brand voice for diverse audiences.  We call this approach our Cultural Arc centered around Authenticity, Respect and Connection.

Trust and loyalty from customers are only achieved when communication is authentic, delivering genuine, relevant, and impactful messages that mirror their values, experiences and aspirations.

Consider a scenario where a Spanish-language digital social campaign drives to an English-language website.  The customer clicks “Más información” expecting to continue the conversation in-language only to be confronted with an English only landing page.  The customer then has to search for the Google Translate button to request their language.

When the user journey doesn’t make a full authentic connection, campaign performance suffers, and the brand fails to be equitable or inclusive. Respect is inclusion.
Hispanic culture is proud, complex, and demands to be heard and maintaining a brand conversation requires respect and a deft touch.

At Potter Ruiz, we specialize in crafting culturally appropriate messages that embrace the nuances of diverse customers, fostering brand engagement with cultural precision. We know that recreating general market assets into Spanish and Portuguese is not a mere translation exercise. Rather, it is a reimagining that relies on cultural intelligence not artificial intelligence.

* AMG Strategic Advisors- “The Why Behind the Buy”