Build 2017 officially kicked off in Seattle today, and Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella made it clear during the introducing keynote that artificial intelligence will bring “fundamental changes” for many products including Windows and Office. We got the chance to see how Microsoft is using AI to improve its productivity suite with the Presentation Translator plugin for Powerpoint.
A Microsoft Garage project, the new plugin uses Microsoft’s Translation APIs to translate content from any Powerpoint presentation into 10 different languages (Arabic, Chinese, English, French, German, Italian, Japanese, Portuguese, Russian and Spanish). The plugin can provide translated subtitles in real-time or translate the full text of a presentation while preserving the original formatting.
Shum and Program Manager Yina Arenas delivered an impressive demo of the plugin today: one of the most interesting aspects of the technology is the ability to share unique link that attendees can use to get translations in their own language in real time, including on a mobile device.
For now, the plugin is only available in early access on the Windows version of Powerpoint. You can register on this page if you want to be among the first to test it. Sound off in the comments if you’re looking forward to use the plugin for presentations to multi-lingual audiences.
