Machine translation has come a long way — but inside a CAT tool, it earns its keep only when it’s wired in properly. Here’s how to add MyMemory MT to SDL Trados and use it as a productivity boost, not a replacement for judgment.

There’s a version of the AI-in-translation story where the machine writes everything and the human just clicks Approve. That isn’t the version that ships acceptable Arabic to a regulator, a board, or a paying audience. The version that actually works is more pragmatic: pipe a good MT engine into your CAT tool, let it propose a draft for each segment, and let a qualified translator decide what to keep, what to rewrite, and what to throw away.

Our Facebook tutorial walks through exactly that setup for SDL Trados 2017 with MyMemory — a free MT plug-in that integrates directly into the segment view. Once it’s connected, every new segment shows you the MT suggestion alongside your translation memory matches, so you can compare and post-edit in one motion. The setup is the same shape for whichever engine you prefer; the discipline is what matters.

The Wearabize position has stayed consistent on this since the channel started: AI and MT are excellent assistants and dangerous authors. We use them where they earn their place — high-volume, lower-risk content with full human post-editing aligned with ISO 18587 — and we don’t use them for legal contracts, board materials, or brand-voice work.