How RWS powers global conversations with AI

Linhares has been at RWS for over two decades, witnessing first-hand an industry in transformation. Recently, he says: “the technology has evolved so fast that it allows us to deal with volumes [of content] that were unthinkable years ago.” The technology in question is generative AI, which RWS embraced from an early stage. The company now has 45+ AI patents, helping it address emerging customer challenges while giving the business a competitive advantage.

“AWS provided us with early access to tools such as Amazon Bedrock that allowed us to start leveraging the power of gen AI in our products and offering it to our customers very early in the process.” RWS also took part in the Amazon Bedrock Beta Program, a “game changer,” says Linhares, which meant the company could “launch products within six months, which was an incredible speed for an organization our size.”

One of RWS’s core offerings is TridionDocs, which helps companies manage the translation and localization of technical content more efficiently. The company further enhanced the platform, leveraging Amazon Bedrock’s generative AI capabilities to create Draft Space. This helps editors create content using existing data, as well as enabling easier content discovery for workers in the field. A telecoms engineer fixing a fiber optic cable, for instance, can use natural language to enter a query and quickly find the relevant solution within a text-heavy content manual.

Trados Language Cloud, RWS’s next-generation translation platform, also leverages Amazon Bedrock to automate, streamline, and scale the translation process. “Language Cloud is able to break down content into segments and into areas that target specific markets or specific audiences, so you can refine the tone of voice for that content,” explains Linhares. In doing so, businesses with global reach can quickly translate vast volumes of content into multiple languages and styles, making sure their messaging stays effective and consistent no matter where their audience is. The platform also utilizes generative AI, allowing businesses to train their own translation engines, learn from previous translations, and incorporate their preferred style or phrasing. “It's not only exposing the power of generative AI, it will also allow you to add your own flavor to what comes back,” says Linhares.

AWS services also underpin RWS’s tech stack. It uses Amazon Aurora, for instance, to handle critical database needs and consolidate multiple databases into a single, centralized, easy-to-manage engine. “We’ve improved the quality of the service to our customers and the performance of our systems,” says Linhares. With a large footprint on Amazon Aurora, RWS can also automate more and grow its geographic footprint more cost-effectively. “We're really gaining on the economy of scale side of things. Instead of managing six different database engines, we're leveraging one. It reduces our operational costs quite a lot.”

This growth includes RWS’s recent expansion into Canada, launching Language Cloud in the region in October 2024. Canada has strict data sovereignty laws, including “a solid requirement that we are able to provide disaster recovery within the Canadian territory for our protected customers,” explains Linhares. “Customers can benefit from the latest technologies knowing that their data is secure and protected” by utilizing AWS solutions offering comprehensive governance, privacy, and data protection tools.

This has unlocked further potential, with RWS able to reach new regions and regulated industries, including pharmaceutical. “Having a reliable AI engine really plays a big role,” says Linhares, with the technology capable of processing large volumes of data, helping teams adhere to regulations. The security and reliability of AWS solutions, as well as the close nature of the partnership, means RWS’s customers “are now able to build trust with us because of our certifications and our guarantees.” As a result, “we are looking forward to being able to offer all our capabilities in a secure and modern environment to our customers in North America.”

By co-developing solutions with AWS, RWS has increased its speed to market with ongoing rapid innovations. Where it once released software yearly for their translation platform, now it releases 10-15 updates daily. RWS’s team also spends less time diagnosing challenges and issues: “With AWS, we can focus on what really matters, which is our customer,” concludes Linhares.

Having built a reliable AI engine trusted by global brands, RWS has now expanded outside of traditional language markets, including highly regulated spaces. By harmonizing cutting edge technology with human specialists and domain expertise, it’s bringing ideas to market faster and building connections across borders at scale.