Wordly AI Review: Real-Time Translation and Captioning for Meetings and Events

Designing more inclusive experiences starts with one fundamental promise: Every attendee needs to be able to interact with the presentation materials. That’s not always an easy task, though. Approximately 15% of adults in the U.S. have trouble hearing, and crowded, noisy meeting environments can exacerbate those troubles. Additionally, as meetings and events focus on welcoming global audiences, language barriers can limit the ability to participate in sessions, discussions, and networking. On top of that, approximately 40% of adults prefer to have captions turned on while they are listening to content.

Wordly, the industry’s leading AI-powered translation and captioning service, has been breaking down those access barriers since 2019. Skift and Skift Meetings have first-hand experience of the difference that Wordly makes: It’s the official translation partner for our Skift Global and Meetings Forums, helping attendees from more than 60 countries be part of the conversation about the future of travel, meetings, and events.

Wordly: At a Glance

• Provides translation and captioning service to create accessible multilingual live programs, along with full text and voice transcriptions and summaries to fuel long-lasting, on-demand content libraries – all for one price
• More than 5,000 global customers, including programs such as Meeting Professionals International’s World Education Congress (MPI WEC), Cvent Connect, Dreamforce, and ANOC (Association of National Olympic Committees)
• Supports dozens of languages, covering 3,000+ language pairs, while eliminating logistical complexities of traditional interpreters
• Tens of thousands of sessions and hundreds of billions of minutes of translation
• Meets SOC 2 Type II compliance requirements and ​​ISO 27001 certification to ensure privacy of high-profile events
• One of the top 200 software companies in the Inc. 5,000
• Annual subscription with packages starting at 10 hours of translation

Wordly: An AI-Powered, Translation and Captioning Service

Wordly offers real-time, high-quality, multilingual translation so all audience members can understand and interact with presentations as they happen. Each package also includes voice and text transcripts with concise summaries that can extend a meeting’s impact and create lasting educational content to drive year-round audience engagement.

The company has been continuously improving its AI-powered translation platform since 2019, working with a wide range of clients, including associations, corporations, universities, religious organizations, and governments. It works alongside major event service providers, such as Encore and Freeman, as well as event platforms including Cvent, vFairs, and SpotMe. 

In addition to educational sessions at large meetings and events, Wordly’s built-in integrations with Zoom and Microsoft Teams make it a go-to solution for internal meetings. More organizations are using the platform to improve day-to-day operations with translation services that auto-generate summaries to help global teams and increase efficiency.

Why It Works

• Easy setup for planners: Wordly’s plug-and-play approach is good news for busy events teams managing complex programs. Connecting a sound system to Wordly typically takes less than 5 minutes, while setting up a new session takes under a minute. Captions can be displayed on-screen, too, to give attendees a chance to put down their devices.
  
• Easy, flexible access for attendees: No accounts, downloads, or additional equipment are necessary. Attendees can immediately join sessions via a QR code and select their preferred language. They have options to consume content in a way that meets their needs: listening to a live translation or reading simultaneous captions on a phone, tablet, or computer.
  
• Scale: With the ability to support tens of thousands of users per session, Wordly is designed to scale for even the largest global events.
  
• Budget-friendly, flexible solution: As a fully AI-powered platform, Wordly can deliver significant cost savings compared with traditional interpretation services. Additionally, organizers can start with a small number of hours before adjusting the subscription package.
  
• Additional post-event value: After a program wraps up, clients can easily export text and audio transcript files, as well as session summaries. From outlining next steps for participants to creating easy-to-share key takeaways, and videos with subtitles, attendees get all the essential insights.

Key Features

Custom Glossaries

Customizable and reusable glossaries enable planners to boost, block, and replace phrases unique to their company and industry. For medical, financial, and other specialty gatherings, this means that technical terminology, acronyms, and names will be translated accurately.

Multimodal Access

Attendees can opt to read captions or listen to natural-sounding AI audio translation via their own headphones. Planners can also broadcast captions on stage monitors and room screens using upper- or lower-third overlays, split-screen multi-language layouts, or full presentation overlays — so attendees can put their phones down and follow along on the big screen.

Multiple Live Outputs

Every session comes with multiple outputs: translated text, translated audio, same-language captions, and subtitles to ensure that every member of the audience can be part of the real-time conversation.

Post-Event Outputs

Once a session wraps up, planners have access to full voice and text transcripts. Auto-generated summaries of each session offer concise, sharable insights to ensure that attendees leave with key takeaways. You can also add subtitles and dub videos to make on-demand content accessible to a global audience.

Workspaces

The company’s newest tool delivers enterprise-wide collaboration, giving customized access to team members responsible for specific sessions, training modules, and other production elements while maintaining centralized administrative control.

Who Should Use Wordly?

Wordly is a strong fit for organizations committed to expanding their reach to global audiences and improving accessibility for attendees with hearing troubles . Whether planners are designing for a small conference of 250 attendees or a citywide gathering of 10,000, there is a good chance that at least some participants will benefit from translation and captioning support. 

Wordly is particularly useful for conferences, association meetings, global corporate events, webinars, and hybrid programs with multilingual audiences.

How Much Does Wordly Cost?

Wordly’s pricing varies based on the number of hours and attendees. Depending on the number of languages a planner aims to support, the platform can offer sizable savings compared to hiring human interpreters. For example, hiring interpreters for a 10-hour program with four languages would cost an average of $12,000 (based on a typical $150/hour rate per interpreter). With Wordly, the same structure would cost $1,500 — a 88% savings. The company also offers volume discounts and special pricing for non profits.

The Bottom Line

Meetings have historically balanced the desire to be more inclusive with cost concerns, leading some planners to shy away from including multilingual translation and captioning at their programs. Wordly offers an opportunity to design an experience that increases attendee engagement at a much lower cost. In addition to more engagement during the program, the platform’s post-event outputs give planners a chance to drive higher ROI with summaries and transcripts for audience members who may have missed the live presentation.

To see how the service can enhance your next meeting, request a demo with Wordly.

This content was created collaboratively between Wordly and Skift Studio.