Automating Multilingual and Accessible Content in Drupal With AI

Drupal has long been recognised for its robust multilingual framework. Its Content Translation module allows content entities - such as articles and taxonomy terms - to be easily translated into multiple languages. This module integrates tightly with Drupal’s translation system, ensuring a consistent user experience across all languages.

But while the framework is powerful, managing translations manually can be time-consuming and prone to inconsistencies. 

This is where automation, combined with AI, comes into play.

Drupal’s AI framework is designed to integrate seamlessly with a variety of AI services and models, enabling advanced functionalities like content generation, sentiment analysis, and automated translations. This framework allows us to connect to multiple Large Language Models (LLMs), ensuring flexibility and accuracy in language translation tasks.

By leveraging this AI capability, it’s possible to automatically generate translations as soon as an English language article is published, maintaining context and tone while reaching a wider audience with better quality translations, quicker and easier than ever before.
 

• Seamless Integration: Connects effortlessly with Drupal's Content Translation module, enabling fully automated multilingual workflows
• Multiple LLM Support: Choose the best AI model (potentially, for each target language) ensuring high-quality translations
• Customisation: Modify prompts to maintain brand voice and terminology consistency
• Scalable Solution: Easily scales to support any number of languages without impacting site performance

At Adaptive, we’re currently working on prototypes which will showcase how this can approach work in real-world scenarios. 

To fully automate the translation workflow, we utilise the Event-Condition-Action (ECA) module. ECA allows you to create powerful, no-code automation models within Drupal, connecting various actions based on specific triggers and conditions.

For example, here’s how we configure ECA for multilingual content:

1. Event: Triggered when a new or edited article in English is published
2. Condition: Checks if translations for the target languages are missing or will need updating
3. Action: Uses the Drupal AI framework to generate translations and automatically publishes them in the relevant language sections

This automation ensures that new content is rapidly available in all required languages, eliminating the need for manual intervention and reducing time-to-market for global audiences.

Although Google Translate is convenient and fast, it falls short in contextual accuracy and customisation, which are crucial for many use cases. Also, it doesn't typically support SEO strategies for foreign languages or international markets. 

By using Drupal’s AI framework, we can leverage more advanced LLMs that understand the nuances of language, including industry-specific terminology and brand voice but in a more SEO friendly fashion.

One important consideration when using AI for translations is maintaining transparency. We recommend considering indicating when content has been auto-translated. 

A simple note such as “This article has been automatically translated for your convenience” can help manage user expectations and build trust.

Accessibility is not just about language - it's about making content understandable for everyone, including those with cognitive impairments or learning difficulties. 

Drupal’s AI framework is not only capable of translating content into multiple languages but can also be leveraged to create more accessible versions of content, such as Easy Read and Makaton formats.

Easy Read is a way of presenting information that makes it simpler to understand, using shorter sentences, simpler vocabulary, and supporting images. By training the AI model to generate Easy Read versions, Drupal can automatically convert complex articles into more accessible formats, ensuring that the information is inclusive and understandable for a wider audience.

A long-standing Adaptive customer, Mencap, is a strong advocate of Easy Read and they play a vital role in setting the standard for how to present information in a clear, simple, and visually supportive way. 
 

Makaton is a language programme that uses signs and symbols to help people communicate. While traditionally requiring human intervention, advancements in AI models mean that content can now be automatically adapted into Makaton-compatible formats. 

Although still in development, this capability holds the potential to make digital content even more inclusive.

At Adaptive, we’re constantly exploring new ways to leverage AI within Drupal. Our upcoming prototype will demonstrate how our solution integrates the Drupal AI framework with ECA, automating the end-to-end process of translating and publishing content in multiple languages - focusing on real-world applications while enhancing the Admin Experience (AX).

This prototype will showcase:

• Automated Translation: How new English content is instantly translated and published in all supported languages
• Custom AI Models: Using different LLMs to tailor translations for specific regions or audiences
• Real-World Usability: A live demonstration of how this setup streamlines content management workflows and generates pages in a SEO-friendly fashion

We’re excited to share this with our clients and the wider Drupal community soon.

Drupal’s combination of robust multilingual capabilities, flexible AI framework, and advanced automation through ECA brings powerful features to Drupal that other CMS' are unlikely to have. By leveraging these tools, organisations can not only reach a broader audience but also ensure consistency, accuracy, and efficiency in their communication strategies.

For more information on how we’re integrating AI into Drupal or to learn about our prototype, please do get in touch.

Note: Whilst the frameworks for this type of solution already exist, there are three key challenges:

1. Utilising the Most Effective Modules - AI within the Drupal Community is moving at pace. We need to ensure we select the right Modules and approaches to future-proof our implementation. As fast-followers, rather than bleeding-edge pioneers, long-term maintainability is key
    
2. Admin Experience - our goal is to ensure this functionality is delivered in an admin-friendly fashion to ensure full control and reduce complexity of overall management. This means integrating it into our enhanced Admin Experience approach, AX+.
    
3. Data Privacy - many organisations have concerns regarding sharing their content with AI. For this reason we are evaluating cost-effective Private AI Cloud/Infrastructure solutions to safeguard potentially sensitive data, ensuring maximum security and control.