How to Evaluate Language Support in Vet AI Scribes?
In many veterinary clinics, clients do not speak in one clean, single language. Conversations often shift mid-sentence — mixing English with Spanish, Hindi with English, or Arabic with French. If your AI scribe can’t handle that, accuracy suffers — and so does your workload.
Here’s what clinics should look for when assessing language support in AI scribes, and why it matters.
🌍 Why Multilingual & Mixed-Language Matters
- Real life isn’t monolingual: Owners often mix languages naturally when describing symptoms. E.g., “Mi perrito está acting weird, like super cansado.”
- Missing details: If the scribe can’t follow a client’s native language, important observations may be lost or misheard.
- Client comfort: Using a client’s language builds rapport and improves compliance with care instructions.
- Compliance: In some regions, miscommunication due to poor language support could create legal risks.
🔎 What to Check For in Language Support
1. Supported Languages List
Make sure the scribe supports the main languages your community uses. PawfectNotes, for example, supports 30+ languages.
2. Mixed-Language Handling
Can the system follow language switching within a sentence (code-switching)? For example, if an owner speaks half in Spanish and half in English, can it capture both seamlessly?
3. Veterinary Terminology Across Languages
It’s not enough to understand everyday conversation. The scribe must recognize medical terms, medications, and breed names across languages.
4. Preferred Language Output
Even if the conversation is mixed, can the final SOAP notes, discharge summaries, or referrals come out in a single preferred language (e.g., all Spanish for the client)?
5. Accuracy Testing in Real Cases
Try recording real appointments with multilingual clients. Check for dropped phrases, mistranslations, or errors in section placement.
⚠️ Pitfalls to Watch Out For
- Phrases in secondary languages being dropped or ignored.
- Veterinary terms translated incorrectly or literally.
- Inconsistent tone — some sentences in one language, others in another.
- Discharge notes that aren’t in the client’s requested language.
🛡️ Safeguards of a Good Multilingual AI Scribe
- Real-time support for language switching within the same conversation.
- Recognition of veterinary terminology across multiple languages.
- Ability to generate discharge notes or SOAP records in the preferred output language.
- Speech models trained on multilingual and code-switching data.
- Quality checks or previews before finalizing records.
🧪 How to Test Language Support in Your Clinic
- Ask multilingual clients to participate in test appointments (with consent).
- Record conversations with natural language switching and background noise.
- Compare the AI-scribe output: Did it capture both languages accurately? Were medical terms correct? Was the discharge summary in the client’s language?
- Track issues like dropped words, mistranslations, or misattributed sections.
🚀 The Bottom Line
Language support in an AI scribe is more than a “nice-to-have.” It can make or break accuracy, client satisfaction, and even legal compliance.
If your clinic serves a multilingual community, choose a scribe that does more than list supported languages. It should handle mixed speech, veterinary terminology, and provide output in the client’s preferred language.