Multilingual support in Enterprise and Global Search

Overview

Multilingual support makes Search more usable for employees working across different languages. You can search in your own language, and where multilingual metadata is available, result titles and descriptions appear in your profile language. Smart Answers also follow your profile language, with citations and grounding preserved. Where translated metadata isn’t available for an item, the original language is shown as a fallback.

Ranking is unchanged. Multilingual presentation is applied after retrieval, so what you get and the order it appears in stays consistent with the standard relevance-driven flow.

Why this matters

In multilingual organizations, content is often authored in one language while employees search and read in another. Without multilingual support, users may find the right content but see result cards or Smart Answers in a language they don’t prefer, which slows comprehension and erodes trust in Search even when relevance is correct. This release closes that gap by making the presentation layer language-aware while keeping retrieval and grounding logic intact.

Key capabilities

Multilingual presentation applies across Search in the following ways:

• Result titles and descriptions appear in your profile language where translated metadata is available, with field-by-field fallback to the original language when only part of the metadata is translated.

• Smart Answers are generated and presented in your profile language. If generation in that language isn’t available, a safe fallback translation is applied while citations and grounding stay unchanged.

• Autocomplete and Trending display in your profile language where translation or metadata exists, with original-language fallback.

• Recent shows queries exactly as you typed them, with no translation, so historical search intent is preserved.

• Org-level enabled languages determine which languages are available; your profile language is the default display language.

How it works

When you run a search, Enterprise Search retrieves and ranks results by relevance using the standard flow. After that, the display layer takes over: if multilingual metadata exists for an item, its title and description appear in your profile language. If not, that item is shown in its original language. Smart Answers are then generated and presented in your profile language, with citations and grounding sources preserved exactly. If the system cannot resolve your expected language, it uses fallback behavior (including fallback to English where needed) so the experience doesn’t break.

Examples

Your profile language is French and you search for a policy in English. The system retrieves and ranks results as usual, and result cards display French titles and descriptions wherever supported. The Smart Answer appears in French, with citations intact.

Your profile language is German, but a particular file has no German metadata. That file’s title and description show in its original language, while other items with German fields render in German. The order of results is unchanged.

Coverage and scope

Multilingual presentation isn't the same everywhere. Coverage depends on what metadata exists for an item and what your account supports:

• Multilingual display works best where metadata is available and supported by the search and indexing model.

• Connector support varies based on the source content and indexed metadata. Some items continue to display in their original language until coverage expands.

• Mobile follows the same presentation principles as web: profile-language display where supported, ranking strictly preserved.

What admin should configure

Multilingual presentation works out of the box for end users, but app managers can take a few steps to maximize coverage and set the right expectations for their organization:

• Confirm that org languages are configured correctly.

• Follow content translation workflows where relevant, so localized metadata is populated for the content that matters most.

• Set the expectation with users that fallback to the original language is by design when translated metadata isn't available, this ensures usable results are still shown.

Troubleshooting

Identify your issue below, understand what happened, and take the right action.

Result titles or descriptions are showing in a language you didn’t expect

• What happened: Display follows your profile language. Where translated metadata isn’t available for an item, the original language is shown as a fallback.

• What to do: Update your profile language if you prefer a different default. For items shown in the original language, this is expected behavior because multilingual metadata isn’t available for that item.

A Smart answer isn’t appearing in your profile language

• What happened: Smart Answers follow your profile language, but if generation in that language isn’t available, a safe fallback translation is applied. Sources and citations are preserved either way.

• What to do: Check your profile language. If generation in that language isn’t available, the fallback behavior is expected, and the answer still preserves sources and citations.

Only some result cards show translated content

• What happened: Not all items have multilingual metadata or supported translation coverage. Field-by-field fallback ensures usable results are still shown, with some fields in your profile language and others in the original.

• What to do: No action is needed. This is expected behavior. Order and click targets remain the same, and coverage will continue to expand over time.

FAQs

Q: What does multilingual language support in Search do?

Ans: It allows search results and Smart Answers to be shown in your profile language where multilingual metadata or multilingual answer generation is available.

Q: Does this change how search ranking works?

Ans: No. Search results continue to be ranked based on relevance. This release changes the display language of search results and Smart Answers, not the ranked order.

Q: What language is used to display search results?

Ans: The display language defaults to your profile language, based on supported org and platform language settings.

Q: What happens if translated metadata is not available?

Ans: If translated title or description metadata is not available, search falls back to the original language for those fields.

Q: Does Smart Answer also follow my language?

Ans: Yes. Smart Answer is designed to be shown in your profile language where possible. If it is not generated directly in the target language, a fallback translation layer can be applied while preserving citations and grounding.

Q: Does this mean search can now find content across languages?

Ans: This release improves multilingual search behavior, but the primary user-facing change is in presentation. Search continues to retrieve results based on the multilingual retrieval logic and relevance framework supported by Search.

Q: Does autocomplete support multilingual behavior?

Ans: Yes. Autocomplete can display suggestions in your profile language where translated title metadata is available. Otherwise, it falls back to the original language.

Q: Does trending support multilingual behavior?

Ans: Yes. Trending can display content titles in your profile language where translated metadata exists, with original-language fallback when needed.

Q: Does this apply to all content sources and connectors?

Ans: The experience is strongest where multilingual metadata is available and supported by the search and indexing model. Support for external connectors may vary depending on source content and indexed metadata.

Q: What happens if language resolution fails?

Ans: If the system cannot resolve the expected language correctly, it will use fallback behavior, including fallback to English where needed, while logging the issue for troubleshooting.

Q: Does this require app managers to do anything?

Ans: App managers should ensure org languages are configured correctly, content translation workflows are followed where relevant, and expectations are set that fallback to original language will occur where translated metadata is unavailable.