If you have tried using a raw AI or off-the-shelf machine translation engines to cut costs, you already know what happens. The output looks plausible at first and falls apart on closer inspection. Broken formatting, inconsistent tone, incorrect terminology, and sentences that technically say something without quite hitting the target.
The frustrating part is not just the quality. It is that fixing the output often takes more time than a translation from scratch would have.
TransLingua has spent the past two years building a different answer to that problem. Our AI-assisted translation service does not require you to choose between quality and budget. It is designed to give you both, by putting certified linguists in control of a purpose-built AI tool rather than handing the entire workflow over to AI.
The translation industry is not immune to the broader AI adoption wave. Budget pressure is real, and the appeal of a low-cost automated solution is understandable. But the pattern we see repeatedly is this:
These are not exceptions, but the predictable outcomes when applying a generic, context-blind engine to content that requires cultural and subject-matter understanding.
TransLingua's AI-powered translation service was built specifically to address this gap, not by abandoning AI, but by building a structured, human-supervised workflow around it.
AI translation refers to the use of artificial intelligence, specifically large language models (LLMs), to produce translated text from a source document. Modern generative AI translation approaches generate output by interpreting meaning across larger blocks of text, making them significantly more fluent and context-aware than their predecessors.
That said, fluency is not the same as accuracy. An AI model can produce a highly readable translation that still misses a regulatory nuance, gets a product name wrong, or uses a competitor's terminology. This is precisely why human oversight remains essential, regardless of how capable the underlying model becomes.
Standard machine translation engines break a document into segments, translate each one independently, and reassemble the output. The result is often choppy, inconsistent, and blind to context that spans more than a sentence.
TransLingua's approach is built on a different methodology: Generative AI Iterative Translation (GAIT). Rather than processing segments in isolation, GAIT works at the document level, treating the source text as a connected whole. The output is then passed on to a native speaking linguist for proofreading and editing. Then our quality control manager reviews the document, adjusts formatting and conducts quality control before the final translation is delivered. The linguist and quality control manager are not cleaning up after a generic engine. They are working with a structured draft that already reflects your terminology and document structure.
Not every document carries the same risk or requires the same level of human involvement. TransLingua's three-tier model lets you match the right level of translation services to your project, based on content type, audience, risk, and budget.
| Tier 1: Full Human Translation | Tier 2: AI-Assisted with Human Verification | Tier 3: Premium Raw AI-Assisted Machine Translation |
|---|---|---|
| Pricing: 100% | Pricing: ~50% | Pricing: 10-15% |
| Premium, from-scratch translation and transcreation for brand-critical, highly creative, or legally sensitive texts. | The best of both worlds. Faster turnarounds and lower costs without sacrificing quality or cohesion. | Highly readable, formatted, glossary-accurate drafts for internal use on high volumes. |
| Best for: Advertising and marketing copy, legal, medical, regulatory, literary, and certified content. | Best for: Corporate communications, technical documentation, e-learning, and some customer-facing content. | Best for: Internal reports, draft reviews, informational content, government agencies, and high-volume projects that do not require 100% accuracy. |
Clients are not locked into a single tier. Different projects within the same account can run on different tiers, depending on the content and its intended audience. A client may use Tier 1 for their published legal documents and Tier 2 for internal communications that need to move faster. The model is designed to be flexible across all industries we serve.
TransLingua's machine translation post-editing offering differentiates itself from a standard MT workflow by its methodology. Generic engines translate first and handle formatting, terminology, and context as afterthoughts. Our AI-powered translation process works in a different order:
Whether you are managing high-volume internal content, customer-facing materials across multiple markets, or documents where accuracy is non-negotiable, TransLingua's three-tier model gives you a structured way to allocate your budget without compromising on the results that matter.
Contact us to discuss which tier fits your current projects, or to request a sample translation using our new AI-assisted translation workflow.
AI translation is the use of artificial intelligence, specifically large language models, to convert text from one language to another. Unlike older machine translation systems that process documents segment by segment, modern AI translation generates output with some awareness of meaning and context across the document as a whole.
TransLingua's GAIT-powered workflow integrates terminology and context, content is processed with document-level context, and formatting is preserved throughout. A certified linguist then proofreads and edits the output, and we perform a quality control step before delivery. The AI handles the structural heavy lifting. The linguist handles accuracy, cultural context, and decisions based on subject-matter expertise. Our proven QC process takes care of final review and formatting.
The accuracy of AI-powered translation services depends significantly on what is built around them. Raw AI output, used without terminology integration, formatting controls, or human review, produces results that range from usable to misleading depending on the content type and language pair. At TransLingua, AI-generated drafts are always reviewed by a certified linguist before delivery. The accuracy standard is the same regardless of which translation tier a client selects.
No, and TransLingua's model is built on that premise. AI handles high-volume, repetitive, and structurally consistent translation tasks more efficiently than a human working from scratch. It does not handle cultural nuance, creative intent, legal precision, or brand voice with the same reliability. This means that review by a human linguist is absolutely crucial. Every translation delivered by TransLingua, across all three tiers, involves certified human oversight.
Machine translation is the broader category. Older MT systems processed text segment by segment without cross-document context. AI translation typically refers to systems built on large language models, which generate text with awareness of broader context and tend to produce more fluent output.
Google Translate and ChatGPT are general-purpose tools not designed for professional translation workflows. They do not work with the broader context of a document, they do not preserve complex document formatting, they were not built with enterprise security requirements in mind, and they do not integrate a certified human review step. TransLingua's Generative AI Translation tool is based on a structured methodology applied inside a professional service model. The linguist, the QA process, the terminology integration, and the security protocols are all part of what makes the output reliable.
Yes. TransLingua's AI workflow is designed with enterprise data handling requirements in mind. Unlike public AI tools, which may use submitted content to retrain their models, our GAIT implementation operates within a controlled environment. If your projects involve confidential, regulated, or sensitive content, contact us directly to discuss the specifics of our data handling practices.
Yes. The three-tier model is designed to offer maximum flexibility. For example, you can use Tier 1 to have legal documents translated, Tier 2 for corporate communications, and Tier 3 for high-volume internal content, all within the same relationship with TransLingua. The tier selection is made project by project based on content type, intended audience, and budget requirements.
Pricing varies by tier. Tier 1 full human translation is priced at 100% of our standard rate. Tier 2 AI-assisted translation with human verification runs at approximately 50% of the standard rate. Tier 3 premium raw AI-assisted machine translation runs at 10 to 15% of the standard rate. The right tier for a given project depends on the content, its intended audience, and the acceptable level of risk. Contact TransLingua to discuss your translation needs, and we will help you maximize your translation budget across the three tiers.
