How we work
We translate your texts and make them compelling, and we always look for the appropriate approach for each text. HHCE aims to strike the right balance between quality and efficiency, and we do this together with our customers. That’s what makes HHCE different.
Man and machine
Is it better, faster and cheaper to use AI to translate your texts? Sometimes it is, but sometimes it isn’t. The most important thing is to make the right choice. First and foremost, technology must serve humans and not the other way around. Whichever option you choose, a linguist will always be needed.
Texts translated with AI always need to be reviewed (post-editing), because AI makes mistakes, uses incorrect terms and doesn’t pick up on nuances. So sometimes the AI translation is different to what was meant. Whether an AI translation is faster and cheaper is entirely down to how AI handles the text.
Costs and quality
HHCE can make a reasonable estimate in advance of what the best solution is for you. AI translation and post-editing is probably suitable for a technical manual or a contract, but using this method for marketing and communications texts isn’t such a great idea, especially if you want to set yourself apart from your competitors. HHCE continually tries to strike the best balance between quality and price, together with our clients.
What do you need to bear in mind?
Having a text translated by a human translator produces the best quality in pretty much all cases. But there are also reasons for choosing AI, so bear the following in mind:
- Texts created using AI are generally more formal, not very creative and they lack nuance. So they’re fine for your technical manual or contract, but not for your marketing texts.
- Texts on a highly specialist topic about which little information is available can’t be translated using AI. The output is so poor that it takes a lot of time to turn it into a decent text. Human translation is always faster and better for such texts.
- In general, around 20% of AI output is incorrect. So a native speaker translator is always needed to correct the errors. A linguist is the only person capable of correcting AI mistakes properly and efficiently.
- AI struggles with texts written by non-native speakers,for example, English texts written by Dutch people. The syntax of such texts is often unnatural and the AI output contains so many errors that human translation is faster and cheaper.
- Also AI will translate updates of previously translated texts entirely from scratch. That’s such a shame. HHCE uses tools that instantaneously show what’s new and what’s the same, and so we only translate what needs to be translated. So never use AI to translate an update.
One more thing, a common misconception
You can’t use chatbots like ChatGPT or Copilot for translation, even though many people think you can. Chatbots weren’t designed for translation and the translations they produce require a lot of post-editing, which isn’t necessarily cheaper and faster than human translation. And it’s certainly not cheaper and faster than the translations produced by a translation agency with the right tools So don’t do it! Ask your translation agency to help you. HHCE has AI tools that are suitable for translation and the linguists that can turn the output into a quality text.
Want to find out more?
Ask senior partner Elsbeth Rooker
Over the years, I’ve helped lots of companies optimise their translation processes. Feel free to get in touch with me if you have any questions.
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