Artificial Intelligence has made huge leaps forward over the last few years. It’s been so dramatic that many new applications and services of this kind are not even exotic or expensive anymore. They’re free, omnipresent, and offer some value for users. The most visible examples are automated machine translation systems.
However, many wonder whether human translation vs machine translation will ultimately result in AI taking over.
The Rise of AI in Translation
DeepL and Google lead the charge in this industry. This begs the question—will machine translation systems replace a translation company that offers human translation services done by an expert?
We believe the answer is a resounding NO. Let us tell you why.
Mistakes Machines Make
Let’s start with a simple example. Say we want to translate the words “fall protection” into Spanish. Just two words—so it shouldn’t be that difficult, right? Something so simple that a machine translation tool should get right.
To be fair, both DeepL and Google do translate these words correctly now, but it wasn’t always like that.
The problem for machine translation is this: the word “fall” can either be a verb or a noun. It can mean the act of falling down or refer to autumn. In order to translate these simple words accurately, the system needs to grasp that distinction, understand the context, and choose correctly. The correct translation is “protección anticaídas” in Spanish.
But machines don’t think. They translated it, some time ago, as “protección contra el otoño”, which literally means “protection against autumn.”
This kind of mistake still happens frequently. It only takes one small error in a long text to make everything look silly—like something out of a Monty Python sketch.
This is one of the key differences in the human translation vs machine translation debate—machines lack true contextual awareness.
The Learning Process
As stated before, both machine translation systems get these two words right nowadays. It would be tempting to think that they learned from their mistakes. But that’s not exactly how it works.
It was the people behind these systems—linguists and coders—who identified the mistake and implemented corrective measures.
And that’s why machine translation systems will never be as good as thinking, breathing human beings. Translating is all about learning on the fly, thinking, understanding context, and transferring ideas naturally into another language. Machines just can’t do that.
In the human translation vs machine translation comparison, this remains a key weakness of AI-driven tools.
Why Human Translators Are Irreplaceable
In fact, we understand that context is everything in any text.
That is why when we assign a professional linguist to your content (actually, we assign three, not just one), they are not only experts in the languages you need but also specialists in the subject matter.
As a leading translation company, we know that translating correctly is about more than just words—it’s about context, nuance, and personal expertise.
For this reason, whenever you have documents or content that need to be translated, a professional translation company with human translators is the only way to ensure accuracy and quality.
If you’re weighing human translation vs machine translation, accuracy and cultural sensitivity should always be your priority.
The Value of Professional Linguists
Our translation company includes 16,000 linguists who can translate into 200 different languages with high quality and a fast turnaround.
Giving your business partners a properly translated text in their own language shows professionalism, dedication, and competence. They will know you take them seriously.
Don’t settle for inaccurate machine translations. In the human translation vs machine translation decision, choosing human expertise ensures reliability and professionalism.
Work with Expert Translators Today
📞 Contact Lingual Consultancy now and let us do what we do best!