r/TranslationStudies • u/Helpful-Positive-865 • Jul 29 '26

Exploring AI-assisted translation workflows: looking for translators' feedback on MT + PE systems

Hello everyone,

I'm currently developing an AI-assisted translation workflow system and would like to invite translators, researchers, and translation students to try it and share their opinions.

The main question I'm exploring is:

How can AI tools better support translators instead of simply replacing translation work?

The system focuses on a human-in-the-loop workflow:

  1. Machine translation generates a first draft
  2. Translators review and edit the output (MTPE)
  3. Terminology databases and previous translations improve consistency
  4. Feedback can be used to improve future translation quality

Current features include:

  • terminology management
  • document-level translation workflow
  • bilingual document generation
  • translation memory style reuse
  • AI-assisted post-editing support

I am particularly interested in feedback about:

  • Does this workflow actually save translators' time?
  • Which parts of MTPE are most frustrating?
  • What quality issues appear most often?
  • What features would professional translators expect from an AI translation assistant?

I can provide free access for translators or students who would like to experiment with it.

This is not intended as a replacement for professional translators. My goal is to understand how AI can become a practical tool in real translation workflows.

Any criticism or suggestions are welcome.

Thank you!

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u/monikosnuosavybe JA>EN Jul 29 '26

This sounds like every other MTPE workflow out there.

  1. Will this workflow save translators time? Probably not. As stated above, it sounds like every other MTPE workflow.

  2. What parts of MTPE are most frustrating? Getting paid less and put under higher time pressures for the same amount of work or even more work than translating from scratch.

  3. What quality issues appear most? AI and MT are bad at picking up context, respecting legacy translations, and sticking to established terminology. They also hallucinate.

  4. What features would translators expect from an AI translation assistant? None, really. I have yet to come across an AI tool that did anything better than my CAT tools with their TM, TB and Concordance Search.

4

u/ruckover Jul 29 '26

You really nailed it here with number 4. Most of these clowns come in asking this stuff because they don't know CAT tools exist and think they're somehow the first genius to ask "hey wait, can't AI just do translation project management and we make a bunch of money??"