Machine Translation Post-Editing (MTPE)

Eriksen’s machine translation post-editing (MTPE) service pairs AI-generated translation with review by a professional human linguist. You get the efficiency, speed, and cost savings of AI translation, with the quality standards your audience expects.

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AI Translation Without Compromising Quality

For most organizations, the question is no longer whether to use AI in translation, but how to use it well. MTPE is Eriksen’s answer: not a shortcut, but a carefully managed process that combines technology, linguistic expertise, and quality assurance to produce reliable, audience-ready translations.

How Our MTPE Process Works

At Eriksen, MTPE follows a structured process that begins with an AI-generated first draft. Where available and appropriate, your translation memories, glossaries, and approved terminology are incorporated to give it a stronger starting point. An experienced linguist then reviews that draft in detail, correcting errors, verifying meaning, refining terminology, and ensuring the content reads naturally in the target language. Before delivery, the translation moves through established quality-control procedures. The result is a professionally reviewed translation, produced with the efficiency of AI and finished to a human standard.

Why Professional MTPE Delivers Better Results Than AI Alone

Standalone AI tools can generate a translation quickly, but keeping it consistent, accurate, and on brand at scale is more difficult. That’s where professional MTPE comes in, adding four things that AI translation alone does not provide.

Terminology Consistency

Your approved terminology, product names, technical vocabulary, and industry-specific phrasing are applied consistently across projects and languages.

Brand Voice

Professional reviewers keep tone, style, and messaging aligned with your organization’s brand, so translations sound like you.

Linguistic Oversight

Professional linguists identify errors, ambiguities, omissions, and cultural issues that an AI engine can miss.

Long-Term Value

Each approved translation strengthens the translation memories and glossaries that support future work, improving consistency and efficiency over time.

Preparing Your Source Content for Better MTPE Results

Translation quality starts with the source. Clear, well-structured content with consistent terminology produces stronger machine translation output and requires less post-editing. Because we work with multilingual content every day, we can identify source-language issues that affect translation performance: inconsistent terminology, unclear phrasing, formatting challenges, and content that translation engines struggle to interpret accurately. Addressing these issues before translation begins improves quality, reduces rework, and increases the efficiency of the entire workflow. A cleaner source document produces a stronger first draft, so editors can focus on refinement rather than correction.

When Eriksen handles the MT step, your translation memories, glossaries, and approved terminology shape the first draft. That is more effective than generating a draft yourself and sending it for review, where those assets are applied only after the fact, if at all.

Security Matters

For many organizations, AI translation raises questions about confidentiality, data handling, and information security. Professional workflows provide safeguards that consumer-facing translation tools may not. Working with a language services provider means your content is handled, reviewed, and stored within a controlled process rather than an open consumer tool. In practice, that means safeguards such as:

Enterprise-grade engines only: We use licensed, enterprise-grade machine translation engines, not free or consumer tools.
Content is never shared: Your content is not used to train external engines or shared with third-party systems or LLMs.
Secure platforms: Your content is processed and stored on secured, managed platforms.
Role-based access: Access controls limit who can view your content at each stage of the workflow.

Data governance matters as much as linguistic quality, and we build it into the process from the start. That focus becomes especially important when your content includes sensitive business information, customer data, regulated material, or proprietary information.

When MTPE Is the Right Fit

With the right workflow and appropriate human oversight, MTPE now supports a far wider range of content than it used to, including material many organizations once reserved for human translation. The efficiency and turnaround gains have the most impact on high-volume, structured, frequently updated, and informational content.

Some content is still better served by human translation from the start. Creative marketing campaigns, highly nuanced communications, culturally sensitive messaging, and content whose impact depends on tone and emotion often benefit from a linguist translating from the outset. Some language pairs also produce weaker AI output and call for a human-first approach. The goal is not to force AI into content it does not suit. It is to match the workflow to the content and your objectives.

We Help You Choose the Right Approach

The right translation approach depends on your audience, content, risk tolerance, timeline, and goals. Rather than applying one workflow to everything, we evaluate each request and recommend the approach that fits: MTPE, human translation, or a combination of both. As your language partner, Eriksen makes that call with you and manages the workflow from start to finish, so your content reaches every audience the way you intend.

What is machine translation post-editing (MTPE)?

Machine translation post-editing is a process in which content translated by AI is reviewed and refined by professional human editors to ensure accuracy, fluency, and cultural appropriateness. An AI engine produces the first draft, a professional linguist reviews and refines it for accuracy, terminology, readability, and tone, and a final quality-assurance step confirms the content is complete and correctly formatted.

Is MTPE the same as AI translation?

They’re related but not the same. AI translation, or raw machine translation, is unedited output from a translation engine. MTPE takes that output and adds a critical second step: review and refinement by a professional human linguist. AI translation alone is a tool; MTPE is a complete workflow.

I'd like to take advantage of the efficiencies of AI-driven translation, but won't the quality suffer?

Not when the right level of human review is applied. Professional MTPE pairs AI-generated translation with review by experienced linguists who verify meaning, refine terminology, ensure consistency, and improve readability. The result is a workflow that can deliver meaningful efficiencies while maintaining the quality standards your work demands.

If AI is part of the workflow, will my content be at risk or shared with unauthorized parties or systems?

Data security should be part of any conversation about AI translation. Eriksen uses managed workflows and carefully selected technologies to help protect sensitive content. If your organization has specific security, confidentiality, or compliance requirements, those should be considered when determining the appropriate translation workflow.

Our company provides access to generative AI tools that can translate content. Why do we still need a language services provider?

AI can generate a translation, but it cannot replace linguistic expertise, terminology management, quality assurance, or accountability. Professional language providers bring together skilled linguists, translation memories, glossaries, established review processes, and long-term language asset management to produce translations that are accurate, consistent, and aligned with your organization’s voice. They can also improve your source content before translation begins, since clearer, well-structured source text produces stronger output and requires less post-editing.

How do I know whether MTPE or human translation is right for my content?

The answer depends on factors such as audience, visibility, risk, timeline, language pair, and content type. There is no universal answer. A professional language provider can evaluate these factors and recommend the workflow that best balances quality, efficiency, and cost.

How much does MTPE cost compared to human translation?

MTPE is designed to improve process efficiency, which often results in lower costs and faster turnaround times. The extent of those benefits depends on the content, language pair, initial output quality, and level of post-editing required.

Can AI translation be used without any human review?

Yes, though we recommend it only for low-stakes internal use, such as research or information gathering. For any content your audience will see, human post-editing is essential to catching what AI translation alone can miss.