Blog · January 24, 2026 · 6 min read
AI vs human translation for academic and literary work
Target keyword: AI vs human translation · Search intent: comparison
Machine translation has improved enormously. It still cannot preserve argument, register and voice — the three things academic and literary translation are judged on.
Use machine translation for
Internal drafts. Reading foreign-language sources. Rough first passes. Anything throwaway.
Use human translation for
Anything submitted, published or graded. Anything where voice matters. Anything in a discipline with specialised terminology.
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Frequently asked questions
Do you offer post-editing of machine translation?
Yes — but full human translation is usually cleaner and only marginally more expensive.
Which languages?
100+ language pairs through our human translation service, all bilingual-reviewed.
Human translation that reads natively
Our translators are matched by subject and reviewed by a second native speaker.
human translation services →Continue reading
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