Is Your Content Right for
LSA AI Machine Translation+ (MTPE)?

A quick guide to help you choose the best approach for your translation.

What’s the purpose of this guide?

Many organizations are exploring AI-powered translation to reduce costs and turnaround time. LSA is here to support your increasing translation needs. It might sound tempting to go for a faster and cheaper option right away. However, it’s important to consider another critical driver: quality. And we’re not just talking about accuracy; it’s about whether the translation is fit for its intended purpose (“usability”).

In many cases, machine translation on its own is not equivalent to a full human translation process. But when the machine output is paired with a skilled human post-editor, MTPE can be a highly effective workflow for the right type of content.

This guide will help you:

Evaluate whether MTPE is a good match for your project.

Identify when human-driven translation might be more appropriate.

Understand what to expect in terms of MT output quality and limitations.

What is MTPE+?

MTPE stands for Machine Translation and Post-Editing. In this 2-step workflow:

This hybrid approach allows for faster turnaround and lower cost, especially for large volumes. However, the final quality will not match that of full human translation, particularly for sensitive, creative, or highly nuanced materials.

When is MTPE a good fit?

MTPE can be a suitable option when:

Your content is straightforward or instructional.
The translation is for internal use or general distribution where the style and tone are less crucial.
Your source file is clean, well-structured, and editable or can be easily converted into an editable format (e.g., Word, Excel rather than PDFs, scans or image-based documents).
A functional, less polished translation will suit your purposes for a reduced cost.

Examples include:

Internal training manuals and/or documentation, SOPs
Employee onboarding materials / HR policies for internal use
Internal communications (Memos or procedural updates)
Knowledge base articles and FAQs
Technical manuals or user guides
Intake or assessment forms with consistent fields
Standardized notices or forms
Survey summaries or aggregated feedback reports
Scheduling templates, appointment reminders, or call scripts
Health education brochures for general audiences

MTPE may not be the right choice when:

Accuracy and linguistic precision are critical due to legal implications or impact on health-related decisions.
Brand voice, nuance, and perception matter.
English content is mixed in with languages that flow right-to-left (such as Arabic or Hebrew).
The files require significant manual formatting or recreation.
The source content is unclear, inconsistent, or poorly written.