AI is literally transforming every industry you can think of, but one industry that probably does not immediately come to mind is video localization. In this article, we explore how traditional translation workflows work and how AI is changing everything.
Before getting familiar with the traditional media translation workflows, let’s first take a look at the different terms used in this area.
Dubbing: The process of replacing the original audio in a film or video with a new voice track, most commonly to synchronize dialogue in another language.
Localization: Adapting a video’s language, audio, visuals, and cultural references to make it feel native and relevant to a new target audience.
Dubbing is therefore a form of localization that goes beyond simple translation. It ensures that a video is not only translated, but also sounds natural and contextually appropriate. As you can already imagine, dubbing is a long and effortful process with many steps involved - let’s break it down:
Translation & adaptation of the original script
Casting professional voice actors to match the speakers
Studio recording of the translated dialogue
Manual lip-sync and timing adjustments
Audio mixing and mastering with music and sound effects
And if you read between the lines, you can see that each step requires a lot of manual work. This is where AI - and especially AI-based video translation platforms like CHAMELAION - come in:
1. Upload your video or audio file
Whereas translation is the first step in the traditional workflow, it comes last in the AI-based video localization process. So you don’t need to worry about translation at the beginning. Just upload the video or audio file to be translated.
2. Select target language(s)
Where traditional workflows required separate translators and language-specific planning, AI allows you to choose one or multiple target languages instantly.
3. Configure dubbing settings
Instead of hiring voice actors or audio engineers to mix everything together in the translated version of the video, you simply choose whether your video should be lip-synced and whether the speaker’s voice should be cloned.
4. Start the translation
Now the translation part comes in - after a few minutes your video has been translated into the languages you selected before - lip-synced, with the cloned voices of the speaker, background sound and music affects in place.
5. Download and publish
After a short processing time, you can review and edit the result if needed. Otherwise, you can instantly download and publish your video to reach global audiences.
So, does this mean humans are no longer needed and translators become redundant? No!
AI Cannot Replace Human Translators
Even with all the recent progress in AI, language is still a surprisingly tricky thing. Meaning depends heavily on context, culture, tone, and intent - things like brand voice, irony, or subtle nuances are hard to get right automatically. Without human oversight, issues such as awkward phrasing, slight shifts in meaning, contextual misunderstandings, or inconsistent style are still common. That’s why most AI dubbing platforms offer a so-called dubbing studio (or post-editing studio), providing an environment where translators, dubbers, or other professionals can make adjustments to the translation, voices and sounds.
AI video translation tools are best suited for large volumes of video content, where traditional dubbing workflows are simply too expensive and too slow to keep up. Often, it’s not about achieving the highest possible quality — which can still be delivered by traditional dubbing — but about educating employees or customers in their native language rather than relying on less engaging subtitles.
This applies to enterprises, broadcasters, as well as to e-learning and localization agencies: AI dubbing platforms like CHAMELAION enables to reuse existing content in multiple languages. For the first time, companies can do this profitably and without prior experience in dubbing, audio engineering, or video mixing.
From Local to Global.
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