With the development of technology, the landscape of the translation industry is changing as well. What was once purely human translation has grown into hybrid workflows where linguists refine machine-generated content. But is this model really delivering better results?
What exactly is machine translation post-editing?
Machine translation post-editing, also known as MTPE, is a process in which human translators review and improve machine translation outputs. The goal is to give machine translations the human understanding that algorithms still lack after more than 50 years of research and development in the field.
Still, progress has been made. In 2016, Google Translate introduced Neural Machine Translation (NMT). It understands context and nuances much better than earlier systems. This advancement has led to what we see in the market now: a growing demand for MTPE. According to 2025 Nimdzi survey data, MTPE adoption grew from 26% in 2022 to almost 46% in 2024, which is a 75% increase in two years.
Revolutionizing the translation industry
In today’s fast-paced business world, time is money. Faster workflows mean lower costs. With MTPE, companies can reduce translation expenses by 40–60% compared to traditional methods. Machine translation creates a first draft in seconds. Linguists then edit only what needs fixing. This saves time and reduces manual work. As a result, large and multilingual projects are easier to manage and scale.
Real-world adoption
Translation studios all around the world are already responding to the shift. Many forward-thinking language service providers in Europe and beyond have integrated MTPE into their work. Companies use such services for technical documentation, product descriptions, internal business content, and other support materials translations.
Flaws are part of the process
Despite its advantages, MTPE has its limits. Machines still don’t think the way humans do, so they often miss context and deeper meaning. As noted by Technolex translation studio experts, machine translation is just a product of “learned” human translations. The problem is that many of its “teachers” weren’t all professional linguists. Therefore, by blindly trusting it, companies can find themselves in awkward situations.
However, we are living in a time when MT is still evolving. In many ways, this stage is similar to the early days of computers, when they had many flaws and limits. Today, we can’t imagine life without them because they became fast and convenient. Machine translation is on a similar path, slowly changing the game in the translation industry.
For now, MT cannot replace humans. It won’t truly do so until it has real human understanding and awareness. That’s why MTPE exists: not to remove people from the process, but to help them handle translations faster.