Large Language Models (LLMs) have become a hot topic since the launch of ChatGPT, but in reality, they’ve been around for quite some time. If you’ve ever asked Siri a question or used Alexa to play a song, you’ve already interacted with one.
These AI systems have quietly reshaped how we live and work, thanks to their ability to generate natural-sounding text and handle a wide range of language-related tasks.
At their core, LLMs are the ‘brains’ behind tools like ChatGPT, Alexa, Siri, and yes – Google Translate. And that brings us to the focus of today’s article.
While LLMs have made it incredibly easy to translate content with a simple copy and paste, they also raise important questions when it comes to transcreation – the nuanced process of adapting messaging for different cultures and languages.
In this article, we’ll explore what transcreation means, how it differs from basic translation, and what to consider if you’re thinking about automating your global marketing campaigns using LLMs and AI tools.
What is transcreation?
We live in a hyper-connected, global society. You can access information from all over the world, but there are still very strong cultural nuances from market to market.
Transcreation does not mean translating different languages. It’s the creative process of translating content while preserving its original meaning, style, and tone.
Think of BMW’s company slogan of 1972 “Freude am Fahren” (driving pleasure) becoming “La plaisir de conduire” (the pleasure of driving) in French or “The ultimate driving machine” in the US market. These iterations reflect an understanding of cultural subtleties. On a basic level: in the US, there’s an air of vibrant, Hollywood-style commerciality, whereas French marketing might invoke more elegant romance.
The nuances of language and culture can be a maze for brands to navigate, which is where marketing execution agencies come in.
Producing content that is culturally relevant ensures that your target audience feels as valued as possible, which helps your global brand speak with one confident voice, regardless of their geography, by capturing both the linguistic accuracy and the emotional tone.
Considerations for using AI or large language models in transcreation
Large Language Models (LLMs) are transforming the world of transcreation, offering exciting possibilities, but also raising important questions.
For global companies translating marketing content, it might seem like a simple solution. After all, LLMs promise speed, scale, and cost-efficiency. At first glance, using AI for transcreation feels like a no-brainer.
But the reality is more complex.
LLMs have come a long way in mastering translation. They’re increasingly accurate, fast, and capable of handling multiple languages at once. For brands, this opens the door to automating parts of the content creation process and streamlining global workflows.
However, as we’ll explore, effective transcreation goes beyond just translating words. It requires cultural sensitivity, emotional nuance, and a deep understanding of your audience. And that’s where LLMs still have limitations.
Enhanced Speed and Efficiency:
LLMs can quickly generate initial transcreation drafts, however these must be checked thoroughly by an expert to ensure no errors occur, or that the tool hasn’t had an ‘hallucination’ or made things up – a common fault of LLMs.
They offer 24/7 scalability allowing for constant output without human fatigue, making them ideal for campaigns with tight deadlines across multiple markets.
Quality Consistency & Brand Voice:
LLMs can be fine-tuned or prompted with brand-specific language guidelines, ensuring consistent tone and voice across markets. They help maintain campaign cohesion when rolling out content in multiple languages.
Potential for New Languages and Markets:
LLMs can potentially translate text into languages that have not traditionally been translated, opening new markets for businesses.
Challenges in Capturing Cultural Nuances:
LLMs struggle to capture cultural nuances, idioms, and the subtle meanings embedded in specific languages or regions.
Risk of Errors and Bias:
LLMs can introduce errors, particularly in nuanced or creative content, and may perpetuate existing biases present in their training data.
Need for Human Oversight:
While LLMs can automate many tasks, human oversight and linguistic expertise are still crucial to ensure quality, accuracy, and cultural appropriateness of transcreated content
The need for human input in transcreation
Linguistics experts play a vital role in the transcreation process for several reasons. While Large Language Models offer impressive capabilities, they are not a replacement for human expertise – especially in the nuanced world of transcreation. To truly unlock their potential, it’s essential to combine the power of AI with the insights of human.
Cultural Sensitivity & Judgment:
LLMs may understand patterns, but they lack true cultural intuition. Humans know when a joke goes too far, or when a slogan is politically risky.
Original Creative Vision:
LLMs remix what’s already known – they don’t innovate from scratch or have intentional creative breakthroughs.
Contextual Awareness:
Humans understand nuanced context, such as a company’s internal politics, market positioning, or campaign history. LLMs can miss subtext, irony, sarcasm, or deeper meaning – especially in layered transcreation work.
Ethical and Legal Considerations:
Humans can better navigate cultural taboos, political sensitivities, or regulated content (e.g., healthcare, finance).
Emotional and Empathic Nuance:
Human writers can evoke and respond to real human emotions, tailoring tone dynamically.
Our Senior Transcreation Account Manager, Maria Dilena predicts “The future likely lies in hybrid models, where human creativity is amplified by AI speed and scale. We will increasingly see more prompt engineers and transcreators/copywriters who know how to get the best cultural, tonal, and stylistic output from LLMs, more talent skilled in post-editing AI output to meet nuanced cultural and brand standards and an increase in the use of LLMs as ideation partners for headlines, slogans, campaign concepts, and local influencer-style content.”
The art of transcreation at leap
Here at leap, our expert language services ensure your message stays clear, impactful, and culturally relevant. Our transcreation specialists capture not just the words, but the emotion and intent behind them.
Producing content that is culturally relevant ensures that your target audience feels as valued as possible, which helps your global brand speak confidently. With leap’s think culture first approach, we blend creativity, compliance, and local insight — so you connect deeper, grow faster, and lead globally.
Never has this rung most true than when we approached the transcreation of the campaign tagline for Twix – ’Twix. Two is more than one’.
We approached this task two-fold, beginning with a linguistic and cultural consultation where our in-market language consultants began the process of considering the intent of the line and how that message would be received within their markets, on whether it would be understood, whether it raised any red flags. The second element to the task was tackling the transcreation. The focus was not on recreating the line in exactly the same way but more on recreating the intent of the line (captivating attention, prompting purchases).
If you want to find more examples of our work, visit here: https://leap.london/our-work/
