AI Localization Services

Content that matches the language of your audience is undeniably important. CSA Research's "Can't Read, Won't Buy" study found 76% of consumers prefer to buy products with information in their own language, a figure that rises above 90% in China, Japan, Korea and Taiwan. 

AI allows for content to be translated at both speed and scale, but on its own the current technology can’t produce consistently production-ready copy without oversight. AI can’t reliably handle the judgement calls that make content land: whether a phrase carries the intended tone, whether a joke translates, whether a voice performance feels authentic rather than synthetic, or whether a term carries different meanings between dialects of the same language.

Our AI translation and voice technology all sit within a human-in-the-loop production model, which we’ve refined over 28 years of shipping content into global markets. Native-speaking linguists and cultural specialists are on hand throughout to review, correct and culturally validate AI output before anything reaches your audience.

For us, "human in the loop" doesn't mean a light-touch review at the end of an AI workflow. We place the right expertise at the points where judgement matters most, whether that's annotators, linguists, QA specialists, cultural consultants, domain experts, red teamers, voice specialists, simulation teams or delivery leads. Our experts don’t just sign off on the end result, they guide, test and correct the system throughout each step of the process. Every person in that loop has the authority to flag issues, reject poor data, adjust guidelines, escalate risk and trigger rework before anything moves into production.

Not every piece of content carries the same risk, so not every piece needs the same level of human oversight. We structure AI localization around three tiers of oversight to match what the content actually needs:

Human oversight isn't an added cost layer sitting on top of AI, it's the control layer that makes AI commercially usable. If a model gets the work wrong in a way that misrepresents your brand or damages trust with a market, the cost of fixing it after the fact usually far outweighs any time or cost savings gained from using AI. Selecting the right level of human involvement for your project is a vital step in protecting both your brand and your investment.

For both consistency and improvement of automated translations over time, our AI localization work can run on XLOC, our end-to-end localization platform built in partnership with hundreds of AAA and AA game developers. It maintains a bank of approved terminology and past translations specific to your business, giving you a single source of truth across development, QA and localization teams, increasing accuracy and consistency with every new project.

During culturalization, Keywords Studios provides:

• AI-assisted translation and post-editing: combining machine translation and LLM output with professional linguist review
• Culturalization and dialect-level adaptation: going beyond the basic language to the specific regional and cultural variant that matches your audience.
• Multilingual annotation and data labeling for text, supporting AI training and evaluation workflows
• Terminology and glossary management, powered by the same proprietary CMS (XLOC) used across our game localization work, keeping brand and technical terms consistent across every language.

We also regularly pick up localization work already underway. When clients bring us their own LLM output for post-editing, the problems we find are rarely about fluency (most models handle that well now), what's usually missing is fine-tuning or context injection, showing up as issues with terminology, tone and cultural nuance rather than broken grammar. Our post-editing processes have been built around catching and correcting exactly this issue.

Voice is where AI localization is moving fastest, and where the gap between technically translated and actually usable is still the widest.

AI voice isn’t intended to be a one-step, automated replacement for professional recording. Human voice talent remains the standard for primary roles, high-emotion delivery and any instance where a synthetic performance would be immediately noticeable to your audience. Every deployment we support is built around a defined workflow, from initial proof-of-concept through to human-in-the-loop quality review before anything reaches an end user.

Use cases for our AI audio services include:

• Accessibility audio: text-to-speech and audio description for visually impaired users, in-language. Especially useful for dynamically-generated content which can’t be pre-recorded.
• Rapid prototyping ("scratch" voice): professional-sounding placeholder voice for early-stage testing, stakeholder review and iteration, ahead of any final recording decision
• Promotional and marketing video localization: high-fidelity, multi-language video voice-over that preserves the emotional tone and nuance of the original performance
• Market accessibility: bringing voice localization to languages that would otherwise be unrealistic to record conventionally
• Ambient and background dialogue: populating densely populated environments or interfaces with localized voice at a scale that would be cost-prohibitive to fully cast and record

Enterprise-ready, by design

As AI voice technology and its regulatory treatment continue to evolve, Keywords Studios builds every engagement on clear legal foundations, so your business, your data and your rights over what we create together are protected from day one. That commitment includes:

• The ability to opt out of model training on both inputs and outputs.
• Clear ownership and use rights over inputs and generated outputs.
• Data protection alignment, including processor-level data protection agreements and deletion on request.
• Documented data provenance and licensing, positioning you ahead of incoming regulation such as the EU AI Act's Article 10 requirements for AI training data, in force from August 2026.
• Security transparency across the providers and infrastructure we use.
• Transparency around voice capture and consent in model creation.
• Reasonable warranties and liability protections for enterprise use, including confidentiality and compliance with applicable laws.
• Documented creative process to support human-authorship and copyright claims.
• We don't own or operate AI models of our own. We train, test and manage models on your behalf, using your data, inside your engagement, never pooled with any other client's or folded into a model of ours. That's backed by strict security protocols, GDPR compliance and non-disclosure practices, refined over 28 years of protecting client IP in the gaming industry, including for some of the world's most security-conscious hyperscaler and platform clients.
• 24/7 follow-the-sun production. A global studio network means work continues around the clock, not just around a single time zone's working day.
• Our studios participate in industry and client assurance programmes such as ISO 27001, and our information security and privacy team reviews the security and assurance requirements of individual engagements and works with delivery teams to address client-specific requirements where needed.
• We offer end-to-end AI services: one team across text, voice and cultural data. One point of contact across the full scope of work means no stitching together multiple vendors or juggling multiple contracts for translation, voice and cultural QA.

Keywords Studios' expertise in AI localization and cultural data is built directly on decades of experience localizing some of the biggest titles in gaming: the same linguists, the same cultural specialists, the same production infrastructure, now applied beyond games.

Our game localization services cover more than 80 languages for text and 50 for audio, and underpin the cultural and linguistic expertise this AI service draws on. This is the proving ground for the human judgement that makes our AI localization work trustworthy for every industry we serve.

AI localization rarely happens in isolation. The same project usually needs red teaming to test how a model performs across languages, annotated training data, and governance to keep it all defensible. Often these are sourced from different providers, each with a separate contract to manage.

We cover the full AI pipeline in-house: data annotation, synthetic data and simulation, training and model tuning, red teaming, evaluation, localization and cultural data, and governance, all under a single contract. See our full range of AI services.

What is AI localization?

AI localization uses machine translation and large language models to adapt text and voice content across languages and markets. On its own, AI output is rarely production-ready. It needs human review to catch cultural, contextual and tonal issues that models do not reliably handle. Keywords Studios pairs AI translation and voice technology with native-speaking linguists and cultural specialists to close that gap before content reaches an audience.

Is AI localization ready to use without human review?

For high-volume, low-risk content such as internal documentation, first-draft translation and terminology management, raw AI output can be used with lighter review. For anything brand-critical, emotionally significant, or aimed at a regulated or reputationally sensitive market, human review remains essential. Keywords Studios structures every engagement around which tier a given piece of content actually needs.

How is AI voice different from traditional voice recording?

AI voice (text-to-speech) can produce usable voice content at a speed and cost that traditional studio recording cannot match, particularly for background dialogue, prototyping and accessibility use cases. It is not yet a full replacement for professional human voice talent in primary roles or high-emotion content. The two are complementary rather than substitutes for one another.

What happens to our data and IP when working with Keywords Studios on AI localization?

Keywords Studios doesn’t own or operate models of its own, but rather we train, test, manage and refine models on your behalf, ensuring your data never leaves your control. Work is carried out under industry and client assurance programmes such as ISO 27001, with GDPR-aligned data handling and standard non-disclosure protections consistent across every engagement. As regulation tightens (including the EU AI Act's Article 10 provenance and licensing requirements for AI training data, in force from August 2026) that same discipline means your data already meets the criteria.

How much does AI localization cost?

Cost depends on the specifics of each project rather than a fixed rate. The main factors are the size of your business and content volume, the word count, file formats involved, timelines, number of languages and dialects targeted and whether existing translation memory or reference data is available. Keywords Studios can provide an accurate quote once these factors are understood for your project. Contact us to learn more.

Does Keywords Studios work directly with AI labs and enterprises, or only game studios?

Keywords Studios' AI localization and cultural data services are built for any organisation deploying AI systems that need to work across languages and cultures, including enterprise technology companies, foundation model developers and media organisations, as well as video game studios.

Can you post-edit AI or LLM output we've already generated ourselves?

Yes, editing and fine tuning client-generated LLM output is one of the most common ways we’re brought into a project. LLM output which hasn’t been generated by specialist-trained systems is rarely fine-tuned or context-adjusted for the target market, so the issues we typically find are terminology, tone and cultural nuance rather than fluency. We’ll review and correct your LLM outputs against your existing content, brand voice and terminology to ensure accuracy and consistency across all languages.