Traditional translation workflows weren’t built for the speed and scale that today’s global teams demand. That’s why we’re rethinking them, starting with Translation, Editing, and Proofreading, or TEP, which has long been considered the industry standard for high-quality translation work, especially in sensitive fields like law and finance. But while the intention behind TEP is solid, the method has serious limitations.
We believe there’s a better way for high-volume, quick speed translation, and we’ve built it. In the post we’ll look at what TEP gets right, the way we approach it, and the benefits to your business if you choose it.
What TEP Gets Right, and Where It Holds Businesses Back
Let’s start with the positives of TEP. This human-centric process is designed to produce highly accurate, fluid translations by dividing the work into three distinct steps:
- A translator drafts the first version
- An editor reviews it against the source to catch content or phrasing issues
- A proofreader does the final polish for grammar, punctuation, and style.
On paper, it’s a solid approach. In practice, it often slows down production, increases costs, and drains team resources. With multiple linguists involved, every round of review adds time to the project. This might work for small files on loose deadlines, but for larger projects, huge volumes, or fast turnarounds, it quickly becomes unsustainable.
That’s exactly why many language service providers cut corners. Whether they admit it or not, it’s common to skip the editing or proofreading step entirely, especially under client budget or deadline pressure. And while this might speed things up, it often leads to inconsistencies, missed context, and critical mistakes.
At BeringLab, we knew there had to be a more efficient path to the same high-quality result.
Machine Translation + Post-editing (MTPE) Speeds up Work and Enables Scale
Instead of breaking translation into three distinct and human-dependent phases, we use a modern workflow built around the Post-Editing (PE) of machine-translated content. In our system, the process starts with BeringAI, our proprietary AI translation engine, customized for various domains which generates a fast, accurate draft.
From there, our expert linguists step in to refine and adjust the output, correcting any issues, reviewing meaning, and polishing the style. This is where human intelligence complements machine speed: this machine plus human combo streamlines the process of the editing and proofing steps without compromising quality.
What makes this process strong is the use of customized machine translation engines, trained on specific terminology, industry language, and even brand tone. This means the machine output isn’t just a generic, word-for-word translation; it’s already aligned with the kind of output the client needs. While machine translation by itself isn’t perfect, this tailored approach produces much higher-quality drafts that require less heavy editing. When skilled linguists step in to refine these drafts, the process becomes faster while still meeting professional standards.
That’s the power of MTPE: it’s a hybrid model that delivers faster results, supports consistent terminology, and allows skilled linguists to focus on what really matters. This approach is one reason MTPE and post-editing are gaining traction across industries as a solution for high-volume, quick-turn content requirements that also require accuracy.
(We’ll note here that MT PE is best for manuals, user-generated content, reviews, long reports, and the like. It’s not ideal for content types that depend heavily on creative nuance, such as advertising copy or highly branded content, where human translation is still essential.)
MTPE at Bering Lab: BeringAI+
Bering Lab started with translations in the legal domain. Legal translation has always been one of the most demanding use cases: high stakes, dense terminology, and no room for error. That’s where we started, and where we built our reputation. BeringAI was trained on extensive legal data and complex case materials, giving it the capacity to deliver clean, accurate drafts that speak the language of law.
But legal is only the beginning.
As our platform evolves, we’re expanding into adjacent industries that require the same level of linguistic precision and stylistic control: finance, compliance, policy, corporate communications, and beyond. These domains also rely on standardized terms, formal tone, and crystal-clear writing. That includes highly regulated markets such as medical device import and sales, where accuracy and clarity are vital from product registration to commercial launch.
The data behind our engine is carefully sourced, domain-specific, and continuously expanding. In addition to a company’s specific existing translated corpora, we train on publicly available industry data, client-approved content, glossaries, style guides, and project histories (with permission). Our AI is continuously learning from this broader set of inputs, improving alignment all the time with specific industries, content types, and audiences.
Here’s how the Bering AI+ approach changes the game:
- Faster turnaround: BeringAI provides a reliable first draft in seconds, so we can spend more time refining and less time rewriting.
- Greater consistency: Industry-specific terms and recurring phrases are handled through customizable glossaries. Our system keeps terminology aligned across documents, even in large-scale projects.
- Better use of human talent: Our linguists don’t waste hours correcting repetitive structures. They focus on clarity, tone, and correctness where it really counts,
- Lower cost: By reducing manual stages, PE makes translation more sustainable and cost-effective, allowing enterprises to either translate more for less or save money on an existing volume
This approach isn’t just more efficient. It allows us to scale quality across entire document sets, even when deadlines are tight.
Success Stories: Machine Translation Post-editing in Real Life
Bering Lab is delivering real, measurable results across industries. Below are four case studies that show how Bering Lab combines custom machine translation with expert post-editing to help clients meet complex translation needs with greater speed and precision. Here are three customer stories:
Korean Law Firm Slashes Time and Costs with MTPE
A leading Korean law firm adopted BeringAI to support their legal translation workflow. By training the MT engine on their internal legal documentation, they were able to drastically improve both the speed and quality of translations.
Key results:
- 90% reduction in turnaround time
- Over 50% decrease in translation costs
- BLEU score improvement from 21.3 to 51.8, drastically reducing manual corrections
This success story shows how domain-specific customization can transform MT from a rough draft generator into a trusted production tool.
Custom Legal Engine Exceeds Expectations
In another project, Bering Lab built a fully customized MT engine for legal translation using in-house corpora from a global legal services provider. As co-founder Jae Yoon Kim noted, “We were blown away by the initial version of the model.”
Key results:
- High-quality drafts for complex legal documents like contracts and patents
- Deep domain adaptation for more accurate and readable output
- Less rework during post-editing thanks to terminology alignment
This project illustrates the value of training engines on proprietary content to match real-world usage.
MTPE Delivers Reliable Results for Patent Content
At Bering Lab, we’ve applied our AI-powered translation approach to complex, high-accuracy domains such as patent documentation. In a recent evaluation involving English-to-Korean patent texts, we benchmarked our MTPE workflow against other major providers. Even with a relatively small amount of domain-specific data, our customized MT engines consistently delivered strong first drafts that required only focused post-editing to meet professional standards.
Key results:
- High-quality drafts for complex legal documents like contracts and patents
- Deep domain adaptation for more accurate and readable output
- Less rework during post-editing thanks to terminology alignment
This demonstrates how even modest customization of our MTPE process can bring real value to clients operating in fast-paced, accuracy-critical industries.
These real-life cases highlight what makes the Bering Lab MTPE solution work:
- Smart customization of MT engines tailored to industry and client language
- Expert human post-editing that adds nuance, clarity, and context
- AI-powered tools that streamline the entire process from draft to delivery
When technology and human expertise come together like this, the result is a powerful, scalable workflow that meets modern translation demands without compromising on quality.
Your Next Steps for Scaling Translation with Confidence
If you’ve got high volumes that require fast turnaround, then the traditional TEP model probably isn’t work for you anymore. When translation becomes a bottleneck, entire projects stall. That’s why scalability isn’t just a technical issue; it’s a business one.
Our MTPE model solves that problem head-on. By automating the repetitive parts of translation and freeing our human experts to focus on refinement, we’re able to take on larger workloads without sacrificing attention to detail.
And as organizations grow across markets, the need for scalable, multilingual communication grows with them. BeringAI is designed to flex with those needs. Our offering not only takes care of the translation but also provides full project management and file conversions pre- and post-translation.
In short, we help you move faster, without taking risks.
Let’s Work Smarter
The old TEP model served its purpose, but it doesn’t match the speed, volume, or complexity of today’s business demands. We’re not in the business of defending tradition. We’re here to help global teams communicate better, with less friction, and more confidence.
Our future lies in smarter, faster, and more cost-effective translation. We’re building workflows that scale with the demands of modern business. As co‑CEO Jae Yoon Kim explains, reflecting Bering Lab’s vision:
“Bering Lab aims to break down linguistic barriers in business, fostering global collaboration and communication.”
Start your free trial with BeringAI today: accelerate your projects, reduce costs, and scale with confidence. If you want to chat about a solution for your business, contact us at: sales@beringlab.com
