Say It Like You Mean It, in Every Language

The global brief has changed

Every agency knows the moment. The campaign is signed off, the site is built, the launch is booked, and then someone asks: “Can we have this in French, German, Spanish and Korean by next Thursday?”

AI has made that question sound easy. Paste the copy into a tool and you have twelve languages in twelve seconds. But anyone who has shipped a global campaign knows what speed without judgement gets you: a tagline that lands flat in Madrid, a pun that offends in Seoul, and a client wondering why their brand sounds like a phrasebook.

The real question for agencies isn’t “AI or humans?” It’s which content needs which, and how do we build that decision into production?

Meet Comtec: the translation partner that chose “both”

Comtec Translations, based in Royal Leamington Spa, is one of the UK’s most respected language partners. It is family-owned and has spent more than four decades helping organisations communicate across 250 languages. It was also the first UK translation company to achieve B Corp certification.

When AI arrived, Comtec didn’t pick a side. Rather than choosing between AI and expert human linguists, it built its approach around blending the two. That decision earned Comtec Best Use of AI in the agency category at the inaugural National Digital Awards in May 2026.

James Brown and the shift to language consultancy

James Brown, Comtec’s Head of Commercial, has lived through that evolution from the inside. He joined Comtec as an intern in 2011. Prior to his current role, he worked as a project manager and account manager, then became Head of Operations, where he oversaw quality assurance and mentored the project management team. He is also Vice-Chair of the Association of Translation Companies (ATC).

James’s story mirrors Comtec’s. The company once positioned itself strongly around human translation. Today, about half of its work involves machine translation post-editing or hybrid human-AI solutions, and the rest is still delivered through traditional human translation and transcreation.

That shift did not dilute the brand. It protected it. It let Comtec keep clients who might otherwise have experimented with AI tools on their own, while holding the quality standards it is known for. As James puts it, “Quality still matters enormously to us.”

The lesson for agencies is simple. Comtec became more valuable by acting as an advisor rather than a supplier. With new clients, the team often classifies content by risk, audience and purpose, then recommends where human translation is essential and where automated or hybrid options can work.

That is exactly the conversation agencies should be having with their clients.

The Comtec service spectrum: from instant to irreplaceable

Comtec offers agencies a range of options, each matched to how much is at stake:

• Pronto, self-service AI. Secure, custom-trained AI translation, with built-in AI post-editing (Pronto Auto Edit) and optional expert human review (Pronto Pro Edit).

• MTAP and MTPE. MTAP combines machine translation with AI-driven automated post-editing, while MTPE adds professional post-editing by a human linguist.

• Human translation and transcreation. Campaigns, legal and creative copy are typically handled through fully human translation or transcreation.

Behind every level sits a human safety net. Even when AI does the translating, Comtec’s linguists configure the terminology, review the output and make sure it meets the client’s standards.

For agencies, this matters. In marketing, branding and creative work, clients still tend to prioritise human expertise. The words carry the brand.

In practice: Talkoot and two global sportswear brands

Agency client Talkoot works with Comtec to translate eCommerce product descriptions for two major sportswear brands. The content runs into French, German, Spanish, Italian and Dutch.

The two brands get different service levels, because their content needs differ. One brand’s copy goes through MTPE: machine translation, then post-editing by a professional linguist. The other needs more adaptation and creativity in translation, so its copy goes through MTPE plus a separate proofread.

Comtec classified the content by each brand’s needs before choosing the workflow. Because the volume is high and the content is repeatable, Talkoot also benefits from volume-based pricing.

It is the service spectrum in action: the same agency, the same content type, two different mixes of AI and human expertise.

Where Blutui fits: multilingual without the AI spaghetti

Great translation is only half the job. The other half is getting those words live, correctly, across every market site, microsite and campaign page, without breaking the build or burying your developers in copy-paste.

This is where most agencies hit trouble. Translations arrive as spreadsheets. Developers hand-key them into templates. Clients “just tweak” a headline in one language and break the layout in another. AI tools get bolted on one by one until the workflow becomes AI spaghetti.

The Blutui Agency Web Ecosystem is built to prevent that, and it shares Comtec’s view: AI should amplify expert people, not replace their judgement.

• One source of truth, many markets. Blutui Collections and Cassettes let agencies run multiple front ends and campaign sites from unified production data. Build the experience once, then let each language version draw on the same structure, whether content came through Pronto AI translation for a product catalogue or through Comtec’s transcreation team for a hero campaign line.

• Connected, not copy-pasted. Comtec Connect integrates translation workflows into existing CMS, PIM, DAM and LMS systems. Blutui Continuum (Headless plus Webhooks), our Open API and the Courier CLI give agencies the hooks to keep multilingual content moving between the translation partner and the live site, without manual rework.

• Clients edit safely, in any language. With Canopy 2.0 and Canopy Blocks for Agency, client teams in each market can update approved content, add sections and reorder pages without uncontrolled technical access. Your transcreated headline stays exactly where your linguist and designer intended.

• AI under agency control. Blutui MCP lets agencies connect the AI models of their choice, rather than being locked into one model and token ecosystem. That fits naturally with a partner like Comtec that designs AI workflows around each client’s terminology and voice.

• Found in every market. Built-in SEO help translated content get discovered in each market, by search engines and by the AI answer engines customers now use.

Throughout, createControl holds: your front-end developers keep control of code, frameworks and experience, while Blutui handles infrastructure and repetitive production.

The agency advantage: advise, don’t just deliver

Comtec’s story offers a model for every agency. The winners in the AI era won’t be those who automate everything, or those who resist it. They’ll be the ones who can tell a client, with confidence:

“This FAQ content can be translated via customised AI. This product copy can go through AI with additional polishing by a professional linguist. And this campaign line needs a transcreation specialist. Here’s the Agency Web Ecosystem that will publish all of it, correctly, in every market, by Thursday.”

That is orchestrated agency value. Pro-agency, pro-developer, pro-human, in every language.

Taking a campaign global? Talk to Comtec about the right mix of AI and human translation for your content, then book a Blutui Fly-Through to see how multilingual delivery works in the Agency Web Ecosystem.