The recent pivot to embrace the perks of AI for captioning allowed us at Aberdeen to set our sights on integrating it into parts of our Spanish workflow via our Aberscript transcript editor application, something which we began to use for English programs over 5 years ago and have now fully implemented for Spanish content. This was developed, in part, as an effort to keep transcription in-house and reduce the typical time it would take to transcribe a program from scratch before preparing it for the finishing touches in MacCaption.
Our Spanish captioning clients offer content that covers a variety of topics such as news, sports, entertainment, medicine, automotive sales, and Christian programming. The initial challenge was choosing the right field to begin testing our AI model. Initial test programs often included multiple speakers throughout the program who frequently code-switch with English or Spanglish phrases, adding complexity to the transcription process. Due to frequent language shifts, testing AI was not optimal for this variety.
Our best bet was looking at the content that makes up the majority of our day-to-day work: Christian content, where it’s much easier to find a single speaker addressing his or her audience and where the formality of language is likely to remain consistent and free of informal slang, contractions, and colloquialisms. Given our success with English captioning, we decided to leverage AI’s many advantages—automating repetitive functions, enabling real-time generation and quicker turnarounds, maximizing speed and efficiency, and offering vastly improved and adaptable machine learning and speech recognition—perks that tend to outperform traditional methods.
By far, one of the biggest perks has been AI's ability to generate words instantly and accurately, helping to reduce some of the tediousness involved in typing out words, phrases, sentences, and so on. AI has now achieved optimal accuracy with the correct transcription of accent marks in Spanish vowels (a, e, i, o, u) as well as the ñ. This results in a more free-flowing and undisturbed editing process.
For AI to be successful in this regard, it needs to know when to pick up the natural stress in syllables so that it generates the accent mark on top of the correct letter. Here are some of the common Christian terms and names that appear frequently in Spanish and were properly transcribed with the correct accent marks: amén, Jehová, Adán, oración, redención, apóstol, ángel, Espíritu Santo, Jesús, Lázaro, Noé, María, Salomón, Salvación. Knowing this, the next focus was implementing AI for a client whose content aligned with our goal of maximizing efficiency and achieving a quicker turnaround.
The first stage of incorporating AI into our Spanish workflow began in mid-2024, as we introduced the Spanish-dubbed version of one of our biggest clients. And given that we were now making this transition, with recurring episodes airing on many different networks, we were looking for ways to make progress without outsourcing. The workflow associated with this program was once destined for out-of-house transcription and captioning--with only a brief QC and final exports created in-house. In the past, a few business days for two different programs were generally required, given that the vendor needed ample time to transcribe from scratch and to caption before sending us the completed files for a final QC.
At the beginning of our AI pivot for this particular client, every episode required about 90-120 minutes to transcribe from scratch, and another 45 minutes to complete the post-transcription QC and captioning in MacCaption. However, after months of fine-tuning and consistent use of Aberscript, now it only takes us around 90 minutes in total to complete each — 60 minutes for transcription and 30 for post-transcription QC and captioning — while still maintaining the same level of quality expected for this product level.
For our clients, these efficiencies allow us to respond quickly and accommodate shifting deadlines without compromising quality. AI helps us ensure your programs are captioned with accuracy and delivered on schedule, all without sacrificing the attention to detail your content deserves. It enables quicker turnarounds and supports urgent delivery timelines, something that’s become increasingly important in fast-paced production environments.
We are currently working on running other Spanish programs through our AI workflow to boost efficiency, accuracy, and work time goals. Without a doubt, we will continue to maximize its potential in 2025.
With AI-enhanced tools and a refined in-house workflow, we’re helping clients get accurate, broadcast-ready Spanish captions faster than ever, without sacrificing quality. Whether you’re managing weekly programs or shifting timelines, we’re here to make your process faster and more efficient.
