Although machine translation has improved considerably, it still doesn’t compare to human translators in achieving accuracy. A major difference between machine and human translation is that a human translator is a trained professional who has the language expertise to understand the grammar, style, tone, and idioms that are unique to the language which is generally lost in machine translation.
Human translators have a leg up over automated translation software in the following areas:
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When the document or audio/video recording has specialized and complex terminology, like legal, medical, engineering etc.
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Human translators who are native speakers can handle different accents and dialects better, resulting in a better translation and communication
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Human translators are well-versed in grammar, slang, expressions, subtleties, specificities, etc. In contrast, automated software has trouble in doing so.
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A human translator has the ability to work with different templates and follow special guidelines that may differ between transcripts