Transcreation in Translation and the Age of Human-Centred AI: Focusing on “Human” Creative Touch

Transcreation is a highly debated concept in Translation Studies (TS) and in the language industry. While this industry often offers transcreation services as an “added value” service, TS scholars have also argued that creativity is necessary for all translation processes, and this concept might not be anything new or novel. Rather than engaging in this epistemological debate, this chapter argues that the emergence of generative large language models (LLMs) and AI apps demands a deeper exploration of distinctive features of how humans cognitively process translations in relation to AI. Transcreation, whether as a strategy or a service, offers scholars and industry experts alike an opportunity to focus on creativity-related features that make up professional translation competence in the digital era. This chapter interrelates translation augmentation, human-centred AI, and the generative and selective stages that occur during the translation process. In doing so, the chapter briefly explores ways in which LLMs and humans “generate” creative translation renderings and how they subsequently “select” them. This can help disentangle processes, content, or tasks that can be automated through AI from processes that can be augmented or left entirely to humans. All in all, this chapter attempts to project into the future the notion of transcreation by placing it within the unique expert professional competences and skills still needed in the future.