Executive Summary
Summary
With around 80% of litigation being multilingual, traditional translation methods are a major bottleneck, tripling eDiscovery costs and causing critical project delays.
Legal-grade AI adoption has nearly tripled in the past year, as these tools can reduce document review time by up to 70% and costs by as much as 90%.
New regulations like the EU AI Act make using generic translation tools for sensitive documents a significant compliance risk.
Firms can gain a competitive advantage by adopting a specialized platform like Bluente's legal translation solution to ensure speed, accuracy, and security.
The globalizing nature of business has fundamentally transformed how legal and compliance teams operate. Cross-border work is no longer the exception but the rule, with Gartner estimating that around 80% of all litigation is multilingual. This presents unprecedented challenges for legal professionals managing sensitive documents across languages.
Traditional translation workflows have become a significant bottleneck, creating unacceptable delays, costs, and risks. Document review alone consumes 60–80% of total eDiscovery spend, a figure that can triple in multilingual matters. The implications are clear: legal teams that fail to modernize their translation strategies face an existential disadvantage in today's fast-moving global environment.
Artificial intelligence is no longer a future trend but a present-day expectation. Nearly 50% of in-house counsel expect the law firms they instruct to be using AI within 12 months, and AI adoption in legal practice almost tripled from 11% in 2023 to 30% in 2024. Purpose-built AI platforms are delivering dramatic improvements, such as reducing due diligence document review time by up to 70%.
However, not all AI is created equal. The rise of regulations like the EU AI Act and data sovereignty laws makes using generic, consumer-grade tools a significant compliance risk. Legal, M&A, and compliance leaders must carefully evaluate secure, legal-grade AI translation solutions to gain a competitive edge in 2025.
This report provides the benchmarks and frameworks to help legal professionals navigate this changing landscape, with concrete data and actionable insights for implementing effective, compliant document translation strategies.
Introduction: The New Default: Why Multilingual Matters Define Modern Business
The Globalization Imperative
The globalization of business, supply chains, and regulatory frameworks has made managing foreign-language documents a core operational competency. Failure to do so efficiently and securely is no longer a competitive disadvantage but a direct threat to business continuity and compliance.
For General Counsel, Heads of Legal Operations, M&A leaders, Compliance Officers, and eDiscovery Project Managers, the challenge is clear: an explosion of high-stakes, multilingual data that must be processed, understood, and acted upon with unprecedented speed and accuracy.
Consider these realities:
In a survey of 200 companies across the US and Europe, 38% said they were involved in cross-border litigation over a two-year period
The global translation services market is substantial, valued at USD 41.8B in 2024 and projected to grow
The niche for legal translation services is growing even faster, projected to double from ~USD 1.4B in 2023 to ~USD 2.8B by 2032 (CAGR 7.1%)
These trends reflect a fundamental shift in how legal and compliance work is conducted. Cross-border transactions, global regulatory obligations, and international litigation have become standard operating procedure rather than exceptional events.
This report aims to provide concrete data and a strategic framework for navigating this new reality, from benchmarking the current state to mapping the technology landscape and forecasting future trends.
Section 1: The State of Play: Cross-Border Work by the Numbers
The Scale and Scope of Multilingual Legal Work
The scale of multilingual legal and compliance work is massive and growing, making manual processes increasingly unsustainable. Let's examine the data:
Litigation Is Inherently Global
Today's litigation landscape is dominated by matters that cross borders and language barriers. Gartner's estimate that around 80% of all litigation is multilingual underscores the pervasiveness of foreign-language content in modern legal work.
This reality creates cascading effects throughout the litigation lifecycle, particularly in the resource-intensive document review phase. EDRM and multiple eDiscovery studies report that document review accounts for 60–80% of total eDiscovery spend in many matters - a figure that becomes even more challenging when multiple languages are involved.
Market Growth Reflects Intensifying Need
The rapid growth of the legal translation market signals the intensifying demand for specialized solutions. While the broader translation services market is expanding at a modest pace (valued at USD 41.8B in 2024), the legal translation segment is accelerating much faster.
The legal translation services market is estimated at ~USD 1.4B in 2023 and projected to double to ~USD 2.8B by 2032 (CAGR 7.1%). This growth rate - more than three times that of the general translation market - reflects the urgent need for solutions that can handle the complexity, security requirements, and formatting challenges unique to legal documents.
The eDiscovery Data Deluge
The exponential growth of electronically stored information (ESI) has transformed discovery into one of the most resource-intensive aspects of litigation. When that data spans multiple languages, the complexity multiplies.
Document review is the single largest cost center in litigation, accounting for 60–80% of total eDiscovery spend. This is precisely the area where multilingual complexity introduces the most friction, often requiring specialized reviewers, extended timelines, and increased costs.
Section 2: The Hidden Costs of the Status Quo: Analyzing the Risks of Traditional Translation
The Unsustainable Economics of Conventional Workflows
Relying on traditional, human-only translation workflows for high-stakes documents introduces unacceptable latency, exorbitant costs, and significant security and legal risks. Let's examine these challenges in detail:
The Time Bottleneck
In today's fast-paced legal and business environment, time is often the most precious commodity. Yet, traditional translation workflows create significant delays that can impact everything from deal timelines to litigation strategy.
Professional translators working on complex legal documents average 1,200–2,500 words per day, or roughly 4–8 pages of new content daily. To put this in perspective:
A 500-page M&A agreement or regulatory filing could take several weeks of wall-clock time for a small team to translate, before any legal review or formatting checks.
This throughput limitation creates a fundamental bottleneck for time-sensitive matters. In M&A transactions, where deal timelines are often compressed, waiting weeks for translated documents can delay critical due diligence and risk analysis. In litigation, translation delays can impact filing deadlines, evidence review, and strategic decision-making.
The Cost Multiplier
The financial impact of traditional translation approaches is substantial, particularly in document-heavy matters like litigation and regulatory investigations.
ABA and RAND studies estimate that document review alone can represent ~73–80% of discovery/production costs, with national US litigation document review spend around USD 42.1B per year.
The multilingual multiplier effect is even more striking. EDRM-linked sources note that when a matter is multilingual, eDiscovery costs can triple relative to monolingual cases. This cost explosion is driven by several factors:
Higher per-page rates for specialized legal translators
Extended review timelines due to translation bottlenecks
The need for reviewers with specific language proficiencies
Additional quality control steps for translated content
For large-scale matters involving thousands or millions of documents, these costs can quickly escalate into seven or eight figures.
The Risk Exposure
Beyond time and cost concerns, traditional translation workflows introduce significant risks that can have far-reaching consequences.
Legal & Financial Risk: Mistranslated legal documents can directly lead to invalidated contracts, litigation, and multi-million-dollar losses. Case studies across industries document instances where translation errors resulted in:
Contractual ambiguities leading to disputes
Regulatory non-compliance due to misinterpreted requirements
Inaccurate disclosure of material information
Misunderstood court filings or evidentiary materials
Security & Privacy Risk: Outsourcing to external language service providers introduces major security concerns. Sending sensitive data to third parties can conflict with cross-border privacy laws (like GDPR) or internal security protocols, creating a chain-of-custody nightmare.
These risks are particularly acute for:
Confidential business information in M&A transactions
Personally identifiable information in litigation
Protected health information in healthcare investigations
Confidential financial data in regulatory matters
The traditional approach of emailing sensitive documents to external vendors or uploading them to consumer-grade translation portals creates significant exposure that many organizations can no longer justify.
Section 3: The AI-Powered Performance Leap: Benchmarking New KPIs in Legal, M&A, and eDiscovery
Redefining Performance Expectations
The adoption of purpose-built AI is rapidly moving from a "nice-to-have" to a "must-have," fundamentally reshaping performance benchmarks across key legal and corporate functions.
The Adoption Curve is Steepening
The legal sector's embrace of AI has accelerated dramatically in recent years:
A 2024 survey found that 87% of legal-sector users say language AI helps them work faster
The same research reports that 61% of lawyers have already used AI or plan to do so, and over a quarter (26%) of lawyers were regularly using AI by early 2024
ABA tech surveys show AI adoption in legal practice almost tripled, from 11% in 2023 to 30% in 2024
Perhaps most tellingly, nearly 50% of in-house counsel expect the law firms they instruct to be using AI within 12 months. This signals a fundamental shift: AI has moved from experimental technology to client expectation.
KPI Impact 1: Deal Speed & Time-to-Insight in M&A
In the high-stakes world of mergers and acquisitions, time-to-insight can directly impact deal outcomes. AI-powered translation is redefining expectations around speed and thoroughness:
AI can reduce due diligence document review time by up to 70% on average (per Thomson Reuters)
Specific case studies report even more dramatic gains, with 85% to 95% faster contract review
Scenario Modeling: Consider a 400-page German SPA (~120,000 words):
Traditional approach: 4-6 weeks for a human translator team
AI-first workflow: working bilingual draft in hours, allowing counsel to focus immediately on red-flag analysis
This transformation allows deal teams to identify critical issues faster, negotiate from a position of better information, and close transactions more efficiently.
KPI Impact 2: Cost Reduction in Litigation & eDiscovery
The financial impact of AI-powered translation is perhaps most dramatic in litigation and eDiscovery, where document volumes can be massive:
AI-enhanced document review can reduce litigation costs by nearly 90% in some scenarios compared to manual review
An Am Law 100 firm using generative AI reported a 50–67% reduction in document review time with a fraction of the personnel and 90%+ accuracy
This directly addresses the largest cost center, where multilingual matters can triple expenses
These cost reductions are particularly significant for matters involving multiple languages, where the traditional approach requires specialized reviewers for each language at premium rates.
KPI Impact 3: Efficiency & Defensibility in Compliance & HR
Beyond litigation and transactions, AI-powered translation is transforming how organizations manage global compliance and HR functions:
AI-driven document intelligence can help legal, HR, and finance departments save up to ~30% of time on administrative tasks like localizing policies
This allows for rapid deployment of updated HR policies, codes of conduct, and regulatory responses across dozens of jurisdictions, reducing the risk of non-compliance due to translation lags
For multinational organizations managing policies in multiple languages, this efficiency gain translates directly into improved compliance posture and reduced risk exposure.
Section 4: The 2025 Technology Landscape: A Market Map for High-Stakes Document Translation
Navigating a Fragmented Market
The market for translation technology is fragmented. Choosing the right tool requires understanding the distinct capabilities and limitations of each category, especially concerning security, accuracy, and format preservation for high-stakes use cases.
1. General-Purpose Machine Translation (MT)
Examples: Google Translate, Microsoft Translator, generic DeepL plans
Strengths:
Instant translation
Low or no cost
Broad language coverage (100+ languages)
Limitations:
Lacks format preservation and proper handling of legal documents
Poor handling of legal terminology and context
Consumer-grade security without enterprise controls
No audit trails or compliance features
Data privacy concerns for confidential content
Best for: Quick, informal understanding of non-sensitive foreign language content
2. Legal / Regulated-Industry MT Platforms
Examples: Bluente, domain-tuned MT offerings from major vendors
Characteristics:
Domain-adapted for legal and financial terminology
Format-preserving output that maintains document structure
Support for scanned PDFs and OCR
Bilingual layouts for side-by-side review
Tracked changes to highlight modifications
Options for certified and court-ready translations
Enterprise-grade security with end-to-end encryption
Strict access controls and automatic file deletion
Data residency options for regulatory compliance
Best for: High-value, sensitive legal and financial documents requiring both speed and accuracy
3. Translation Management Systems (TMS)
Characteristics:
Focus on workflow management for translation projects
Terminology management and translation memory
Vendor management capabilities
Integrations with content management systems
Limitations:
Often embed generic MT engines without legal-specific capabilities
May lack advanced security features required for highly sensitive content
Not optimized for legal document formats and workflows
Best for: Organizations managing high volumes of content across multiple languages with established translation processes
4. Traditional Human Translation Agencies / ALSPs
Characteristics:
The Alternative Legal Service Provider (ALSP) market is now USD 28.5B
Provide certified human translation for court-ready documents
Access to sworn translators and subject matter experts
Human review and quality control
Limitations:
Slower turnaround times (days to weeks)
Higher per-page costs
Scalability challenges for large document volumes
Inconsistent handling of complex layouts and formatting
Best for: Court filings, evidence, and other documents requiring certified translation with human attestation
5. eDiscovery Platforms with Built-in MT
Examples: Everlaw, Relativity, other major eDiscovery platforms
Characteristics:
On-platform translation of foreign language documents
Integrated with existing review workflows
Reduces need for data exports to third-party services (per sources like Everlaw)
Best for: Early case assessment and relevance determination in multilingual matters
6. Virtual Data Rooms (VDRs) with MT Hooks
Characteristics:
Quick translation for data room content
Support for multilingual Q&A during due diligence
Often limited to basic translation without advanced legal features
Best for: Basic understanding of foreign language documents during early phases of due diligence
7. Hybrid Human + AI Managed Models
Characteristics:
Combine MT with human post-editing
Promise cost reductions and faster turnarounds
Maintain human oversight for quality assurance
Studies show MT-assisted workflows yield 10–60% productivity increases
Best for: Organizations seeking a balance between the speed of MT and the quality of human translation
Section 5: Charting the Course: Major Headwinds and Tailwinds for 2025
Navigating Opportunities and Challenges
The adoption of AI in legal translation is not without challenges. Navigating the evolving regulatory landscape and managing data sovereignty are as critical as leveraging the technology's benefits.
Tailwinds: Forces Driving Adoption
Several key trends are accelerating the adoption of AI-powered translation in legal and compliance contexts:
Rapid AI Capability Gains
Modern large language models (LLMs) are achieving translation quality levels that approach or match human performance in many contexts:
Recent evaluations show that advanced MT systems now require sophisticated, document-level evaluation rather than simple sentence-level metrics
Domain-specific models trained on legal and financial content demonstrate particular strength in maintaining terminology consistency and understanding context-specific meanings
The gap between machine and human translation quality continues to narrow, especially for well-resourced language pairs
Client & Court Acceptance
The legal ecosystem is increasingly recognizing the value of AI-powered translation:
Nearly 50% of in-house counsel expect firms to use AI, creating market pressure for adoption
Courts in the US and Singapore have acknowledged AI's utility for efficiency, provided there is appropriate human oversight
Regulatory bodies are providing more guidance on acceptable use of AI translation, creating clearer frameworks for adoption
Broad Enterprise Adoption
AI-powered document technologies are becoming standard across industries:
Gartner data suggests 80% of enterprises will use document-intelligence solutions by 2025, normalizing the use of these tools
The rapid adoption of AI across business functions is creating organizational competence and comfort with these technologies
Enterprise-grade security and compliance features are becoming standard requirements, improving the overall ecosystem
Headwinds: Forces Requiring Caution
Despite the positive momentum, several significant challenges must be navigated:
AI Regulation
The regulatory landscape for AI is evolving rapidly, with significant implications for legal technology:
The EU AI Act (Regulation (EU) 2024/1689) is the first major comprehensive AI framework, imposing strict obligations on high-risk AI systems used in justice and employment
These regulations demand transparency, robust data governance, and human oversight from any tool provider
Organizations must ensure their AI translation solutions comply with relevant regulations or risk significant penalties
Data Sovereignty & Localization
Cross-border data transfers face increasing restrictions:
A growing patchwork of global data transfer rules makes sending sensitive legal or HR data to third-party vendors abroad increasingly non-compliant and risky
Data localization requirements in regions like the EU, China, Russia, and India may require translation solutions with region-specific infrastructure
Organizations must carefully evaluate where their data is processed and stored when using translation services
Judicial Caution
Courts remain cautious about over-reliance on AI translation:
Judicial guidance stresses that AI translation is an aid, not a replacement for certified human interpreters in high-stakes contexts where nuance is critical
Court systems differentiate between using AI for early-stage document review versus submitting AI-only translations as evidence
The standard of care continues to evolve, requiring organizations to establish clear policies about when AI translation is sufficient and when human certification is required
Conclusion & Strategic Playbooks: Actionable Recommendations for 2025
Reimagining Translation Strategy for the AI Era
The evidence is clear: mastering high-stakes document translation is a critical pillar of modern legal and corporate strategy. The path forward involves a deliberate shift from outdated methods to a secure, hybrid AI + human workflow.
Summary of Key Findings
Throughout this report, we've established several fundamental realities:
Multilingual work is the norm, not the exception. With 80% of litigation involving multiple languages and 38% of companies engaged in cross-border disputes, managing foreign-language documents efficiently is now a core operational requirement.
Traditional methods are broken. Human-only translation creates unacceptable delays (1,200-2,500 words/day), multiplies costs (up to 3x for multilingual matters), and introduces significant security and compliance risks.
Legal-grade AI is the proven solution. AI-powered translation can reduce review time by 50-70%, slash costs by up to 90% in some scenarios, and dramatically accelerate insight in time-sensitive matters.
Security and compliance cannot be afterthoughts. With the EU AI Act and expanding data sovereignty rules, translation solutions must be secure by design and compliant with relevant regulations.
Actionable Playbooks for Key Personas
For the General Counsel / Head of Legal Ops: How to cut multilingual matter costs by 30–50%
Benchmark your current translation spend across litigation, investigations, and regulatory matters
Identify high-volume/high-cost workflows, particularly in eDiscovery
Pilot a legal-grade AI translation platform with strong security features
Measure direct ROI on cost reduction, time savings, and matter outcomes
Develop clear guidelines for when AI translation is sufficient and when human certification is required
For the M&A / Corporate Development Lead: How to de-risk and accelerate cross-border deals
Implement an AI-first strategy for multilingual due diligence
Use bulk machine translation for initial triage of foreign-language documents in hours, not weeks
Focus specialized legal resources on key provisions and red flags identified through AI-assisted review
Ensure your translation solution preserves document formatting and supports bilingual side-by-side review
Maintain secure audit trails of all translation activities for deal documentation
For the Compliance Officer / HR Leader: How to maintain global policy alignment under GDPR-grade scrutiny
Assess your current approach to localizing policies, codes of conduct, and compliance materials
Prioritize translation platforms with demonstrable data security, residency options, and audit trails
Implement a process for rapid translation of policy updates across all jurisdictions
Create bilingual reference versions of key policies to ensure alignment between original and translated versions
Document your approach to translation as part of your broader compliance framework
For the eDiscovery Project Manager: How to triage foreign-language data in hours, not weeks
Integrate a secure AI translation tool into your early case assessment (ECA) phase
Develop a tiered approach: AI for initial relevance screening, human certification for key evidentiary documents
Ensure your translation solution respects data residency rules and maintains chain of custody
Track metrics on cost savings and time reduction to demonstrate ROI
Document your translation methodology for defensibility in court
The Path Forward: Implementing a Modern Translation Strategy
As organizations navigate the complex landscape of multilingual legal work in 2025, several principles should guide their approach:
Security by design: Choose translation solutions that encrypt data in transit and at rest, provide granular access controls, and support data residency requirements.
AI + human hybrid workflows: Deploy AI for speed and scale, with human experts focused on quality assurance and certification of critical documents.
Format preservation: Insist on solutions that maintain document structure, support bilingual layouts, and handle complex legal formatting.
Integration with existing systems: Look for translation capabilities that work within your current document management, eDiscovery, and collaboration platforms.
Compliance documentation: Maintain clear records of translation methodologies, quality assurance processes, and human oversight to meet regulatory requirements.
By embracing these principles, legal and compliance teams can transform multilingual document handling from a bottleneck into a strategic advantage, enabling faster insights, better outcomes, and competitive differentiation in an increasingly global business environment.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is legal-grade AI document translation?
Legal-grade AI document translation refers to specialized AI platforms designed to accurately translate sensitive legal and financial documents while preserving their original formatting and ensuring enterprise-grade security. Unlike general-purpose tools, these platforms are trained on legal terminology, support complex file types like scanned PDFs, offer features like bilingual side-by-side review, and provide robust security protocols such as end-to-end encryption and data residency options to comply with regulations like GDPR.
Why are traditional translation methods insufficient for modern legal work?
Traditional, human-only translation methods are too slow, costly, and risky for the fast-paced, data-intensive nature of modern legal work. A professional translator averages only 4–8 pages per day, creating significant bottlenecks in time-sensitive matters. This inefficiency can triple eDiscovery costs for multilingual cases and introduces major security risks when sensitive documents are sent to external third parties, potentially violating data privacy laws.
How does AI translation accelerate M&A due diligence?
AI translation accelerates M&A due diligence by reducing document review time by up to 70%, allowing deal teams to analyze foreign-language documents in hours instead of weeks. Instead of waiting for a manual translation of a large agreement, M&A teams can use AI to get a working bilingual draft almost instantly. This enables them to quickly identify red flags, focus legal experts on critical provisions, and make faster, more informed decisions.
What are the risks of using generic tools like Google Translate for legal documents?
Using generic, consumer-grade translation tools for legal documents poses significant security, privacy, and accuracy risks. These tools lack the enterprise-grade security controls, audit trails, and data privacy guarantees required for confidential content. Sending sensitive data may violate privacy laws like GDPR. Furthermore, they are not optimized for legal terminology, which can lead to critical mistranslations, and they fail to preserve the complex formatting of legal documents.
Are AI-translated documents accepted in court?
While courts are increasingly accepting AI for efficiency in processes like eDiscovery, AI-only translations are generally not sufficient for official evidence submission, which typically requires a certified human translation. The best practice is a hybrid approach: use AI for initial review and triage of large document volumes, then have key evidentiary documents professionally translated and certified by a human expert to meet court standards.
How much can AI reduce eDiscovery costs in multilingual cases?
AI-powered document review can dramatically reduce eDiscovery costs, with some studies showing reductions of up to 90% compared to manual review. Since document review constitutes 60–80% of eDiscovery spend—a figure that can triple in multilingual matters—AI offers a massive cost-saving opportunity. It automates the initial translation and review, allowing firms to use a smaller team and significantly cut down on time and expense.
What features define a secure, legal-grade AI translation platform?
A secure, legal-grade AI translation platform must have enterprise-grade security, domain-specific accuracy, and features tailored for legal workflows. Key features to look for include: end-to-end encryption, strict access controls, data residency options (for GDPR compliance), format preservation for complex documents, support for scanned PDFs (OCR), bilingual side-by-side review layouts, and options for human certification of critical documents.
About Bluente
Bluente is a professional AI-powered document translation platform built specifically for legal, financial, and business-critical documents. Our AI Document Translation Platform delivers high-quality, format-preserving translations in 120+ languages, with strong recognition of legal and financial terminology.
Key features include support for scanned PDFs/OCR, bilingual layouts for side-by-side review, tracked-changes output, and options for certified and court-ready translations. Bluente is designed for teams handling contracts, briefs, regulatory filings, M&A data rooms, financial statements, HR policies, and other sensitive documents.
Our enterprise-grade security includes end-to-end encryption, strict access controls, automatic file deletion, and data residency options, making Bluente suitable for confidential workflows in law firms, corporations, government agencies, and financial services organizations.