Algolia Academy translates 58 video courses into multiple languages in two months using Descript AI voices
Algolia's customer academy was English-only despite serving a global audience, and translating 58 courses at scale was complex — traditional localization required weeks of onboarding to specialized tools, AI voices from alternative providers sounded artificial, and any content update required bringing back original speakers for re-recording.
How it works
Common implementation structure
How this type of workflow is generally built, generalized across documented cases — not tied to any one vendor's stack. Click any stage to read what happens there. Specific products that implement these stages appear in “Tools commonly seen” below.
Stage 1 · Localization opportunity identified
Success with short-form English videos created the opportunity to scale with localized versions of 58 courses.
Tools used
DescriptAI voice cloning
Outcome
Using Descript, Algolia saved 116 hours of video production time, published 58 translated videos in two months, and their French Academy videos outperformed English originals with 93% retention and 94% course completion versus 83% and 88% for English.
What failed first
Alternative translation providers offered AI voices that sounded too obviously artificial, failing to meet the quality bar required by both the global audience and Algolia's CEO.