Netflix uses AI, including automatic speech recognition and neural machine translation, to assist with generating and localizing subtitles for its content across dozens of languages, with human linguists reviewing the outputs.

Netflix has publicly acknowledged using AI to improve subtitle localization, describing it in its January 2026 investor letter as a deployed capability. The technical process involves automatic speech recognition (ASR) to transcribe original dialogue, followed by neural machine translation (NMT) to produce subtitles in target languages. Netflix and Virginia Tech also published a research paper on an AI model that simplifies English subtitles before machine translation to improve accuracy for low-resource language pairs. Human linguists and editors review AI-generated outputs to ensure cultural accuracy and quality.