Why CastingWords Will Always Use Real People
CastingWords has recently added technology that uses artificial intelligence to transcribe recordings.
We are happy with the technology; it is cost-effective, helps our customers save money, and increases our productivity. But it can never replace our professional human transcriptionists!
“Even though we have the tech, we will always use real people,” said Rachel Pearson, co-founder of CastingWords. “They bring too much to the table.”
Here are 10 reasons why our transcribers are irreplaceable:
1) Voice recognition often requires high-quality audio. Background noise, variations in volume, and noises like wind through the microphone can get in the way of successfully using voice recognition software. One solution is to use better recording equipment, but that is not always an opton.
2) Recognizing technical terms. This is especially important when you need a medical or scientific transcription with specialized or technical terminology. We have workers with background and expertise in all kinds of fields, and help them zero in on the projects that will make the most of their skills.
3) Providing accurate numbers and measurements. One of the most common errors in documents that have been transcribed with voice recognition software is that numbers and measurements aren’t accurate. This can be a serious problem in medical records, legal and financial documents, among others.
4) Recognizing proper nouns. Another thing that trips up voice recognition software is proper nouns like names, places, organizations, and brand names. Often you have to enter those words in to the program to make sure that they are added to the vocabulary, but even then, people aren’t always consistent in the way they pronounce words.
5) Catching obscure phrases. “We were constantly surprised that phrases or names that other companies missed, from tabula rasa to turducken (it’s a Cajun specialty), were identified and spelled correctly,” wrote a client from the Wall Street Journal. Voice recognition software (and truth be told, careless transcriptionists) can butcher unusual words and phrases. At CastingWords we take special care to make sure phrases, idioms and names are spelled correctly. Each document goes through several quality control steps to ensure accuracy.
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6) Understanding regional accents. Speakers with an accent or a regional dialect often have the most trouble getting an accurate transcription. Humans can recognize accents, even if the pronunciation isn’t standard. And in the case of CastingWords, we have transcriptionists located around the globe. An accent that may be difficult for some of our workers is usually familiar to others.
7) Deciphering meaning and making sense. Voice recognition software works by connecting individual sounds with matching sounds that are stored in a database. As you can imagine, there are limitations to how well the computer will match those sounds. Humans have the ability to interpret meaning and choose the words that make the most sense, especially when two words sound the same (like which and witch).
8) Better formatting. Voice recognition software can’t insert paragraph breaks at logical spots, and can’t tell, for instance, when something needs to be enclosed in quotes.
9) Quality control. Even when you order a transcription with voice recognition technology, our workers carefully proofread to make sure that the final product is as accurate as possible.
10) Our transcribers are motivated to hand in quality work. We work with freelance transcriptionists from around the world and take pride in providing good jobs that people can do from home. Each job is graded. The more accurate the transcription, the more the transcriptionist is paid. (Interested in working for us? Click here to sign up.)
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The success of CastingWords has been made possible by the hard work and talent of our freelance transcriptionists. Voice recognition software is getting better every day, but it still has limitations. We are launching our own version of this software that can speed up the process of getting a transcription, and allow us to provide more affordable options.
Ready to give it a try? Try our ultra-affordable Budget Transcription service, or if you’re on a schedule opt for our 1-Week Transcription service or 1-Day Transcription service.