Transformation
A competence not yet on the organisation chart, yet one that AI results depend on
A process translator is a department employee who describes and maintains their department's processes in a form that people and models understand; the standard is maintained by the translators, not by the adviser. The AI Business Center Foundation (AIBC) is a think tank and advisory partner that helps the boards of construction, industrial and technical-services companies adopt artificial intelligence so that it delivers measurable results and builds competitive advantage.
A process description is no longer a document for the drawer. It has become an employee’s competence
A language model performs correctly only the work that someone has described. In most companies, process descriptions, knowledge of exceptions and customer history live in the heads of two or three people. When those people are on leave or move on, every AI application starts from scratch.
A process translator turns this knowledge into a description that a new employee and a model can use. This is the foundation of the second level of semantic transformation, that is, organising a company’s names, processes and data so that people, language models and board reports understand them the same way.
Who they are
An employee of the company, not an IT specialist, who understands the process from the business side and can describe it so that a model performs it correctly and consistently. Most often an experienced specialist or coordinator in sales, customer service, proposals, purchasing, service or production.
What they do day to day
- describe their department’s tasks in a form that people and language models understand,
- maintain a library of proven working templates,
- assess the quality of the model’s answers before they reach the customer,
- flag processes that are ready for automation,
- make sure the names used in their department match the company’s shared vocabulary.
What the company gains
| benefit | what it means in practice |
|---|---|
| competence within the organisation | the standard is maintained by the translators, not by the adviser; it remains after the project ends |
| quality | less low-value content, fewer corrections, a consistent standard of answers |
| pace | new applications rolled out in days, not quarters |
| security | rules on data and permissions applied in every new application, not only the first one |
| no lock-in to a tool | the process description works with any model; the model can be replaced without losing the work |
How we prepare translators
- Selection. Candidates emerge from the competence workshops and from the assessment: they are the people who describe their own work most clearly and want to do it.
- Preparation. We teach process description: inputs, outputs, decisions, exceptions, data, owner.
- Practice. The translator describes the first processes in their department with our support; the descriptions are reviewed.
- Confirmation of competence. A personal certificate with a verifiable link, issued after real work, not after a knowledge test.
- Support. We support translators during the first roll-outs and then hand the standard over to them.
The translator role works most effectively when embedded in a development path run by HR. We help describe it within the company’s competence framework.
Templates, criteria and scales are the methodological property of the programme’s authors.
First step
We select translators after the 30-day readiness assessment or after the GenAI competence programme, once it is clear which departments and processes go first.
Frequently asked questions
Is a process translator a new full-time post?
No. It is a competence given to someone who already works in the department and understands its process from the business side. The translator devotes part of their time to the role; its scope is set by the company together with the line manager and HR.
Does a process translator have to be an IT specialist?
No, and ideally they should not be. What is needed is knowledge of the process, the exceptions and the decisions in the department, plus the ability to describe them precisely. Tools and integrations remain with the IT department.
How many translators does a company need?
Usually one in each department affected by the change, and more in larger departments or across several sites. We set the number during the assessment, based on the number of processes worth describing first.
Let’s start with an assessment
Let’s talk about who in your company already fills this role informally today.