How Algolia scaled eLearning localization across four languages

The Challenge

Translating an entire library of content, fast

Founded in France, Algolia serves customers worldwide. But their first courses were in English. The team used Descript to cut those longer courses into smaller, more digestible short-form videos—and saw a ton of engagement as a result. With that breakout success brought the opportunity to scale even further with localized versions of their 58 courses.

Translating all this content wasn’t going to be simple. They knew they wanted to use AI voices, but the voices had to sound natural—that was important not only because of their discerning global audience, but because the CEO herself required it. Gabriel’s team also needed to ensure that all of the translated content was technically accurate, and easily updatable as their tech evolved.

Traditional video localization would have meant weeks of onboarding to a complicated new tool. Gabriel and his team needed a solution that could handle bulk translation across multiple languages, while still allowing for quality control. And they needed each language done in two months.

The Solution

How Descript handles video localization at scale

AI tools that make video production fast—and content updates even faster

Before they ever translate a video, the team needs to make sure Algolia Academy’s content is as engaging as possible. Descript’s simple interface, text-based editing, and one-click AI video editing actions makes it easy to cut their long courses into quick, snappy short-form videos that keep customers watching until the end.

But Algolia Academy’s content also needs frequent updates to keep up with their product changes. Previously, any change to an existing course meant bringing speakers back for re-recording sessions. But with Descript’s AI voice cloning, video editors don’t need the original speaker. They just change a word or phrase, and the platform generates it in a realistic replica of the speaker’s voice (with the speaker’s permission). One recording session is all they need.

Natural AI voices that sound right to native speakers

Gabriel's team evaluated multiple translation providers, but most offered AI voices that sounded too obviously artificial.

Descript's natural-sounding voices were a game changer, especially for their discerning French audience. “I had a bunch of different French speakers all chime in,” Gabriel said. “People were like, ‘This is really good.’ It’s hard to tell most of the time.”

Their new French Academy videos achieve 93% retention rates and 94% course completion, actually outperforming their successful English counterparts at 83% and 88% respectively. When customers aren’t questioning if the teacher’s voice is real or fake, they can focus on what matters: mastering Algolia.

Time-saving tools that make video production easier

Descript’s easy-to-use translation allow’s Gabriel’s team to translate captions and audio into four languages at once. But then comes the review process: Video localization typically requires specialized software and additional onboarding, which slows everyone down. However, Descript is so intuitive that Gabriel can invite native speakers from across the company to help with editing and reviews, without training or steep learning curves.

With this workflow, they estimate they’re saving 30 minutes for every 5-minute video, which translates to 29 hours saved across their English Academy updates alone. That's nearly a full work week that can be reinvested in creating new content instead of updating old videos.

This collaborative approach helped them launch 58 videos across multiple languages while maintaining a high quality bar. The French Academy launched inside of two months, and they're already scaling the same process for German, Spanish, and Portuguese-speaking markets.

How Algolia owns eLearning localization for a global academy

Before Descript, scaling Algolia’s customer academy to multiple countries would have meant months of work and a bigger budget. And because their tech evolves fast, their training content does too—so their videos need constant tweaks. It was a tedious process that took a lot of time and often didn’t result in the most engaging videos.

With ultra-realistic AI voices, bulk translation, and group collaboration in Descript, Algolia can not only translate their Academy content to multiple languages, but they can also ensure all of the content in their library stays current, accurate, and useful for their global customer base.