Why AI Transcriptions Don’t Deliver Platinum Standards

The ‘gold standard’ for transcription companies typically refers to those with an outstanding reputation for accuracy, reliability, confidentiality, turnaround time, and industry compliance (especially in legal, medical, and corporate sectors). While different companies specialise in different areas (e.g. medical or legal vs. general transcription), here at McGowan Transcriptions, we cover all areas and strive for “platinum standard” for all our customers.

We are experts in all areas of transcription, including podcasts, subtitles for video, digital transcription, market research, focus group transcription, police interview transcripts, as well as legal, business, and medical transcriptions.

When reviewing what our customers say about us, these are the top five qualities that they experienced:

  • Excellent/good quality
  • Fast/speedy
  • Good, clear, friendly communication
  • Accurate
  • Fair price

Competing against AI in transcription services

Competing against AI in transcription services is tough, but not impossible. AI tools have become fast, cheap, and are slowly becoming more accurate, especially for clear audio, but human transcribers still have advantages in specific niches.

  1. Accuracy with challenging audio
    • Noisy environments, strong accents, overlapping speakers, or poor quality recordings can throw AI off.
    • Human transcriptionists can use context to clarify what was said.
  2. Industry-specific knowledge
    • Legal, medical, academic, or technical content often requires deep understanding and familiarity with jargon.
    • Transcription companies specialise in these areas where accuracy matters more than speed.
  3. Formatting & contextual understanding
    • AI doesn’t format well for readability or style.
    • Humans can format documents according to client needs (e.g, full verbatim vs. intelligent verbatim, timestamps, speaker idents, etc.)
  4. Confidentiality and ethics
    • Some clients prefer working with trusted humans over uploading sensitive content to faceless platforms.
    • Transcription companies can offer data security, confidentiality agreements, and personal accountability.
  5. Customer service & flexibility
    • AI doesn’t respond to special requests or clarify ambiguous segments.
    • Transcription companies can communicate with clients, meet customers’ needs, and the ability to offer revisions to transcripts is a major value add.

So where do human led transcription companies fit in today’s world?

  1. Expert in different areas
    • AI may be able to produce an okay general transcription, but transcription companies specialise in specific areas, for example: academic interviews, podcasts with poor audio, focus groups, police interviews, non-UK accents, etc., and have a wealth of expert knowledge.
  2. Offer premium packages
    • Transcription companies can add extra requirements, for example, idents, timestamps, intelligent verbatim and special formatting to clients’ requirements.
    • If you have a large amount of audio to be transcribed, then special packages on price and formatting can be tailored.
  3. The human touch
    • Good transcription companies will have someone you can discuss your requirements with and be able to assist you with your transcription needs, confirming price, timelines, and the ability to format to your needs.
    • Transcription companies have testimonials and accuracy claims on their websites to check what their clients say about them.
  4. Not everyone loves AI
    • Transcription companies build relationships with professionals or organisations that prioritise data privacy, customisation, and who are sceptical of AI tools.
  5. Using AI as a Tool
    • Some transcription companies are now using AI to assist (e.g., drafting the transcription, then human-edit), which can save time while still maintaining quality.
    • This hybrid approach can help with short turnaround times, but editing can sometimes take far longer than an experienced transcriber straight from the audio file.

Platinum standard for transcription services.

At McGowan Transcriptions, we strive to make your life easier. We have over 30 years of experience, and some of our transcribers have been with us for over 20 years, so when we say we’ve seen it all, we probably have!

We are not gold standard, we are ‘platinum’ standard when it comes to handling noisy audio, accents, and specialised content with precision. Each transcript is reviewed for accuracy, clarity, and formatted to your specification – with full confidentiality guaranteed.