Transcreation of Short Marketing Texts from English into Arabic in the Age Of AI: Toward Redefining Creativity in Machine-Assisted Translation

Abstract

The growing integration of artificial intelligence (AI) into translation is reshaping creative communication, particularly in marketing, where persuasive force and cultural resonance are essential. This study compares human, AI-generated, and human–AI collaborative transcreation of short marketing texts from English into Arabic, focusing on creative strategies and functional effectiveness. Drawing on Kussmaul’s creativity model and Nord’s functionalist approach, a comparative mixed-methods design was applied to 30 purposively selected English marketing texts, each represented by three Arabic versions. Creative strategies were qualitatively coded, while functional adequacy, cultural appropriateness, persuasive impact, and linguistic fluency were assessed by an expert evaluator and statistically compared across production modes. The findings reveal that AI-generated outputs were comparatively source-oriented, whereas human and especially human–AI outputs involved more frequent creative intervention. Human–AI collaboration received the highest overall functional rating (M = 4.84), followed by human (M = 4.66) and AI transcreation (M = 4.12), with significant differences across modes (p < .001). Persuasive impact showed the strongest differentiation. However, greater creative intervention did not necessarily entail greater functional effectiveness. The findings support a view of transcreation as functional creativity, with human–AI collaboration benefiting from selective cultural, rhetorical, and persuasive mediation rather than maximal modification.