We've worked with enough operators in Oakland to know that the brief that arrives in our inbox is rarely the brief that ends up shipped. The first thing we do on any AI translation project is sit with your team for a day before we propose anything.
For Oakland operators who want a working pilot in weeks, not a year-long programme.
Our goal is to give Oakland businesses a three-day weekend, so people can spend more time with their families and the people they love :)
What AI translation actually does
Reach more of Aotearoa. AI translation for te reo Māori, Samoan, Tongan, Mandarin, Hindi, and more - with cultural nuance, not Google-Translate stiffness.
- 01 Te reo Māori with macron support and reviewed terminology
- 02 Voice translation for support calls in real time
- 03 Glossary-locked terms so brand language stays consistent
- 04 Human-reviewer workflow for high-stakes content
Built on: Claude DeepL ElevenLabs Vercel
Without Kiwi Dynamics
With Kiwi Dynamics
What you actually get
Every engagement is scoped and quoted up front. This is what is in the box.
- A working pilot, in productionNot a prototype on someone's laptop. The first slice of AI translation runs against real work within weeks.
- Your data stays yoursIt runs on your accounts and your tools. If we part ways you keep the system and everything in it.
- The workflow mapped before codeWe write down what good looks like for Oakland businesses first, so nobody is guessing at handover.
- Support after it landsThe people who built it stay reachable when the business changes shape around it.
How AI translation compares
The two things most businesses do instead, and where each one runs out.
| Hiring for it | An off-the-shelf tool | Kiwi Dynamics | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Fit to how you work | Fits perfectly, costs a salary | You bend your process to suit the tool | Built around the workflow you already run |
| Time to something useful | Immediate, and permanent | Quick to switch on, slow to make fit | A working slice in weeks, then hardened |
| Who owns the data | You do | The vendor, on the vendor's terms | You do, in your own accounts |
| When it breaks | That person sorts it, if they are in | A support queue and a ticket number | The people who built it |
| What it costs | A salary, every year, forever | Per seat, forever, used or not | Scoped and quoted up front |
The Oakland context, plainly.
- Oakland runs on logistics, healthcare and a wave of businesses priced out of San Francisco - AI here means Bay Area capability without Bay Area rent.
- One of the busiest container ports on the West Coast, a major hospital network, and a growing tech and creative scene that moved across the bay for the rent. Oakland businesses want the same AI rigor as San Francisco without the San Francisco price tag.
We work with teams across Oakland: Downtown Oakland · Jack London Square · Temescal · Fruitvale · Rockridge · West Oakland.
Talk to us about this →
How we build AI translation for an Oakland team.
We scope narrow, ship a working pilot, then harden it into production. The first slice is the highest-leverage workflow for your Oakland business, so value lands before the build is finished. AI multilingual + te reo.
Talk to usHow the work runs
- Find the one workflowWe look for the job costing Oakland businesses the most hours or the most leads, and deliberately ignore the rest for now.
- Ship a working sliceA narrow version goes into production in weeks, against real work, so the value shows up before the build is finished.
- Prove it, then widenWe measure it against what the work cost before. If it does not pay for itself, we say so rather than scaling it.
- Harden and hand overLogging, fallbacks and a real handover, so it keeps running when we are not in the room.
The outcome for Oakland teams
We'd call the engagement a success when Oakland teams are using the system without thinking about us. Expanded customer reach by 22% with multilingual support live.
Not your typical AI agency.
Honest about what AI can and cannot do
Ships the one workflow that pays for itself
Hours given back, never the size of the invoice
*Every engagement is scoped and quoted up front. Results vary by workflow and business.
FAQ
When does AI translation actually pay back?
Inside the first quarter, in our experience. We pick the first slice specifically because it's the highest-leverage workflow for an Oakland - so the savings start landing before the rest of the build is finished.
How do you price AI translation engagements?
Fixed-scope pilots first, then either project pricing or a small monthly retainer for the ongoing work. No long lock-ins, no 18-month black-box deals. Most Oakland businesses are surprised how small the first cheque is.
Do you have proof this works for Oakland businesses?
Direct case study: Expanded customer reach by 22% with multilingual support live. Happy to walk you through full numbers on a call.
Will this run on our own infrastructure?
Yes, where it makes sense. AI translation can sit entirely in your cloud account, with model calls routed through endpoints you control. We default to Claude, DeepL, ElevenLabs, Vercel but the architecture supports your existing platform choices.
Talk to us about this
Tell us what you're trying to do and we'll reply with how we'd build it - no obligation.