TLDR: Ateme, a global leader in video technology, has partnered with Google Cloud to integrate generative AI into its subtitling services. This collaboration aims to drastically reduce the time and cost associated with creating multilingual subtitles, transforming a process that previously took hours into minutes and significantly enhancing content accessibility and global distribution for broadcasters and streaming platforms.
Paris, France – September 9, 2025 – Ateme, a prominent global leader in video compression, delivery, and streaming solutions, has announced a strategic collaboration with Google Cloud to leverage generative artificial intelligence (Gen AI) for advanced video subtitling. This partnership marks a significant leap in automating and optimizing content localization, addressing long-standing challenges faced by the media and entertainment industry.
The collaboration builds upon Ateme’s existing relationship with Google Cloud, which began in September 2022, initially focusing on foundational cloud services. The recent expansion incorporates Google Cloud’s generative AI capabilities, including Vertex AI and Gemini models, to automate large-scale, multilingual subtitle generation. This integration is set to redefine industry standards by offering a faster, more economical, and highly scalable workflow.
Historically, the process of generating subtitles for just one hour of video in a single language was a labor-intensive task, often requiring up to 15 hours of manual work. This included transcription, translation, audio-text synchronization, and technical integration, leading to high costs, often several thousand euros, and significant time constraints. Such limitations frequently forced content providers to translate into only one language, typically English, thereby restricting international distribution and accessibility for non-English speaking or disabled audiences.
Yohann Guilloux, VP, Global Partnerships at Ateme, highlighted the previous challenges, stating, “In many cases, our clients had to choose: translate into a single language, often English, instead of covering all relevant languages for their audience. This mechanically limited their ability to distribute their content internationally and make it accessible, especially for non-English speaking or disabled audiences.”
With the new Gen AI-powered solution, this arduous process is dramatically streamlined. According to Guilloux, “A few minutes are now enough to produce professional-quality subtitles, with a level of accuracy adapted to broadcasters’ expectations. And, for less than a dollar, it’s possible to automatically generate one hour of subtitles, in one or more languages, with a perfectly usable output for production.” He further emphasized the transformative impact, adding, “With Google Cloud, we are completely changing the game: the barrier of cost and time is disappearing.”
The technical implementation involves integrating a new processing step directly into Ateme’s software platform, connected to Google Cloud’s managed services. After video files are transcoded, the system automatically triggers calls to Vertex AI and Gemini models to perform audio transcription, precise timecode spotting, and subtitle generation in the desired languages. These are then reformatted into the industry-standard SRT format using an internally developed script. This seamless integration into existing client workflows ensures no technical complexity or disruption to their usual processes.
This strategic shift also signifies Ateme’s move towards a cloud-native approach. While Ateme’s solutions were traditionally deployed on-premises, the company is now making its platform fully compatible with the Google Cloud ecosystem. This reduces deployment times, increases operational flexibility, and aligns with the industry’s evolving cloud-native standards.
Jules Mermet-Husson, Cloud Solutions Architect at Ateme, commented on this evolution: “Faced with the explosion of content volumes, it’s no longer enough to have good technology: you have to be able to innovate quickly, at scale, and with the right partners. Google Cloud’s generative AI gives us the means to automate what was once a craft. Together, we are building an agile, open, and scalable platform that transforms every technical constraint into an opportunity for value creation.”
The benefits for Ateme’s clients are substantial, including enhanced profitability of existing content catalogs through cost-effective mass subtitling, easier access to new linguistic markets, improved compliance with regulatory accessibility requirements, and ultimately, an enriched user experience for a broader and more diverse audience. Market feedback, particularly from international broadcasters at events like NAB Show, has been overwhelmingly positive.
Underpinning this project is a robust infrastructure, with Ateme’s Titan File transcoding application containerized as microservices and deployed via Google Kubernetes Engine (GKE). Media files are stored in Google Cloud Storage and processed by Vertex AI. This distributed, flexible, and scalable architecture allowed Ateme to integrate the new capabilities without rewriting existing code.
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Looking ahead, Ateme plans to leverage this technological foundation for future innovations, including audio description, content personalization, smart clipping, and advanced recommendations. Ateme, founded in 1991 and based in Vélizy-Villacoublay, France, employs approximately 580 people across more than 20 countries and reported a turnover of 100 million euros in 2023, with over 90% from international business. The partnership with Google Cloud reaffirms both companies’ commitment to continuous innovation at the intersection of video technology and artificial intelligence.
