Traditional localization, hiring a translator per language, was often out of reach for a small indie budget, which meant most indie games simply shipped in one language and left significant markets untapped. AI translation changes that math enough that localizing into eight or ten languages is now realistic for a solo developer. It's not a solved problem, but it's a genuinely different cost curve than it was a few years ago.
Where it's reliably good
UI strings, menu labels, settings, tooltips, short and structurally simple text, translate reliably well with current AI translation, largely because there's little room for ambiguity in "New Game" or "Settings." This is the highest-volume, lowest-risk part of any localization pass, and it's where AI translation earns its keep fastest.
Where it goes wrong in specific, embarrassing ways
Wordplay, puns, and anything relying on a double meaning in the source language usually breaks in translation, AI or human, because the joke was never really translatable, it needed to be rewritten for the target language. The other classic failure is proper nouns: a boss or item name translated literally instead of kept as a name, occasionally landing on something unintentionally funny or offensive in the target language. Neither of these is a reason to avoid AI translation. They're a reason to specifically flag proper nouns and jokes for human review instead of trusting a blanket translate-everything pass.
The review step that catches most of the risk
Have a native speaker, doesn't need to be a professional translator, read through the translated build specifically looking for anything that feels off, before you ship. This single pass catches the large majority of embarrassing mistakes for a fraction of the cost of full professional localization, and it's the step teams skip when they're in a hurry, which is exactly when it matters most.
The honest scope
AI translation gets you a genuinely usable localized build fast and cheap. It doesn't get you the cultural adaptation a human localization specialist provides for markets where your game's tone or references need real reworking, not just translation. For most indie budgets, "good and fast" beats "perfect and unaffordable." Know which one you're choosing.