AI translation of board minutes: German and English

For a board that works in German and English, AI translation can produce the second-language version of the agenda and minutes in minutes rather than days. The board should still decide which version is binding, usually the one the chair signs, and someone fluent in both languages must check decisions, names, legal terms and numbers before the translation is shared. Board papers are a separate question.

Who needs a translated agenda and set of minutes?

Swiss boards often combine German- and French-speaking members with international directors who work in English. German groups with foreign investors face the same question in the Aufsichtsrat. If the minutes exist only in German, the English-speaking director approves a text they cannot fully read. If they exist only in English, the German-speaking members, the auditors or an authority may later ask for a German version.

A professional translation of every agenda and set of minutes is slow and costs money, so many boards skip it and rely on goodwill. AI translation removes most of the effort and leaves the part that matters: checking. The rest of this article is about doing that checking in an orderly way.

Which language version is binding?

Art. 713 para. 3 CO requires minutes of the deliberations and decisions, signed by the chair and the secretary. It says nothing about the language of the minutes. If the minutes exist in two languages, it is good practice to sign one of them as the original and to mark the other as a translation. The simplest rule is a sentence at the top of both versions.

Where the articles of association or the organisational regulations already name a language for the minutes, that rule decides. If they are silent, the board can settle it by a short resolution, recorded in the minutes of the meeting that adopts it. For a decision that goes to the commercial register, ask the register office in advance which language it accepts for the supporting document.

How do you translate minutes with AI, step by step?

The process is short, but each step has an owner. Without one, the translation is either never checked or checked by whoever has time.

Translate after the original is approved, not from live notes. A translation of a draft that later changes creates two texts that no longer match, and the board then has to find out which differences are intended.

What must the reviewer check?

Decisions come first. A minute can be badly phrased and still harmless, but a decision whose meaning moved is a real problem, because the translation may later be quoted as if it were the original.

Where does machine translation go wrong in minutes?

The typical errors are small and look plausible. The table shows four of them in an invented example from Muster AG (all names and amounts are invented).

None of these needs a specialist to find, but all of them need a person who reads both texts. A glossary fixes the first and third; a figure-by-figure comparison catches the second and fourth.

Which glossary should you use?

1. Verwaltungsrat: board of directors; VR-Sekretariat: board secretary's office; Präsident/in: chair.
2. Geschäftsleitung: management or executive board, never "board".
3. Sitzungsunterlagen: board papers; Traktandum: agenda item; Konsenstraktanden: consent agenda.
4. Pendenz: action item; Zirkularbeschluss: circular resolution; Beschlussregister: decisions register.
5. Statuten: articles of association; Organisationsreglement: organisational regulations; Handelsregister: commercial register; Revisionsstelle: statutory auditor.
6. For German companies: Vorstand: management board; Aufsichtsrat: supervisory board.

Give the glossary to every reviewer and, where the tool accepts one, to the AI. Keep it as a short list in the board's shared space and extend it whenever a reviewer corrects a term twice. A stable glossary also makes later searches in the archive reliable.

What about board papers and attachments?

Board papers are usually written by management or advisers and read in the original language. Translating a long financial report with AI is possible, but the result is unchecked and may later be quoted as if it were the original. If a director needs the content in another language, provide a clearly marked convenience copy, or ask the author for a short summary in the other language. The minutes then refer to the original paper.

What should you ask a translation tool about the data?

Minutes contain names, opinions and often confidential business information. Before a board uses any AI translation tool, the secretary should be able to answer four questions in writing: where the text is processed, whether it is stored, whether it is used to train models, and who can switch the tool off. The FDPIC has stated that the Swiss Data Protection Act applies directly to AI-supported processing, so these answers belong in the board's records. The board AI policy post lists the conditions an approved tool should meet.

Which mistakes do boards make with translated minutes?

• Signing both versions, so that two originals exist and can differ.
• Translating a draft that is still being changed.
• Letting the AI translate names, job titles or company names.
• Skipping the review because the text "reads well". Fluent output is not correct output.
• Sending the translation to the English-speaking director before anyone has checked it.
• Not saying in the minutes which version is binding.

For the wider question of running meetings in two languages, see running a bilingual board in German and English. If the minutes themselves start from a meeting transcript, AI minutes from a Teams or Zoom transcript covers that step, and approval of board minutes explains what happens before the signature.

How does Konsaro's Translation Copilot work?

Konsaro's Translation Copilot translates English and German for published meetings: the meeting title and goal, and each agenda item's title, description and minutes. It does not translate board papers. In the meeting and agenda editors, the AI can rephrase or translate a text without overwriting the original. The AI runs in the EU with zero data retention, and the board office reviews every result before it is shared. The meetings and agenda page, the minutes and follow-up page and the AI copilots page show how this fits the board's workflow.