E-Paper
Sign In
UAE-based founder launches agentic AI translation platform LEXA Translate
Platform uses 15 individually trained AI agents specialising in language, cultural context and linguistic traditions
- PUBLISHED: Thu 1 Oct 2026, 5:01 PM
Dubai-based AI innovation studio Arabian AI Lab has launched LEXA Translate, an agentic AI translation platform developed around 15 individually trained AI agents, each specialising in a different language and its cultural and linguistic context.
Created over the course of a year by UAE-based poet, cultural diplomat and AI architect Syed Tabish Babar, known publicly as Tabish Zaidi, the platform is designed so that specialist agents analyse a text before producing a translation. The agents consider factors including purpose, audience, register, idioms, culturally embedded references and terminology requiring specialised treatment.
Recommended For You
Rather than relying on a single general translation process, LEXA assigns language-specific expertise across the platform’s agent network. Its Arabic agent, for example, is trained around Arabic linguistic and cultural context, while its Urdu and Persian agents draw on their respective literary traditions and idiomatic expression.
"Every agent had to understand not just a language, but a civilisation," said Zaidi. The platform provides four translation approaches: Literal, cultural, poetic and legal. These modes are intended for different translation requirements, including preservation of sentence structure, adaptation of cultural meaning, retention of literary expression and treatment of legal or GCC-specific terminology. Translation Notes provide additional explanations for selected words, expressions and translation decisions.
LEXA’s translation methodology also draws inspiration from 18th-century Delhi scholar and linguist Shah Waliullah Muhadis Dehlawi, who translated the Quran into Persian and authored Al-Muqaddimah fi Qawanin al-Tarjamah — An Introduction to the Rules of Translation — on principles relating to meaning, context and precision in translation.
“Powered by modern technology, inspired by timeless methodology. Three centuries later, we are still learning from him,” Zaidi said.
The platform also includes Book Mode for long-form material such as manuscripts, research papers and legal files. Users can upload a complete document and receive a translated edition together with a parallel-text version showing the original and translated text side by side.
Developed in the UAE, LEXA reflects Zaidi’s more than 20 years of living and working in the country’s multilingual environment. According to Arabian AI Lab, the technology has been tested by the Rekhta Foundation. Zaidi’s AI work has also been presented through the Sharjah International Book Fair 2025 Thriller Festival and NVIDIA Studio Nights at the Museum of the Future.