The Problem With AI Transcripts

AI is all the rage right now, and many AI tools advertise a 95% accuracy rate. Sounds great, right?

Here’s what 95% accuracy means in practice:

A 45-minute sermon has roughly 7,000 words total.

At 95% accuracy, 1 out of every 20 words is wrong.

That’s approximately 350 wrong words in a single transcript.

That’s a new error every 8 seconds.

Yikes!

Even worse, that count only includes wrong words.

It doesn’t include incorrect punctuation, messy formatting, mangled Scripture references, or theological terms the software can’t recognize.

Plus, it has no way of knowing when it misspelled the name of your church, your pastor, or anyone else you mentioned from the pulpit.

The accuracy ratings AI tools use have nothing to do with any of those things.

Here’s a real example:

Pastor Said:

In Psalm 20:7, it says, “Some trust in chariots…”

AI Transcript:

In psalm 27 it says some trust in cherries us…

Wrong psalm. Wrong verse. Wrong words. Wrong capitalization. Wrong punctuation.

In ONE sentence.

A 45-minute sermon has around 700 sentences.

Cleaning all that up takes HOURS. Not minutes.

We know.

Because churches have asked us to do it.

We don't accept that type of work anymore because it takes twice as long to fix a messy AI transcript than it does to start from scratch.

SermonScribe promises 99.9% accuracy or your money back.

And that DOES include all of the things listed above.

Verbatim Accuracy vs. Factual Accuracy

Did you know there are two types of accuracy when it comes to sermon transcripts?

I know that sounds odd, but stay with me a minute.

Imagine you accidentally say this while preaching a sermon:

“When Abraham broke the tablets with the Ten Commandments...”

If you said those exact words and I transcribed those exact words, your transcript would be accurate, right?

The only problem is Abraham didn't break the tablets. Moses did.

So is your transcript really accurate?

People make these kinds of mistakes all the time.

• They say “Old Testament” when they meant New Testament.

• They say “1 Timothy” when they meant 2 Timothy.

• They say “King Saul” when they meant King David.

• They say “Elisha” when they meant Elijah.

• They say, “Let’s read verses 3-8,” but then they actually read verses 4-9.

And on and on and on.

At SermonScribe, we don’t define “accuracy” as transcribing every word you say.

We define it as transcribing what you meant to say.

Here are a few ways we ensure your transcripts are factually accurate:

• We look up every Bible verse to make sure the correct chapter and verse are cited.

• We verify the spelling of Hebrew and Green words.

• We verify the spelling of every name  you say.

  • Example: If your wife’s name is Cathi, we won’t put Kathy.

• We verify the accuracy of quotes.

  • Example: If you say, “A.W. Tozer said...,” we’ll look it up, and if Charles Spurgeon actually said the quote, we’ll put the correct name.

• We look up every website address you mention.

  • Example: If you direct people to your website and accidentally say “.com” instead of “.org,” we’ll put the correct address.

Note:

When it comes to factual corrections, we only change things that are verifiably incorrect.

For example, if you say, “I had Psalm 22 memorized by age 5,” we would never change it to say Psalm 23 just because we think that seems more likely.

However, if you say, “I had Psalm 22 memorized by age 5. I’d break a toy and be like, ‘Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death…,’” then we would correct it to say Psalm 23 because it’s clear that’s what you meant.

Which Transcript Would YOU Rather Read?

Take a look at this side-by-side comparison done for Michael Hyatt.

Which transcript would you rather read?

Which one do you think your website visitors would rather read?