AI in Chinese: Simplified, Traditional and Business Replies

Using AI in Chinese is straightforward for drafts, summaries, translations and customer replies, but only when you say which Chinese you mean. Written Chinese comes in two character sets, simplified and traditional, and the wording, punctuation and level of politeness differ between mainland China, Taiwan, Hong Kong, Macau and Singapore. An assistant that is left to guess will usually pick simplified characters with mainland vocabulary, which is wrong for a customer in Taipei and sounds slightly off even to a reader in Hong Kong.

This guide explains how to choose and state the target variety, how to handle tone, names, numbers, dates and typography, how to review a Chinese text when you cannot read every character and how to use an assistant for translation and customer replies. The examples use Mandarin-based written Chinese, the standard form used in most business writing.

AI in Chinese: choose the right variety first

Start by naming the audience and the country. Simplified characters are standard in mainland China and Singapore, and traditional characters are standard in Taiwan, Hong Kong and Macau. The overview of simplified Chinese characters explains how the simplified set was created and how it differs. The difference is not only in the characters. Each region also has its own vocabulary, some of its own punctuation habits and a different feel in business writing.

Concept	Mainland (simplified)	Taiwan (traditional)	Note
Software	软件	軟體	Different word, not just different characters
Internet	互联网	網路	Taiwan also uses 網際網路 in formal texts
Video	视频	影片	Different word for the same thing
Taxi	出租车	計程車	Local vocabulary
Quotation marks	“ ”	「 」	Taiwan and Hong Kong often use corner brackets
Currency in prose	人民币 / 元	新台幣 / 元	Name the currency clearly

Hong Kong adds another layer. People speak Cantonese, and written texts for formal use follow standard written Chinese with traditional characters, while informal writing may include Cantonese words and characters. Say which you need. A prompt such as “Write in traditional Chinese for readers in Hong Kong, formal written style, no Cantonese slang” removes the guesswork.

Do not convert, localise

A common shortcut is to write in simplified Chinese and run a character converter to produce traditional. That fixes the characters and leaves the vocabulary, so the result reads as a mainland text in traditional dress. It can also produce errors where one simplified character corresponds to several traditional ones. Instead, ask the assistant to write or rewrite the text for the target region, using local vocabulary and punctuation, and ask it to list the terms it changed. The idea is the same as in our guide to localizing a website with AI, where the aim is to sound local and not merely correct.

For web pages, mark the language correctly so that browsers and search engines pick the right fonts and variety. Common language tags are zh-Hans for simplified and zh-Hant for traditional, with region codes such as zh-CN, zh-TW and zh-HK where needed. Chinese characters share code points across languages in Unicode, so without a language tag a browser may choose a font style from another region, and the glyphs will look slightly wrong to a native reader.

Tone and politeness in business messages

Chinese business writing is more formal than many English readers expect, and it has set phrases for greetings, requests and closings. The polite pronoun 您 is used for “you” with customers, superiors and people you do not know, while 你 is for friends and peers. A customer email normally opens with a greeting such as 您好 and closes with a courteous phrase and your name. In a formal letter you may see older fixed closings, while an email to a client in a modern company can be shorter and warmer.

Tell the assistant the relationship and the situation: first contact, a reply to a complaint, a quote, a reminder about an invoice. Ask for plain, polite wording without exaggerated flattery, and for a firm but respectful tone when you need a decision or a payment. Avoid long chains of four-character idioms, which an assistant may overuse to sound literary. In a business email, a clear sentence is better than an elegant proverb, and an idiom used slightly wrongly is worse than none.

If you write to different regions, keep a short style sheet: preferred pronoun, standard greeting, closing, how to refer to your company and product, and a list of terms you always use. Paste it into each request so that replies stay consistent whoever sends them.

Names, numbers, dates and units

Chinese names put the family name first, so 王小明 has the family name 王. Do not let the assistant reverse or translate names. For companies and products, use the official Chinese name if there is one, and keep the original Latin name where the brand uses it. If you must create a Chinese name for a product, test it with native speakers, since sound and meaning both matter and a careless choice can have unintended associations.

Numbers need attention because Chinese counts in units of ten thousand. The character 万 means 10,000 and 亿 means 100 million, so 3.5万 is 35,000 and not 3,500. An assistant can slip when converting figures, and a wrong zero in a price or a contract is serious. Write numbers as digits with the unit in a table, and ask the assistant to repeat each figure in both forms. Dates normally follow the pattern year, month, day, as in 2026年10月31日. Specify the currency by name, such as 人民币, 新台幣 or 港元, and the format of amounts. Measure words, the small words placed between a number and a noun, are a frequent source of small errors, so a native reader should check them in important texts.

Translation and post-editing

Assistants translate between English and Chinese well enough to give you the gist and good first drafts. They are less reliable with humour, wordplay, specialised terms and polite nuance. Treat the output as a draft that a bilingual reviewer should edit if the text matters. The checks in our guide to AI translation quality apply: use a glossary, ask for notes on ambiguous phrases and run a back-translation to compare meanings. Professionals can see how this fits their workflow in AI for translators.

When you translate from Chinese into English, give context about the speaker and the setting, because Chinese often leaves out subjects and pronouns, and the assistant has to infer who does what. Ask it to mark places where the original is ambiguous, and to give two readings where a sentence could mean two things. For legal documents, contracts and official certificates, use a qualified human translator, and keep the assistant for preparation and for checking terminology.

Prompting in Chinese or in English

You can write your instructions in either language. If your Chinese is limited, write the instructions in English and ask for the output in Chinese, then ask the assistant to explain any choices you cannot judge. If you write in Chinese, be specific about region and register as above. Our guide to non-English AI prompts compares both approaches.

A reliable prompt names the task, the audience, the variety, the register, the length and the facts. For example: “Reply to this customer in traditional Chinese for Taiwan, polite written style, under 90 characters per paragraph, use 您, confirm only the delivery date I give you: 5 November.” Without the last part, an assistant may invent a delivery promise. Provide the facts yourself and let the assistant handle the wording.

Review a Chinese text you cannot read

If you cannot read Chinese, you need checks that do not depend on your own judgement. First, use a back-translation into English and compare it with your original. Second, ask the assistant to explain each sentence in English and to flag anything that sounds informal or foreign. Third, ask a second tool or a native speaker to review key messages. Fourth, check names, numbers, dates and currencies one by one against your source, character by character if needed.

Fifth, check the layout on the device your reader uses. Chinese text is dense and has no spaces between words, so line breaks and fonts matter. Use a font that supports the region’s glyphs, avoid very small sizes and keep Latin words and numbers in a consistent style. Also remember platform differences: the apps and sites that readers use in mainland China are different from those in Taiwan or Hong Kong, so check which channels your audience actually uses before you plan a campaign.

Privacy and accuracy

Do not paste identity numbers, bank details, contracts or other confidential material into any assistant, and remove names that the task does not need. Our guide on what not to share with AI lists what to keep out. On sensitive topics such as politics, history and law, assistants can state disputed claims as facts and may use terms that readers in one region find loaded. Use neutral wording and verify claims with reliable sources. The overview of written Chinese is a good starting point for the writing system.

How Ask Mio helps with Chinese

Ask Mio is one assistant with five modes, and Mio routes each request to a suitable model, so you never choose one. Chat and Write on the free plan can draft, translate and rewrite short Chinese texts in the variety you name, and you can ask for a more formal or friendlier version in the same conversation. The product and site run in 25+ languages, and our multilingual assistant guide explains how to work in your language.

Paid plans add Research with web search and cited sources, file uploads for documents in PDF or Word, and memory, which can store your style sheet, glossary and preferred variety so each new chat starts with them. A project can hold a template library for one market. Chats and files stay yours, can be exported or deleted and are not used to train models. Check important Chinese texts with a native reader before you publish them.

Frequently Asked Questions

Should I ask for simplified or traditional Chinese?

Choose by audience. Use simplified for mainland China and Singapore, and traditional for Taiwan, Hong Kong and Macau. Say the country as well, because vocabulary and punctuation differ. If you do not specify, an assistant will often default to simplified characters with mainland wording.

Is converting simplified text to traditional good enough?

Not for customer-facing text. A converter changes characters but leaves mainland vocabulary, so the result can sound foreign, and some characters convert incorrectly. Ask the assistant to write or rewrite for the target region, with local terms and punctuation, and have a native speaker review important pages.

Can AI handle Cantonese?

It can help with standard written Chinese for Hong Kong readers. Spoken Cantonese and its informal written form are harder, and quality varies. State clearly whether you need formal written Chinese or colloquial Cantonese, and have a native speaker review anything public.

How do I check Chinese I cannot read?

Use a back-translation into English, ask for sentence-by-sentence explanations, check names, numbers and dates against your source and ask a native speaker to review key messages. Also look at the text on a phone, since fonts and line breaks can change how it appears.

Which Ask Mio plan should I use for Chinese work?

The free plan includes Chat and Write, which are enough for short drafts and translations. Paid plans add Research with cited sources, file uploads and memory for your style sheet and glossary. Check the live pricing page for current points and file limits before you decide.

The Bottom Line

AI in Chinese works well when you name the variety, region and register, supply the facts yourself and review names, numbers, dates and layout before sending. Localise instead of converting, keep a style sheet and glossary, and ask a native speaker to check anything important. You can begin on the free plan and compare the options on the Ask Mio pricing page.