diff --git a/Dockerfile b/Dockerfile
index be7e98ce8da..12497e6543a 100644
--- a/Dockerfile
+++ b/Dockerfile
@@ -141,7 +141,7 @@ RUN --mount=type=cache,target=/root/.cache/uv \
 
 COPY superset/translations/ /app/translations_mo/
 RUN if [ "${BUILD_TRANSLATIONS}" = "true" ]; then \
-        pybabel compile -d /app/translations_mo | true; \
+        pybabel compile --use-fuzzy -d /app/translations_mo || true; \
     fi; \
     rm -f /app/translations_mo/*/*/*.[po,json]
 
diff --git a/docs/developer_docs/contributing/howtos.md b/docs/developer_docs/contributing/howtos.md
index 405a6311c35..452f705ae57 100644
--- a/docs/developer_docs/contributing/howtos.md
+++ b/docs/developer_docs/contributing/howtos.md
@@ -332,15 +332,28 @@ cd superset-frontend
 npm run build-translation
 
 # Backend
-pybabel compile -d superset/translations
+pybabel compile --use-fuzzy -d superset/translations
 ```
 
+`--use-fuzzy` includes `#, fuzzy` entries in the compiled `.mo` files. Superset
+serves fuzzy translations on purpose: the frontend build (`po2json --fuzzy`)
+already includes them, `flask fab babel-compile` (used by the release images)
+compiles with `-f`, and the production `Dockerfile` compiles with `--use-fuzzy`
+as well. This keeps machine-generated (and other draft) translations visible in
+the UI rather than falling back to English while they await review.
+
 ### Backfilling missing translations with AI
 
 For languages with many untranslated strings, the repo includes a script that
 uses Claude AI to generate draft translations for any missing entries. All
 AI-generated strings are marked `#, fuzzy` and tagged with an attribution
-comment so that human reviewers know they need to be checked before merging.
+comment so that human reviewers know they need to be checked.
+
+Note that `#, fuzzy` marks a translation as *needing review*, not as *withheld*:
+both the frontend and backend builds serve fuzzy entries (see [Applying
+translations](#applying-translations) above), so an AI-generated string is shown
+in the UI as soon as it is built and deployed. Reviewers should verify each
+entry and remove the `#, fuzzy` flag to promote it to a confirmed translation.
 
 #### Prerequisites