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In terms of the demands on brokers, Raghavendran said eliminating manual tasks is critical because extra capacity is needed to interpret and quickly implement changes in trade policy.
“ To remain competitive, brokers need to move past their traditional, transactional roles and become much more digitally empowered,” he said.
A plethora of options
There’ s no shortage of solutions from which customs brokers can choose. Companies founded over the last two years have taken advantage of underlying advancements in software development to build products faster, while established trade technology providers have developed AI tools to enhance their existing products.
Exhibitors at the American Association of Exporters and Importers( AAEI) annual conference in late June were a testament to that proliferation, with so-called digital customs brokers interspersed with tools aimed at brokers, shippers and customs agencies.
“ AI tools are raising the bar for what is expected of knowledge workers.”
Those products tend to touch areas such as entry creation automation or AI-powered classification determination. There has also been a rise in the number of digital brokers, basically traditional brokers built using modern software that’ s intended to interface with customs more easily.
“ Technology is not making customs brokers redundant, it’ s making them resilient,” said Sam Basu, CEO and founder of customs software vendor Anchor AI.“ Experienced brokers who have institutional knowledge and use technology to move faster and with far greater accuracy are ultimately CBP’ s most dependable allies.”
It seems implausible that customs brokers could lose their value overnight, but the pressures on that segment of the industry are significant. Aside from technology promising more process efficiency, the current environment means brokers, trade consultants and attorneys are seeing overwhelming demand for their services.
Self-filing quandary
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Some circles believe that over time more shippers will be empowered to self-file or to use digital brokers instead of traditional ones.
Basu, however, said digital-first brokers often focus on low-complexity, high-volume freight, and self-filing remains perilous for most importers.
“ It might sound appealing in theory, but the reality is that most importers don’ t see it as a viable option,” Basu said.“ Self-filing requires in-house trade compliance www. joc. com October 6, 2025 | Journal of Commerce 31