The Pressure on Compliance Teams Has Never Been Higher
I’ve been in this industry for more than 30 years. I’ve implemented TMS, WMS, ERP—you name it. And I can tell you, I’ve never seen compliance teams under the kind of pressure they’re facing today.
Tariff rules change overnight. Documentation requirements multiply every year. And if you get one classification wrong, you’re looking at penalties of up to $10,000. I’ve seen freight forwarders hit with demurrage charges of $300 per day because containers sat idle over a simple data error. These aren’t small misses. They add up fast.
That’s why I say customs compliance is one of the biggest hidden revenue opportunities in logistics.
Why AI in Customs Compliance Pays Back Fast
When people talk about AI, they jump to sales or marketing. In my experience, the real money is in compliance. Customs is full of high-volume, repetitive processes where errors cost real dollars.
Here’s what usually breaks:
- Six different versions of the same shipper in the system.
- Classification codes are applied differently depending on the operator.
- Processes that vary by region, country, and customer SOP.
When these problems pile up, you get delays, fines, and unhappy customers. AI helps by standardizing workflows, validating data early, and learning from every correction your team makes. That means fewer penalties, faster clearance, and more predictable revenue.
Patterns I’ve Seen Across My Career
I’ve been through every logistics tech cycle. TMS, ERP, optimization engines—they all brought resistance. Operators tried to prove the system wrong. Managers worried that expertise was being replaced.
AI is different. It doesn’t sit inside one department. It cuts across finance, operations, and brokerage. That means you can’t treat it as a side project. You need top-down commitment, standardized processes, and clean data.
The customers I see succeeding with customs automation all do three things:
- Start small. One declaration type, one country. Prove value fast.
- Create a feedback loop. Show how accuracy improves over time and build trust.
- Appoint champions. Give operators ownership so they spread the wins internally.
I worked with a forwarder who automated just French customs declarations for a single account. In 60 days, error rates dropped, clearance times improved, and the team had the proof they needed to scale. That early win created momentum—and shut down a lot of skepticism.
First, People. Second, Process. Third, Data.
Whenever I talk about AI adoption, I always break it into three buckets:
- People. The frontline needs to know AI isn’t here to take their jobs. It’s the co-pilot, taking away repetitive tasks so they can focus on higher-value work.
- Process. Customs touches multiple geographies and functions. If you don’t standardize first, you’re just automating chaos.
- Data. Bad master data equals bad AI. If you’ve got six versions of the same shipper, your AI results will be just as messy.
If you don’t address all three, adoption will stall.
The Urgency to Act
I’ve seen the same pattern over and over: early adopters move fast and capture the gains, while others get stuck in endless pilots. Industry research shows the same thing—companies that act decisively are building durable competitive advantages. The laggards are left playing catch-up with static tools and rising penalties.
The Bottom Line
Customs compliance is no longer just about avoiding mistakes. Done right, it’s a hidden revenue engine. Faster clearance, fewer penalties, and stronger customer trust—it all adds up.
And the way to get there isn’t complicated. Start small. Prove value. Build trust. Then scale.
Next Step: Take Raft’s AI Readiness Assessment, part of our Adopting AI in Freight Forwarding and Customs Brokerage playbook. It’s a quick way to benchmark your people, processes, and data, and see where AI can deliver measurable ROI in 90 days.