AI Isn't Going to Replace Brokers, Experts Say

RANCHO MIRAGE, Calif. -- The use of artificial intelligence is not to eliminate customs broker jobs but to eliminate some of the "human error" that occurs, Scarbrough Group CEO Adam Hill said during a panel discussion Oct. 28. When it comes to AI, "you should let your imagination run wild, but don't let it run wild in a way that says 'how am I not going to be here,'" he said. "Let it run wild in such a way that says 'how can this make us better?'"

Hill, speaking at the Pacific Coast Council's Western Cargo Conference, or Wesccon, on a panel about AI, said that the future for brokers remains human. "For us in this room, there is so much value that we bring day in and day out that technology can't replace," he said.

What AI can help get rid of is the wrong information that comes along with forwarding or filing. "Someone's busy, someone's doing this, and the next thing we know we have a country of origin mistake," Hill said.

Where Hill and his team see the value in AI is not in cutting staff or brokers, but "how do we continue to pay our team to use their brains and not their fingers?" Hill said.

The focus of the AI technology is the data entry work and the groundwork, Hill said. Using AI technology for data entry work has saved him much time and energy and allowed him to do what he enjoys doing as a broker, he said.

Hill also said it is important for small and medium-sized brokers to look at AI technology because it can better their businesses. AI can help customs brokers in "today's world" of rising salaries and inflation provide "the same level of service" that they provided years ago, he said.

Another speaker, Amy Morgan, Altana's head of trade compliance, agreed with Hill: The broker's "expertise" is critical in shaping how well the technology works for "you and your business."

"The best solutions are designed to assist and elevate the compliance person, not replace them," Morgan said.

Nisarg Mehta, chief technology officer and co-founder of Raft, said building AI is about "crafting the holistic journey" in a platform "that balances automation with audit and governance because of how complicated it is."

"Anyone that says you know it's 99%, 100% automated, you never have to look at anything again is probably just lying to you," Mehta said. "The complexities around processing these documents and the business processes that they serve mean that they need a human touch," he said. "They need someone that has the expertise around compliance and regulations, financial rules and regulations to really cast an eye over it and make sure it's not doing something that it shouldn't, and then have bad ramifications in the future."