DHL Global Forwarding, the air and ocean freight arm of DHL Group, has launched DHL TradeNavigator, a new artificial intelligence-powered tool embedded within its TradeConnect environment.
The solution is designed to make customs data easier to analyse by allowing customers to ask questions in natural language and receive immediate answers, analytics, charts and actionable insights. According to DHL, TradeNavigator can help users examine duty spend, clearance performance, tariff exposure and compliance trends without relying on traditional manual reporting processes.
The launch comes at a time when customs management is becoming increasingly complex as trade regulations continue to shift. DHL, citing Thomson Reuters’ Global Trade Report 2026, said 72% of businesses consider tariff volatility to be the regulatory change with the greatest impact, while 65% are changing their sourcing patterns to reduce exposure to tariffs.
Despite the growing importance of customs information, many organisations continue to work with fragmented reports and manual processes when analysing declaration data. DHL said TradeNavigator was developed to address that gap and make customs information more accessible as a source of supply chain intelligence.
The tool builds on DHL TradeConnect, which has already brought local customs declaration data from more than 75 countries into a single harmonised environment. The platform provides customers with a consolidated view of their customs activity down to the individual declaration line-item level.
During pilot testing, DHL said TradeNavigator demonstrated its ability to identify patterns and potential inconsistencies in customs declarations across multiple countries within seconds, giving users a faster way to assess large volumes of trade data.
Greg Nichols, Senior Vice President Global Customs at DHL Global Forwarding, said customs data remains an underused source of supply chain intelligence. He said TradeNavigator is intended to transform that information from a reporting burden into a practical asset for decision-making.
According to Nichols, early pilot deployments have already enabled customers to identify previously hidden patterns in duty spending, detect recurring clearance bottlenecks and gain greater visibility into tariff exposure across international trade lanes.
TradeNavigator can also be used to determine which countries or product categories are generating the highest customs duties and which are experiencing the longest clearance cycle times. Customers can then drill down into the underlying data to investigate root causes and identify potential opportunities for optimisation, DHL said.
DHL also emphasised that TradeNavigator operates entirely within the company’s secure environment and under its data protection standards. The AI tool is intended to complement rather than replace DHL’s network of more than 4,000 dedicated customs experts, who collectively handle more than 30,000 customs declarations every day.
The company added that customs and compliance decisions remain subject to each customer’s policies, applicable laws and the review and oversight of experienced professionals.
