Flexport has unveiled new AI-driven capabilities designed to improve customs filing accuracy and help customers identify and prepare for potential tariff refunds.
The company’s new AI agent, “Audit Your Customs Broker,” can run compliance audits across past customs entries to detect mistakes and filing errors. Flexport founder and CEO Ryan Petersen said the company first piloted the agent on its own entries and reduced its error rate on U.S. customs filings to 0.2%.
Based on what Flexport says it understands about the broader brokerage market, Petersen estimated the performance represents a 10x improvement versus other customs brokers.
Flexport is making the tool available for free to any company that wants to review its broker’s work and assess whether it may be eligible for a government refund tied to overpayments.
Flexport emphasized that U.S. tariff policies changed every one and a half weeks in 2025, and said the customs industry has declared 2026 the “Year of the Audit,” as filing errors hit an all-time high while government enforcement increases.
With the recent U.S. Supreme Court ruling against IEEPA tariffs, Flexport said accurate entries and error avoidance become even more critical to support potential refund claims.
In January, Flexport proactively launched a tariff refund calculator to help companies estimate potential IEEPA refunds ahead of the ruling. Following the Court’s decision, Flexport transformed that tool to prepare customers for processing potential refunds, which it says now appear imminent.
Coupled with the AI auditor, Flexport says it can instantly audit past entries for errors, file corrections, and then estimate and prepare potential refunds.
AI translation to simplify global trade coordination
In addition to the customs-focused tools, Flexport has launched a real-time AI translation engine aimed at making global supplier communication easier.
Users can write in their native language, and Flexport’s platform instantly translates messages to and from counterpart languages. At launch, the translation engine supports:
• Simplified Chinese
• Traditional Chinese
• English
• Spanish
• French
• German
• Korean
• Vietnamese
• Thai
• Italian
Flexport said these languages represent roughly 86% of global container exports. More languages are planned in the near future.
