Flexport Deploys AI Fleet to Automate Global Trade and Recoup Tariff Refunds

SAN FRANCISCO, CA – February 26, 2026 – In a significant move to reshape the mechanics of global commerce, logistics technology firm Flexport today unveiled a new fleet of agentic AI tools designed to automate complex supply chain processes, from customs compliance to freight optimization. The launch signals a strategic shift from providing visibility to actively executing and automating trade, with immediate implications for businesses seeking to recover millions in overpaid tariffs.

At the forefront of the announcement is an AI agent dubbed 'Audit Your Customs Broker,' which promises to revolutionize how companies manage customs compliance. This is complemented by an automated process to help businesses claim potentially massive tariff refunds following a recent U.S. Supreme Court ruling against IEEPA tariffs. The suite also includes tools for optimizing container space, a real-time language translator, and a foundational data platform, Flexport Atlas, intended to serve as a comprehensive worldview for the future of autonomous trade.

The AI Auditor and the Race for Refunds

In what the customs industry has declared the 'Year of the Audit,' Flexport is tackling the pervasive issue of errors in customs filings head-on. With U.S. tariff policies changing frequently—every one and a half weeks in 2025—mistakes have become rampant, just as government enforcement is intensifying. The company's new AI agent directly addresses this by conducting exhaustive compliance audits on past customs entries to pinpoint mistakes and compliance failures.

"We first piloted the agent on our own entries," said Ryan Petersen, Founder and CEO of Flexport. The results were dramatic. "We have reduced our error rate on U.S. customs filings to 0.2%. Based on what we know of other customs brokers, we estimate this to be a 10X improvement to any other broker in the world."

This technology is now being offered for free to any company, allowing them to scrutinize their own broker's performance. The timing is critical, as the tool is directly linked to a major financial opportunity for importers. Following a recent U.S. Supreme Court decision against tariffs imposed under the International Emergency Economic Powers Act (IEEPA), Flexport has updated its Tariff Refund Calculator to prepare customers for what it describes as "imminent" refund claims. By coupling the AI Auditor with the refund tool, businesses can instantly identify past errors, file necessary corrections, and prepare claims for overpaid duties, potentially unlocking significant capital.

Beyond Audits: An Autonomous Supply Chain Vision

Flexport's ambition extends far beyond compliance. The company is leveraging AI to tackle long-standing inefficiencies across the supply chain. A new machine learning-powered agent for 'Supply Chain Optimization' aims to eliminate wasted container space, a problem many businesses have accepted as a cost of doing business. The AI automatically identifies and consolidates shipments from multiple vendors heading in the same direction, pooling them into single, efficiently packed containers.

"It's like Tetris, but for your shipments," Petersen explained. "We let companies choose what they want to optimize for - cost, speed, emissions - and then execute the consolidation." This approach promises an average of 10% savings on freight costs by minimizing the need for expensive Less than Container Load (LCL) shipments and maximizing the value of Full Container Load (FCL) bookings.

Further removing friction from global trade, which has operated in English for centuries, is a new AI-powered real-time translation engine. The platform allows users to communicate with global partners in their native languages, with instant translation to and from languages like Simplified Chinese, Spanish, German, and Vietnamese, which collectively represent the vast majority of global container exports. This feature is designed to streamline communication and reduce misunderstandings that can lead to costly delays.

A New Worldview for Global Trade

The engine powering this fleet of AI agents is Flexport Atlas, an ambitious data platform that visualizes global trade as a living system rather than a series of fragmented spreadsheets and emails. The publicly available, interactive map shows how freight moves across oceans in real time, providing what Flexport calls the most robust data on the world's ocean container shipping networks. This structured data on sailing schedules, carrier reliability, and pricing allows the company's AI to make intelligent, optimized decisions for routing and consolidation.

By making this platform publicly available, Flexport aims to increase transparency across the industry while simultaneously creating the foundational data layer necessary for its AI to learn and execute tasks autonomously. It represents a strategic bet that superior data, combined with the ability to act on it, will define the next era of logistics.

Execution as the Key Differentiator

The market for supply chain software is crowded, with many tech startups and established players alike incorporating AI. Industry analysis from firms like Gartner confirms a massive trend toward AI adoption, with generative AI expected to power a significant portion of logistics metrics by 2028. However, Flexport argues its advantage lies in its unique dual role as both a technology developer and a physical logistics operator.

"Most logistics software companies show you what's happening. They can give you dashboards and recommendations, but they can't move a container, file a customs entry, or recover a duty refund. Flexport is different," Petersen stated. "Our AI agents aren't theoretical, they're plugged directly into real shipments, real customs filings, and real carrier contracts. Because we execute the freight, our AI can actually automate it."

This integration of software and execution is what enables the claimed 0.2% error rate and automated container consolidation. By building technology on top of its own operational infrastructure, which serves over 13,000 companies, Flexport is making a forceful case that the future of logistics belongs not to pure software players or traditional incumbents, but to those who can seamlessly merge digital intelligence with real-world action.