AI exposure: Customs Brokers
Prepare customs documentation and ensure that shipments meet all applicable laws to facilitate the import and export of goods. Determine and track duties and taxes payable and process payments on behalf of client. Sign documents under a power of attorney. Represent clients in meetings with customs officials and apply for duty refunds and tariff reclassifications. Coordinate transportation and storage of imported goods.
Reading this score
computed47.1% of this occupation's weighted task load is exposed, which puts Customs Brokers at the 85th percentile of 923 occupations. The capability is largely there. Its average task scores 3.0 out of 4 on what a current system can produce, and the frictions that hold other jobs in place are comparatively weak here.
What holds the line here is context. Across this occupation's 23 tasks it averages 1.87 out of 3, the highest of the five friction dimensions. In plain terms, the work depends on knowledge the model cannot hold. Much of this job runs on things that were never written down: what this particular organisation does, what happened last week, what the person across the table actually meant. That context is the barrier, and it erodes as systems are given more access.
The most exposed thing this job does is Calculate duty and tariff payments owed on shipments, at 86.7%. The least is Maintain relationships with customs brokers in other ports to expedite clearing of cargo, at 11.7%. A gap of 75.0% between two parts of the same job is the reason this index publishes at task level. An occupation-wide number would have hidden both.
Within business and financial operations occupations, this one is less exposed than the median of 47.5% across the group's 48 roles, with 24 scoring higher. Being in an exposed family does not make a particular job exposed, and the reverse holds too.
What would move this score. Of 23 tasks, 19 are currently banded exposed, 3 assisted and 1 untouched. For that distribution to shift materially would take a change in who is permitted to sign the work, which is a question for regulators rather than for engineers. The score is re-computed every quarter against a fresh capability reference, and the change is published rather than quietly applied.
Task by task
23 tasks, O*NET 31.0| Task | Exposed | Assisted | Untouched | Importance | Band |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Calculate duty and tariff payments owed on shipments. | 86.7% | 13.3% | 0.0% | 4.58 | exposed |
| Quote duty and tax rates on goods to be imported, based on federal tariffs and excise taxes. | 73.3% | 26.7% | 0.0% | 3.90 | exposed |
| Monitor or trace the location of goods. | 55.0% | 20.0% | 25.0% | 3.35 | exposed |
| Provide advice on transportation options, types of carriers, or shipping routes. | 55.0% | 20.0% | 25.0% | 3.17 | exposed |
| Prepare and process import and export documentation according to customs regulations, laws, or procedures. | 50.0% | 25.0% | 25.0% | 4.75 | exposed |
| Stay abreast of changes in import or export laws or regulations by reading current literature, attending meetings or conferences, or conferring with colleagues. | 50.0% | 25.0% | 25.0% | 4.60 | exposed |
| Pay, or arrange for payment of, taxes and duties on shipments. | 45.0% | 30.0% | 25.0% | 4.94 | exposed |
| Classify goods according to tariff coding system. | 45.0% | 30.0% | 25.0% | 4.80 | exposed |
| Clear goods through customs and to their destinations for clients. | 45.0% | 30.0% | 25.0% | 4.78 | exposed |
| Confer with officials in various agencies to facilitate clearance of goods through customs and quarantine. | 45.0% | 30.0% | 25.0% | 4.55 | exposed |
| Obtain line releases for frequent shippers of low-risk commodities, high-volume entries, or multiple-container loads. | 45.0% | 30.0% | 25.0% | 4.50 | exposed |
| Request or compile necessary import documentation, such as customs invoices, certificates of origin, and cargo-control documents. | 45.0% | 30.0% | 25.0% | 4.45 | exposed |
| Sign documents on behalf of clients, using powers of attorney. | 45.0% | 30.0% | 25.0% | 4.22 | exposed |
| Post bonds for the products being imported or assist clients in obtaining bonds. | 45.0% | 30.0% | 25.0% | 4.10 | exposed |
| Prepare papers for shippers to appeal duty charges. | 45.0% | 30.0% | 25.0% | 4.00 | exposed |
| Arrange for transportation, warehousing, or product distribution of imported or exported products. | 45.0% | 30.0% | 25.0% | 3.69 | exposed |
| Apply for tariff concessions or for duty drawbacks and other refunds. | 45.0% | 30.0% | 25.0% | 3.58 | exposed |
| Suggest best methods of packaging or labeling products. | 45.0% | 30.0% | 25.0% | 3.27 | exposed |
| Insure cargo against loss, damage, or pilferage. | 45.0% | 30.0% | 25.0% | 3.14 | exposed |
| Advise customers on import and export restrictions, tariff systems, insurance requirements, quotas, or other customs-related matters. | 35.0% | 40.0% | 25.0% | 4.45 | assisted |
| Inform importers and exporters of steps to reduce duties and taxes. | 30.0% | 45.0% | 25.0% | 3.90 | assisted |
| Contract with freight forwarders for destination services. | 23.3% | 26.7% | 50.0% | 3.53 | assisted |
| Maintain relationships with customs brokers in other ports to expedite clearing of cargo. | 11.7% | 13.3% | 75.0% | 2.67 | untouched |
Task text and importance ratings sourced from O*NET 31.0. Shares computed. The occupation score is the importance-weighted mean.
Where the score comes from
judgedEvery task is scored through the standardised work activities it maps to. These are this occupation’s averages on the six rubric dimensions. Capability is what AI can do; the other five are what stands in the way.
| Dimension | Mean | Scale |
|---|---|---|
| Capability | 2.96 | 0-4 |
| Embodiment | 0.26 | 0-3 |
| Presence | 0.52 | 0-3 |
| Accountability | 1.57 | 0-3 |
| Context | 1.87 | 0-3 |
| Verification cost | 1.65 | 0-3 |
What this means in practice
Where most of a role's weighted task load is exposed, the work that survives is usually the part of the job nobody wrote into the job description: deciding what should be produced rather than producing it, and being answerable for the result. The tasks lowest on this page are a better guide to where to spend your time than any general advice about the future of work.
Occupations either side of this one
The four closest scores in the same occupational family, then the four closest anywhere in the index.
Read this carefully. Exposure is not displacement. A high score means current AI systems can produce this work, not that anyone will stop paying a person to do it. Adoption depends on economics, regulation and inertia that this index deliberately does not model. How the score is built.