iCustoms Board Member Series – Adnan Zaheer
iCustoms Board Member Series – Adnan Zaheer A Visionary Leader: Revolutionising Customs Solutions With great pleasure, we present Adnan Zaheer, the CEO and founder of iCustoms, in our “Insights & Expertise” series. Adnan brings to the forefront of iCustoms a unique blend of industry knowledge, an entrepreneurial drive, and a passion for innovation. Modernising Customs in an International Environment: At iCustoms, Adnan is spearheading a ground-breaking project to update antiquated customs software and enhance the $22 trillion international trading environment. His commitment to creating practical and efficient solutions for the evolving customs environment is evident in this courageous attempt. A Seasoned Businessperson with a Solid Track Record: This initial experience sparked a desire to find businesses that will have a long-lasting impact. His career really took off when he started Seers Group, which he developed in under four years and is now the industry leader in consent and privacy management platforms. This remarkable achievement demonstrates his ability to recognise market needs, offer original solutions, and achieve quick development. Building a Vision Worth Billions of Dollars Adnan’s influence extends beyond iCustoms. He was one of the founding members of Smart Pension, an expanding company currently valued at $1 billion. This accomplishment shows how well he can recognise high-potential ventures and assist in their success. A Well-Rounded and Diversely Experienced Leader: Adnan comes from a background outside of the startup industry. Working with both SMEs (small and medium-sized enterprises) and a Big 4 consulting company like PwC helped him refine his abilities. This diversified experience has given him a thorough awareness of the issues that organisations of all sizes confront, allowing him to design solutions with greater efficacy. Adnan is an inspiring leader for iCustoms because of his innovative energy, track record of achievement, and entrepreneurial mindset. His knowledge and insight are invaluable as we transform the way customs solutions are provided in the future. Stay tuned for further interesting conversations with the innovative visionaries shaping iCustoms! Find out more about Adnan Zaheer here: https://www.linkedin.com/in/adnzaheer/ You may also like: 02 May 2024 From Streamlined to Stalled? Solving Rule of Origin Challenges in UK Construction with iCustoms Read More 30 April 2024 Trade Compliance News – April 2024 Read More 25 April 2024 Stuck in Customs? Build a Smoother Supply Chain for Your Manufacturing Clients Read More 19 April 2024 iCustoms Receives ICC Digital Trade Award for “Best Port or Logistics Systems” Read More 18 April 2024 iCustoms Board Member Series: Michael Burnett Read More About iCustoms iCustoms is an all-in-one solution helping businesses automate customs processes more efficiently. With AI-powered and machine-learning capabilities, iCustoms is designed to streamline your all customs procedures in a few minutes, cut additional costs and save time. Start Now Solutions Customs Agents Traders Couriers Products Import Export Classification Intelligent Document Processing Customs Audit Landed Cost Calculation Restricted Screening
Future of Customs: The Role of AI in Border Security
Future of Customs: The Role of AI in Border Security The complexity of safeguarding modern borders poses increasing obstacles. Increasing numbers of international trade, a variety of cargo kinds, and changing security risks necessitate increasingly advanced and effective solutions. Artificial intelligence (AI) is emerging as a revolutionary force that has the potential to change customs and border security procedures completely. This blog examines the role of AI and intelligent document processing in international trade and border security. The failures and inefficiencies of conventional trade and customs procedures Customs and trade operations in the modern world still mostly rely on manual procedures, which are sometimes tedious and time-consuming. Below, we will shed light on the fundamental drawbacks of these conventional approaches and open the door to understanding how revolutionary artificial intelligence (AI) could be in promoting safe and efficient international trade. 1. Paper-based dependency and its drawbacks Trade businesses have traditionally used a paper-heavy strategy, requiring the human evaluation and verification of several physical documents such as cargo manifests, customs declarations, and travel documents. This procedure, which involves physical inspections, cross-referencing, and repetitive data entering, is essentially problematic because of the following: Inefficiencies and delays: Processing delays for both legal and potentially illegal freight rise dramatically, resulting in long lineups, logistical obstacles, and missed deadlines. These delays have a detrimental effect on economic activity, the competitiveness of international commerce, and the quick flow of commodities. Susceptibility to human mistakes: Data input, document interpretation, and risk assessments are all susceptible to errors due to human exhaustion, complicated legislation, and the sheer amount of papers handled. These mistakes can have serious consequences, ranging from needless inspections and delays for traders who comply to the possibility of missing real risks, jeopardising productivity and security. Restricted visibility and fraud vulnerability: The dependence on physical documents limits access to important data that could be obtained from other sources, like social media activity, trade intelligence, and financial transactions. This narrow scope makes it difficult to completely analyse risks and recognise fraudulent operations, creating gaps for criminals to exploit. 2. Information access restrictions and scaling difficulties The existing system struggles to appropriately meet the dynamic nature of global commerce, as defined by: Exponential growth: Manual methods are unable to keep up with the continual rise in global trade volumes. This leads to overburdened customs personnel, longer wait times, and possible bottlenecks that impede the smooth flow of lawful trade. Limited information scope: Traditional approaches rely mostly on information directly supplied by dealers and passengers, which is frequently limited to physical document content. This narrow scope makes it more difficult to carry out thorough risk assessments and spot any abnormalities or hidden trends that could point to illegal activities. 3. Ineffective resource allocation and missed opportunities The following results from manual processes’ limitations: Poor resource allocation: Due to inadequate information, workers are compelled to prioritise, potentially overlooking high-risk scenarios, while low-risk shipments experience excessive delays, resulting in poor resource allocation and missed opportunities to intercept unlawful activity. Lack of proactive intelligence and prevention: Traditional approaches’ reactive nature restricts their capacity to gather intelligence proactively and execute preventative measures, potentially allowing threats to slip through the cracks and inflict harm once they emerge. AI-powered revolution: Role of AI in streamlining trade and customs processes Artificial intelligence (AI) offers a comprehensive solution to the previously mentioned limitations, providing a revolutionary chance to improve and expedite conventional trade and customs procedures. Let’s examine the possible effects of these major artificial intelligence applications: 1. Intelligent automation: Unlocking efficiency Repetitive duties, including document processing, risk assessment, and anomaly identification, frequently dominate customs operations. These domains no longer require manual intervention thanks to AI-powered automation, which has several important advantages: Increased efficiency: Automation enables the speedy processing of large amounts of data, drastically lowering clearing periods for legal trades. This allows customs officials to focus their efforts on products that pose a higher risk and more intricate investigations. Faster clearance times: Intelligent document automation facilitates faster clearance times for compliant traders by streamlining document processing and automating risk assessments. This reduces delays and promotes smoother cross-border trading. Decreased operational costs: Customs agencies can save a lot of money by automating administrative activities, which also minimises the need for human resources and simplifies workflows. 2. Intelligent document processing automation: Enhanced precision and speed One of the main challenges in conventional customs operations is the extraction and interpretation of data from complicated documents such as cargo manifests, invoices, and travel papers. Intelligent workflow automation driven by AI overcomes this challenge via: Improved accuracy: AI systems are very skilled in reliably extracting data from a wide range of document formats, reducing the possibility of human mistakes and inconsistent data that might cause delays and errors. Enhanced speed: AI dramatically cuts processing times, simplifies customs procedures and enhances overall efficiency. This is accomplished by automating data extraction and interpretation. Increased data quality: Accurate and precise data extraction guarantees better-quality information input for risk analyses and other analytical procedures. 3. Advanced risk assessment: Trade facilitated, security strengthened Traditional risk assessments frequently depend on limited data and laborious analysis, which may cause them to miss crucial information. AI provides a sophisticated method that allows for: Comprehensive analysis: AI is capable of analysing enormous volumes of data from sources such as travel patterns, financial transactions, trade history, and other pertinent areas to create a more complete picture of possible hazards. Better detection: AI’s capacity to spot intricate patterns and abnormalities makes it possible to find sophisticated smuggling operations and other illegal activities that would escape detection by traditional methods. Targeted inspections: AI enables focused inspections, avoiding interruptions to lawful trade flow and maximising resource allocation by more accurately detecting high-risk goods. Future of intelligent automation: Transforming customs and trade landscape The ongoing development of AI has given rise to several new technologies that have the potential to completely transform trade and customs procedures. Let’s explore a few fascinating options and recognise any obstacles that would need to be overcome for responsible
