Artificial intelligence and digitisation are transforming the freight forwarding and clearing industry by automating compliance checks, accelerating clearance times, reducing costs, and improving transparency across global supply chains.
Companies that adopt these technologies gain efficiency and resilience, while those that lag risk falling behind in a rapidly digitising trade environment.
Impact on freight forwarding
- Operational efficiency: AI-driven predictive systems help logistics firms anticipate delays (e.g., port congestion, power outages) and reroute shipments, reducing downtime and costs.
- Automation of processes: Agentic automation streamlines repetitive tasks like documentation, invoicing, and cargo tracking, freeing up human resources for higher-value work.
- Resilient supply chains: Digitisation enables real-time visibility across supply chains, improving transparency and responsiveness to disruptions.
- Cost reduction: By optimising routes and fuel usage, AI helps mitigate rising operational costs in South Africa’s logistics sector.
Impact on customs clearing
- Enhanced compliance: AI tools are increasingly used to manage tax and duty compliance, with the South African Revenue Service adopting automation to improve enforcement.
- Risk management: AI systems detect anomalies in trade documentation, reducing fraud and ensuring adherence to complex tariff structures.
- Faster clearance: Automated customs processes minimise manual intervention, accelerating clearance times and reducing bottlenecks at ports.
- Audit preparedness: With more frequent audits and post-clearance reviews, AI helps businesses maintain accurate records and avoid retroactive duty penalties.
The above beg the question: what impact does this transformation have on skills and capacity of this industry?
AI and digitisation are transforming skills and capacity in South Africa’s freight forwarding and customs clearing industry in profound ways. The shift is not just about technology adoption – it’s about reshaping the workforce and organisational capabilities, and the impact of employees’ skills and their capacity to adopt to these changes. This requires organisations to implement a very well-structured learning and development strategy.
The Institute of Customs and Freight Forwarding (ICFF), has previously highlighted the skills gaps currently found in this sector.
- Digital literacy: Employees need to be proficient in using AI-driven platforms for cargo tracking, customs documentation, and compliance management.
- Data analytics and AI skills: Logistics professionals are increasingly required to interpret predictive analytics, optimise routes, and manage risk using AI tools.
- Regulatory knowledge and tech integration: Customs clearing agents must combine deep knowledge of customs regulations with the ability to use automated compliance systems.
- Soft skills: Problem-solving, adaptability, and cross-functional collaboration are becoming more valuable as AI takes over repetitive tasks.
The above skills required are listed on the skills gaps identified by the ICFF. It is within this context that the Institute has partnered with and endorsed training providers to develop and provide Continuous Professional Development (CPD) programmes in these areas to assist our professional members and employees within this sector in developing their skills towards professional standards and addressing the current skills gaps.
Capacity building
- Upskilling and reskilling: Industry professional bodies such as the ICFF emphasise training programmes to prepare employees for AI-enabled workflows.
- Reduced manual capacity needs: Automation reduces reliance on clerical staff for documentation, shifting demand toward higher-skilled digital operators.
- Enhanced compliance capacity: AI strengthens organisations’ ability to handle complex customs audits and layered tariffs, reducing risk exposure.
- Operational resilience: AI tools help organisations to overcome infrastructure bottlenecks and driver shortages, expanding capacity without proportional increases in workforce size.
South Africa’s logistics workforce is shifting from manual processing to digital oversight and strategic management. Capacity growth is increasingly tied to technology adoption rather than workforce expansion, and collaboration between government, industry bodies, and the ICFF is critical to bridging the skills gap and ensuring inclusive transformation.
We cannot ignore that the industry is moving toward fully digitised customs ecosystems where AI, blockchain, and IoT converge to create seamless, paperless trade. Forwarders and clearing agents in South Africa and globally will need to invest in digital transformation strategies to remain competitive, especially as global trade volumes continue to rise, and to support this, investment is critically needed in the learning and development of employees.
