When I began working in exports, a shipment generated a small mountain of paper. Quotations, orders, invoices, packing lists, certificates, insurance documents, bills of lading and letters of credit passed between companies, banks, carriers and government offices. A document might travel separately from the goods and still have to arrive first. A discrepancy of a few kilograms could delay payment for weeks.
Much of that information can now be created, checked and transmitted electronically. Artificial intelligence promises to take the next step: reading an order, assembling the required data, preparing documents, identifying inconsistencies and monitoring the shipment without someone retyping the same facts at every stage.
How close does that take us to an export process without people? The answer depends on whether we mean paperless, automated, or genuinely human-free. They are three different things.