Industry Insights: What Our Audience Revealed This Year About Customs Trends

Explore the latest customs trends from our 2025 Customs Forum, including AI adoption, digitalisation, and regulatory shifts.

In a year defined by both disruption and opportunity, logistics providers, freight forwarders, and global traders have faced mounting complexity and rising expectations. As operational pressures intersect with strategic demands, our recent Customs Forum in the Netherlands, attended by over 100 industry professionals, offered a unique window into the evolving priorities and customs trends shaping customs management in 2025.

Live polling revealed a sector navigating rapid regulatory change, digital transformation, and the relentless pursuit of accuracy and control. Notably, the event’s balanced mix of logistics providers and cargo owners sparked a dynamic dialogue, bridging day-to-day realities with long-term strategy.

Expectations That Mirror the Times

The responses revealed both the pressures and priorities shaping today’s customs landscape. Terms such as uncertainty, customs changes, compliance, sanctions, and control surfaced frequently, making it clear that regulatory pressures remain front and centre for many in the industry.

At the same time, words like AI, automation, digitalisation, and efficiency highlighted the parallel shift toward technology-driven transformation. Attendees also highlighted broader priorities, trade facilitation, customer satisfaction, and commercial outcomes, demonstrating that customs teams are now expected to deliver value well beyond traditional boundaries.

Taken together, these one-word contributions paint a vivid picture: grappling with regulatory complexity and digital acceleration, all while striving to balance the need for control with the pursuit of greater efficiency.

What “Good Customs Management” Really Means to Professionals

As the conversation deepened, attention transitions to what truly defines “good customs management” in the eyes of industry professionals, the audience pointed to a clear set of recurring themes. Terms such as compliance, control, revenue, money, and no fines underscored the financial and regulatory value of getting customs right. Equally prominent were words like efficiency, smooth logistics, reliability, and peace of mind, reflecting the operational stability that effective customs processes create.

Beyond these, participants highlighted trust, knowledge, automation, and optimised supply network, pointing to the wider strategic impact of robust customs management. Collectively, these inputs reinforced a simple conclusion: when customs is managed well, it drives compliance, protects value, and keeps supply chains running reliably and without disruption.

AI Adoption: A Sector in Transition

Reflecting next on the role of technology, the conversation moves to how far the sector has progressed with AI in customs management, here the responses revealed a sector still early in its adoption curve. Around 39% of participants indicated they are currently piloting AI solutions, while 25% have not yet started. As shown below a quarter of respondents have yet to begin their AI journey, while only 5% reported full adoption within their customs processes – signalling an appetite for innovation partnered with sense of caution within the sector.

30% noted that they rely on their customs partner to take these steps on their behalf, these results show a landscape where AI interest is high, experimentation is underway, and but full-scale adoption is only beginning to emerge with all eyes on partnerships to demonstrate digital value and success.

The Most Impactful Topics of 2025

Looking ahead to the most impactful topics of 2025, the responses clustered around a handful of dominant issues.

Sanctions, tariffs, and CBAM were mentioned most frequently, confirming their central role in shaping day-to-day customs operations this year. At the same time, EUDR, classification, and broader regulatory changes also appeared repeatedly, reflecting the expanding scope of compliance requirements.

Beyond regulation, participants also pointed to automation, customs digitalisation, duty management, freight rates, and trade tensions, signalling the operational and geopolitical pressures shaping today’s supply chains. Overall, the input points to a year defined by regulatory complexity, geopolitical uncertainty, and the growing need for both digital readiness and resilient customs processes.

The Mission of an In-House Customs Team

When exploring the mission of in-house customs teams, the responses revealed a strong consensus around their core purpose. Compliance emerged as the dominant theme, followed closely by accuracy, control, and governance, underscoring the expectation that customs teams act as the organisation’s first line of regulatory assurance.

Participants also emphasised themes such as risk mitigation, speed, efficiency, and first-time-right performance, reflecting the operational discipline required to keep goods moving smoothly. Additional inputs, such as protecting the company, communication to management, and facilitating goods flow, highlighted the team’s broader strategic role.

Taken together, the responses point to a clear mandate: in-house customs teams must safeguard compliance while enabling a reliable, efficient, and well-controlled movement of goods across borders.

Confidence in Classification: A Candid Self-Assessment

Turning inward, asking participants to honestly assess their confidence in their own classification work if faced with an audit the very next morning. The average score of 3.4 out of 5 placed most respondents between “fairly confident” and “not fully certain.”

This result speaks volumes. It indicates that, despite significant effort to maintain accuracy, classification remains a complex area where nuances matter, audit scrutiny is high, and continuous improvement is both necessary and expected.

Where Compliance Programs Are Most Established

The results show a clear concentration of documented and fully accepted compliance programs in high-risk regulatory areas. Sanctions and Export Control & Dual Use appear most consistently, followed by Origin and Classification. This underlines how organisations continue to prioritise governance and control where regulatory scrutiny, enforcement, and potential impact are greatest.

In contrast, compliance programs for Valuation, Duty Management, and other specialised topics are less uniformly embedded. While several organisations demonstrate a broad and mature compliance framework across multiple customs domains, others operate with more selective coverage or without a formally documented programme.

Overall, the data highlights a compliance landscape shaped by risk and regulation: strong foundations where exposure is highest, alongside clear opportunities to further strengthen and standardise compliance across the full customs spectrum.

Looking Ahead Together

Reflecting on the insights gathered at this year’s event, CSG extends sincere thanks to all participants and contributors to the 2025 customs forums. The organisation remains committed to listening, learning, and collaborating with clients and contacts across Europe. Navigating the challenges and opportunities ahead, whether regulatory, digital, or operational, is most effective through partnership and shared expertise.

Customs Support Group continues to engage with the community, share knowledge, and lead the way in shaping the future of customs management, ensuring stakeholders remain ahead of change. For information on upcoming events, or to discuss any of the themes highlighted today in greater detail, interested parties are invited to contact an expert or visit the website.

The journey towards more resilient and innovative customs practices continues. Discuss your customs landscape one-to-one with one of our experts. Contact our team today.