Customs Brokers
In short: today's best AI models could do about 92% of this job's working time (projected from METR's April 2026 measurement and Epoch's November 2026 index) if the work were set up for them, and about 93% by the end of 2028 if progress keeps its long-run pace. The people and hands-on work, about 7% of the time, stays with people.
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.
$80,730 a year (for the broader BLS group this job sits in).
A typical 40-hour week
Not yet reviewed task by task- AI could take on37 h
- A person checks AI's work0 h
- Desk work AI can't do yet0 h
- Stays with people3 h
Customs Brokers, now: of a 40-hour week, AI could take on 37 hours, 0 hours become checking its work, 0 hours are desk work it can't do yet, and 3 hours stay with people.
The largest pieces: Clear goods through customs and to their destinations for clients (about 8 h); Prepare and process import and export documentation according to customs regulations, laws, or procedures (about 4 h); Obtain line releases for frequent shippers of low-risk commodities, high-volume entries, or multiple-container loads (about 4 h).
Estimates for a typical week of this job, if progress keeps its long-run pace, counting work the best models finish four times in five. Every task is below.
of the working time. Now is projected from METR's April 2026 measurement and Epoch's November 2026 index.
- 93%
- 7%
- 0%
of the work: Anthropic's measure of what people already bring to Claude at work (2025). It counts help with part of a task, so it can be higher than the share within reach.
On the chosen pace and reliability. Estimate.
Share of the working time within reach, now to 2030
Change assumptionsHide assumptionsLong-run pace, four in five
What each choice means: , , , , . Every pace starts from .
At this date and pace, models finish tasks up to 2.4 work days long four times in five.
How far this has come
With GPT-4, measured in March 2023, 0% of this job's working time was within reach at . With Claude 3.7 Sonnet, measured in February 2025, 2%. With Claude Mythos Preview (early), measured in April 2026, 69%. Today's estimate: 92%.
A backcast: today's task data with the best model METR had measured by each date. It shows how fast the models have moved, not what anyone forecast at the time.
Measured use over time
Of the Claude.ai conversations Anthropic sampled and tied to a work task, 0.021% went to this job's tasks in May 2026, the 301st largest of the 447 jobs that showed up at all; 2 of its 23 tasks showed up. Within each of Anthropic's methods, never across a change: 0.037% to 0.049% (released February and March 2025); 0.042% to 0.051% (August 2025 to February 2026); 0.023% to 0.021% (April to May 2026).
Each release
| Conversations | Share | Rank | Tasks seen |
|---|---|---|---|
| Released February 2025 | 0.037% | 327 of 708 | 6 of 23 |
| Released March 2025 | 0.049% | 273 of 703 | 5 of 23 |
| The week of Aug 4, 2025 (released September 2025) | 0.042% | 264 of 655 | 2 of 23 |
| The week of Nov 13, 2025 (released January 2026) | 0.037% | 283 of 672 | 3 of 23 |
| The week of Feb 5, 2026 (released March 2026) | 0.051% | 248 of 677 | 3 of 23 |
| April 2026 (released June 2026) | 0.023% | 296 of 434 | 2 of 23 |
| May 2026 (released June 2026) | 0.021% | 301 of 447 | 2 of 23 |
Measured, not estimated: Anthropic's samples of Claude.ai conversations, each tied by a model to an O*NET task, from the Anthropic Economic Index. It says where Claude's use goes, not how much of this job's working time it covers, so it is not on the same scale as the reach above. The releases differ in their sample, their classifier and the smallest share they report (the June 2026 file rounds each task to a hundredth of a percent, so a smaller task reads as none), which is why a change of method starts a new line. At least 96% of each older release's task-tied use matched this site's tasks, and all of the newest. Claude.ai only, so use through other tools and other companies' models is not in it. Every job ranked.
Robots and the physical work
Anthropic rates almost none of this job's working time as physical work, so robots do not reach it.
Anthropic's rating, not this site's estimate: Claude Opus 5, searching the web, rated each physical O*NET task by the kind of setting in which a robot it could cite (deployed, sold or demonstrated) does most of the task, weighted by its own estimate of each task's share of the time (What work can robots do?, September 30, 2026, data CC BY 4.0; every job ranked). A robot shown somewhere is not a robot in your building: cost, setup and safety decide that. The share within reach on this page still counts no body work. The robot behind each rated task is under the task below.
The tasks
Sorted by . 23 tasks from .
| Task | Kind | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Clear goods through customs and to their destinations for clients.Done hourly or more by most who do it. | 21% | 1.3 h25 min to 4.2 h | 98%Half by now | |
| Prepare and process import and export documentation according to customs regulations, laws, or procedures.Done hourly or more by most who do it. AI observed on this task. | 11% | 50 min17 min to 2.5 h | 100%Half by now | |
| Obtain line releases for frequent shippers of low-risk commodities, high-volume entries, or multiple-container loads.Done daily by most who do it. | 9% | 1.1 h25 min to 2.1 h | 100%Half by now | |
| Classify goods according to tariff coding system.Done several times a day by most who do it. | 7% | 38 min13 min to 2.5 h | 100%Half by now | |
| Request or compile necessary import documentation, such as customs invoices, certificates of origin, and cargo-control documents.Done hourly or more by most who do it. | 7% | 38 min13 min to 1.7 h | 100%Half by now | |
| Calculate duty and tariff payments owed on shipments.Done hourly or more by most who do it. | 6% | 25 min8 min to 1.3 h | 100%Half by now | |
| Prepare papers for shippers to appeal duty charges.Done more than yearly by most who do it. | 6% | 1.7 h25 min to 5 h | 94%Half by now | |
| Arrange for transportation, warehousing, or product distribution of imported or exported products.Done daily by most who do it. | 5% | 50 min17 min to 2.5 h | 100%Half by now | |
| Advise customers on import and export restrictions, tariff systems, insurance requirements, quotas, or other customs-related matters.Done daily by most who do it. | 4% | 38 min13 min to 2.5 h | Stays with people | |
| Contract with freight forwarders for destination services.Done daily by most who do it. | 3% | 38 min13 min to 1.7 h | 100%Half by now | |
| Post bonds for the products being imported or assist clients in obtaining bonds.Done several times a day by most who do it. | 3% | 38 min13 min to 1.3 h | 100%Half by now | |
| Confer with officials in various agencies to facilitate clearance of goods through customs and quarantine.Done daily by most who do it. | 3% | 38 min17 min to 2.5 h | Stays with people |
Within reach, per task: the share of the task's time whose instances are short enough for a model to finish at the chosen date, pace and reliability. Half by: the date half of that time comes within reach.
Jobs that share skills with this one
From O*NET's related occupations. Within reach now and by the end of 2028, long-run pace, four in five.
Where this job works
The industry groups that employ the most of it (BLS, May 2025). Counts are for the broader BLS group this job sits in.
Where the most of these jobs are
The metro areas with the most people in it (BLS, May 2025). Counts are for the broader BLS group this job sits in.
Questions about this job
- How much of the work of Customs Brokers is within reach of AI now?
- An estimated 92% of the working time is within reach of AI models now and 93% by the end of 2028, on METR's long-run pace at four in five. Within reach means a model could finish work that long at that reliability. It is not a forecast of jobs lost or of savings.
- Which tasks of Customs Brokers come within reach first?
- Weighted by the time each takes, the tasks with the most within reach now (projected from METR's April 2026 measurement and Epoch's November 2026 index) are: Clear goods through customs and to their destinations for clients (98% of the task's time now); Prepare and process import and export documentation according to customs regulations, laws, or procedures (100% of the task's time now); and Obtain line releases for frequent shippers of low-risk commodities, high-volume entries, or multiple-container loads (100% of the task's time now).
- Which tasks of Customs Brokers stay with people?
- Tasks that are people work or body work are not counted as within reach at any date. The largest: Advise customers on import and export restrictions, tariff systems, insurance requirements, quotas, or other customs-related matters; and Confer with officials in various agencies to facilitate clearance of goods through customs and quarantine. Together such tasks are about 7% of the working time.
- Do people already use AI for the work of Customs Brokers?
- In the Claude.ai conversations Anthropic sampled for May 2026 and tied to a work task, 0.021% went to this job's tasks, the 301st largest share of the 447 jobs that showed up; 2 of its 23 tasks appeared. Anthropic's labor market measure puts the share of the job's tasks seen in real Claude use at work at 12%. These are measures of use, not of how much of the work AI could finish, and they cover Claude only.
- Can robots do the physical work of Customs Brokers?
- Anthropic's robot exposure rating (September 2026) finds almost none of the working time is physical work, so robots do not reach it.
- How is this estimated?
- From the 23 tasks O*NET lists for the occupation, each with an estimated length checked against GDPval and a share of the working time, each classed as desk, people or body work, and METR's measurements of how long a task the best AI models can finish, carried forward to the date from the latest, Claude Mythos Preview (early) in April 2026. Data checked November 10, 2026.
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