Logistics Service Providers (LSPs) face an unpredictable global trade environment today, driven by multiple factors including geopolitical instability and tariff volatility. Freight forwarders and customs brokers are under pressure to lower prices, reduce operating costs, mitigate tariff impacts, comply with an increasingly complex web of regulations, and meet demanding customer expectations for add-on services such as visibility into shipments and assistance with compliance.
To meet these many challenges, forwarders and brokers are turning to technology and the promise of artificial intelligence (AI). The 9th Edition of the Descartes Global Forwarder/Broker Benchmark Study reveals a growing recognition by LSPs that technology serves as a vital competitive differentiator, and is no longer optional.
Navigating a Changing Global Trade Landscape
Forwarders and brokers face a range of diverse challenges across an ever-changing trade panorama. Most concerning is global instability, the top macroeconomic challenge LSPs face — reaching a peak in the 2025 forwarder/broker survey at 60% — a reaction to ongoing worldwide turmoil contributing to supply chain uncertainty.
At the same time, forwarders and brokers face pricing pressures (61%), as well as regulatory complexity compounded by inconsistent tariffs (42%) — a new option in the 2025 survey but quickly rising to the second ranked regulatory or industry challenge.
Meanwhile, customers are demanding more transparency, speed, and digital self-service options. In fact, LSPs believe that customer demand for more real-time data (37%), as well as digitization and customer self-service (35%), will have a major impact on them over the next five years. The most popular service requested by LSP customers in 2025 is Harmonized Tariff Schedule (HTS) classification services (51%), followed closely by duty analysis services to predict new or potential tariff change impacts (50%). In addition, supply chain analytics, cost modeling and mapping (34%) is a relatively popular new option in the 2025 survey. The call for these services confirms the need for more visibility and analytical capabilities to help customers circumvent obstacles such as tariffs and disruptions.
Technology as a Strategic Priority
To thrive in this constantly evolving trading environment, forwarders and brokers must be flexible so they can adapt quickly to changes and minimize risks — and many LSPs are embracing technology as the answer.
Our survey shows forwarders and brokers are responding to supply chain challenges by investing in technology as the favored method to prepare for economic, regulatory and industry changes (63%). In addition, 65% classify technology as fundamental or highly important to their growth strategy and 55% see investment in innovative new technologies as the best strategy for growth. About a third (35%) of forwarders and brokers plan to increase IT spending between 1% and 5% over the next two years, and another third (31%) are planning to increase by more than 5%, further substantiating that a majority of forwarders and brokers are committed to technology.
Historical survey results trace the evolution of IT investment objectives for forwarders and brokers. Back-office operations was the prime target of IT investment in 2019 (62%), but since then has dropped to 42% in 2025. In recent years, the technology investment goal has shifted to automation and intelligence. Regarding automation, manual processes are cited as the leading growth inhibitor by 25% of LSPs, and automating processes is the second most popular way to improve margins at 52%. Regarding intelligence, visibility and analytics are the leading customer requests mentioned earlier.
A new option in the 2025 survey, AI is poised to play a significant role in both automation and intelligence in the supply chain, ranking as the main focus of IT investment (55%) for forwarders and brokers in 2025, and the biggest driver of IT value (65.5%). In addition, 42% see AI as a top competitive advantage. Since the logistics industry is early in the AI journey, it is understandable that adoption numbers do not match the enthusiasm — only 18% of LSPs are already extracting value from AI through live use cases, and another quarter (24%) are currently implementing AI-powered solutions. However, we expect these numbers to grow dramatically over the next few years as AI is embedded into a variety of solutions.
While AI dominates the technological aspirations of forwarders and brokers in 2025, it is increasingly powering the automation and intelligence behind the solutions delivering significant business value:
Rate management: Survey results reveal the growing importance of rate management, with 21% of respondents citing it as the greatest source of IT value and 20% making it the focal point of their IT investment. AI-enhanced rate management tools help automate rate ingestion, normalize complex carrier data, and dynamically analyze pricing trends — enabling faster, more accurate quoting and margin protection.
Digital self-service: Digital customer self-service tools for rating, booking, and tracking are seen by 38% of LSPs as providing the greatest IT value and rank second for IT investment (38%) in 2025. AI optimizes these platforms through intelligent search, predictive recommendations, and real-time exception handling, improving customer experience while reducing manual effort.
Regulatory compliance systems: Forwarders and brokers increasingly view technology as essential to regulatory compliance, with 62% of all respondents — and 89% of large companies — rating it as fundamental or highly important. Regulatory compliance systems continue to rise in importance, with 31% saying they deliver the greatest IT value and 30% ranking them as a top investment target in 2025. AI enables these systems to continuously monitor regulatory changes, detect anomalies, and support audit-ready decision-making in an increasingly complex enforcement environment.
The Great Technology Divide
The survey uncovered a pronounced technology divide, with larger companies more focused on technology than small companies. A majority (60%) of larger companies consider technology as fundamental compared to only a quarter (27%) of smaller firms — a striking gap of 33 percentage points.
These numbers align with the survey finding that even though most large and small LSPs place themselves in the “middle of the pack” in terms of technology adoption, 32% of large companies pursue aggressive technology strategies as “early adopters” compared to only 17% of their smaller competitors. This is evidenced by the fact that larger companies are more proactively concentrating IT investment on cutting-edge technologies like AI (61%) and digital customer self-service (55%), while most smaller companies are still putting that investment toward back-office operations (55%).
The divergent commitments to technology are also seen in IT spending trajectories — 50% of large LSPs expect to increase IT spending by more than 5%, while 41% of small companies have no plans to increase IT spending. The reason for this disparity is partly a lack of access to capital, cited as the number one growth inhibitor for small companies (27%).
Looking to an AI future
Our survey shows forwarders and brokers recognize the value of AI and its emerging role in supply chain technology. Over the next two to three years, we predict that many forwarders and brokers will move from AI pilot programs to operational deployment of AI-driven automation solutions. High-impact AI use cases for LSPs include document automation, rate quoting, self-service customer portals, and predictive visibility — technologies that forwarders and brokers value and are already investing in, according to the survey, because they see substantial potential ROI from increased productivity and improved customer experience.
Not all forwarders and brokers, however, are progressively adopting AI and other technologies. The uncertainty in the trading environment has caused some LSPs, especially smaller companies, to take a more defensive stance, simply trying to weather the converging storm of geopolitical, regulatory and pricing pressures. While these companies are adopting a wait-and-see approach with regard to the global trade environment, the more proactive LSPs embracing technology will gain a critical competitive advantage.
Because global trade volatility is likely to persist, technology-enabled agility and resiliency will become a strategic imperative. Technology-driven differentiation, powered by AI, will become the benchmark for LSPs, and those offering “just forwarding” will lose business to tech-savvy competitors. This challenge is particularly acute for smaller LSPs who face a pressing ultimatum: adapt with technology or risk falling further behind.
Recommendations for Stakeholders
Companies must adopt forward-thinking strategies now in order to compete in this harsh economic and trading climate, rather than wait to see what tomorrow will bring. For now, uncertainty in the global trading environment is the new normal and LSPs need to adapt to succeed under those conditions.
Forwarders and brokers should prioritize tech investment on quick-win automation, building toward intelligence; concentrate on customer value such as speed, transparency, and digital self-service; and grow capabilities around compliance and trade-policy agility.
Shippers and supply chain managers should make astute partnering decisions. The forwarder or broker you choose matters. LSPs offering services supported by advanced technology will deliver better visibility and ensure risk mitigation. Collaborate with partners who are investing in data, analytics and automation.
Technology providers should innovate high-value products that help forwarders and brokers manage unpredictable factors such as tariffs and supply chain disruptions with agility. There is strong demand for technology among LSPs — 64% believe technology is essential and they are looking for solutions that provide AI-powered automation and regulatory compliance intelligence.
Conclusion
Freight forwarders and customs brokers are undergoing a profound shift — from relying on manual processes and worrying about cost pressures to embracing digital transformation and introducing strategic service offerings. Descartes 2025 Global Forwarder/Broker Benchmark Study underscores that technology will not just support this evolution; it will make it possible. LSPs that act decisively to integrate AI-driven automation and intelligence for compliance, rate management and visibility will be the winners in a trading arena defined by uncertainty and continuous change.
Glenn Palanacki is VP Product Development at Descartes.
