Is AI tech transforming cross-border eCommerce?

Is AI tech transforming cross-border eCommerce?

Hurricane CEO Martyn Noble was recently interviewed by Post & Parcel’s MER magazine.

The resulting article was extremely wide-ranging, but at its centre was the transformational impact that true AI tech is having on the cross-border eCommerce supply chain.

There is a huge amount of noise surrounding AI and, in particular, the so-called Large Language Model (LLM) AIs, such as ChatGPT and GPT-4.

While LLMs are effective at performing certain tasks such as drafting a job description for a Java developer or writing an Instagram post, they differ markedly from the vertical AI systems deployed by Hurricane, systems that have been tailored to address specific industry issues.

Our AI provides complete, accurate and scalable data in 100 milliseconds or less whereas LLMs will take minutes and won’t have anything like the same accuracy levels.

Hurricane CEO Martyn NobleAs Martyn says in the MER article: “Hurricane’s true AI systems have been almost eight years in the making and the breadth and depth of our tech’s capability continues to evolve. There will be new releases of Hurricane products this year and we are already working on product innovations for the next 3-5 years.

“In recent months we have started to roll out our game-changing all-in-one Kona product, the first product of its kind in the world giving our customers the ability to access product classification, duty and tax calculation, prohibited and restricted goods screening and denied parties screening in one API call.”

This is possible due to the fantastic in-house team of technical talent and, alongside this, a willingness to listen to our customers and work with them to shape our products to meet their specific challenges.

This approach has resulted in Hurricane’s sustained year-on-year growth which has seen the company become the global leader in the delivery of true AI solutions to the postal and carrier sector.

But it is also now taking us into multiple new sectors such as customs brokers, freight forwarders, retailers, marketplaces and financial and professional services.

Hurricane is also expanding into new geographic territories, notably North America with the appointment of the experienced logistics professional Laurie Cieciuch as our Partnerships Director and, most recently, the selection of Time Express as our exclusive reseller in the MENA region.

The market opportunity for Hurricane is significant. As Martyn tells MER: “Carriers, postal operators, freight forwarders, customs brokers, marketplaces and other players in the cross-border eCommerce ecosystem have the opportunity to seize a huge competitive advantage by harnessing the right tools, including true deep vertical AI tech, to simplify and streamline the lives of their customers, improve their own productivity and reduce total unit cost.

The requirement for speed and accuracy of data is not just about transportation. The tech that we have built at Hurricane is applicable both upstream and downstream whether that is tax reconciliation and auditing or responding to the increasing fragmentation of the world traditionally occupied by the posts and carriers but now opening up to the likes of the forwarders and brokers.”.

Hurricane is ready to enable our customers across all of the sectors in which we now operate to deploy our AI-driven tech in their pursuit of smooth customs flows and seamless cross-border eCommerce.

You can read the full MER article here – https://postandparcel.info/155251/features/e-commerce-features/how-ai-tech-is-transforming-cross-border-e-commerce-trade/

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David SpoTtiswood
Co-founder

Interesting Fact: I am an amateur baker, but I still have no idea how sourduogh starter actually works, and am intrigued how it all reacts together to produce an incredible taste.

Favourite Music: November Rain by Guns ‘n’ Roses.  Going to Wembley with my wife our go to fun thing in our early years, our youth with long hair and rock clothing and not a care in the world other than getting the best spot in the house.

Favourite Quote: “Insanity is doing the same thing over and over again, and expecting different results ” – Albert Einstein

Harry Reilly
Non-exec

Interesting Fact:  I learned Arabic for five years!.

Favourite Music:  A Long December by Counting Crows.  Memory of best family time together in California.

Favourite Quote: “Don’t forget execution, boys. It’s the all-important last 95%”

Tom Lee

Technical Director

Interesting Fact:  I am completely self-taught from a technical skills persepctiuve, and left formal education at 18.

Favourite Music:  Blink 182 – Aliens Exist.  Brings back fond memories of stickly floors and cheap beer.

Favourite Quote: “He sprayed water in my face – thta’s not allowed” – James Haskell.  The whole event surrounding it is hilarious and shows the power of a good wind up

Martin Palmer
Co-Founder

Interesting Fact: I started my working life training to be an accountant but decided I hated numbers. (Ironically I now love them!). I really wanted to join the Hong Kong Police force but couldn’t do that until i was 24. I took a temporary job in Imports and 47 years later here I am.

Favourite Music: There only was one choice. Harry Chapin. Meant a lot to me in my early years as an import broker. We played Chapin for hours and this one seemed to cover so many modes.

Favourite Quote: “No man is an island”

Neil Harmer

Operations Director

Interesting Fact:  As a Geologist my idea of the perfect beach holiday is going to the beach and investigating the rocks in the cliffs behind.

Favourite Music:  Broken Stones – Paul Weller, I’m a huge Paul Weller / The Jam fan; Broken Stones is a very relaxing song, I love the use of the electric piano in it

Favourite Quote: “Don’t put off until tomorrow what you can do today”. This is a great quote by Benjamin Franklin, to have in your head when working through a series of tasks to help keep focused.

Robert Dundas
Sales Director

Interesting Fact:  One of my life goals is to be able to speak French, I’ve been doing Duolingo every day for the last five years, and I’m still rubbish! 

Favourite Music: Where do I even start! Tom Petty Running Down a Dream, this is my top-down driving next to the ocean song

Favourite Quote: “This time will pass”

ASHLEY DEXTER
CFO & Co-founder

Interesting Fact: I was nearly named Battle Dexter (I would have probably now been residing in one of His Majesty’s establishments)

Favourite Music: Even though I spent a few years in the music industry my taste of music was always a cause for concern with my colleagues, so to surprise them all my current favourite is Kids by MGMT (absolute belter)

Favourite Quote: “Quitters never win and winners never quit”

Ian Venner
CTO & Co-founder

Interesting Fact: Runs Red Lantern Records, a not-for-profit, ethical label as a side project, whose artists have regular national BBC radio airplay.

Favourite Music: Tom Waits, pretty much all of his work.  Beautifully observed avante-garde vignettes of life.  Oh, and anything really loud!

Favourite Quote: “It’s not the mountains we climb, but the grit in our shoe that grinds us down” – which sums up taking a business from start-up to enterprise.

Martyn Noble
CEO & Co-founder

Interesting Fact: Played a high standard of semi-professional rugby union (too many years ago now!)

Favourite Music: Led Zeppelin – Stairway to Heaven…my first live gig – Knebworth 11th August 1979, the track never grows old and is the iconic song of ‘hope’ whatever mood you are in when listening too it…and I’m still trying to work out what the lyrics mean!!

Favourite Quote: “Know your customers, Know your People, Know your Numbers” – plagiarised from Sir John Harvey Jones when I met him very early on in my career and values I stick to in my business life.