US Customs partners with Tru Identity to bring AI enforcement to cargo screening

US Customs and Border Protection has selected Tru Identity, Inc. to overhaul the customs entry process using artificial intelligence. The goal is straightforward: catch tariff evasion and illegal goods before cargo ever touches American soil.

Tru Identity operates a risk analysis platform built for brands, shippers, and logistics providers. Its toolset covers vendor screening, product vetting, and shipment pre-screening, essentially giving authorities a way to flag bad actors and suspicious cargo earlier in the supply chain.

What Tru Identity actually does

Tru’s platform screens customers, monitors product catalogs, and pre-screens shipments to minimize delays at customs. The idea is that by the time a container arrives at a US port, CBP already has a risk profile ready.

The platform incorporates blockchain technology to ensure data immutability. Once a compliance record is logged, it can’t be quietly edited or deleted. That’s a meaningful feature when the entire point is building an auditable trail of risk assessments that hold up under regulatory scrutiny.

It’s worth noting that despite the blockchain component, this partnership has nothing to do with crypto tokens or digital assets. The blockchain here is purely an infrastructure choice for data integrity, not a financialized layer.

Why this matters now

Tariff fraud, illegal transshipment, and deliberate misclassification of goods have become persistent headaches for CBP. When a company labels luxury electronics as “household goods” to dodge duties, or routes products through a third country to obscure their true origin, it costs the US government revenue and undermines legitimate businesses competing on honest terms.

The initiative appears to be in its early phases. No launch timeline, contract value, or performance benchmarks have been publicly disclosed. However, Tru Identity’s terms of service were updated on February 20, 2026, and explicitly reference the CBP partnership, suggesting the relationship is active and evolving rather than purely aspirational.

Disclosure: This article was edited by Editorial Team. For more information on how we create and review content, see our Editorial Policy.