Driving trade intelligence with AI: How our HS Code engine enhances accuracy and timeliness

By Federico Viscioletti

Data Science Lead

At Lloyd’s List Intelligence, data quality is at the heart of everything we do. As a data-driven, tech-enabled business, we are constantly looking for ways to improve the accuracy and timeliness of our insights, two pillars of our proprietary COACT framework (Consistency, Origin, Accuracy, Completeness, Timeliness).

In one of our latest product launch, Seasearcher Trade Risk, we’ve taken a major leap forward by implementing AI to automate a critical step in trade risk analysis: goods description matching to HS codes.

Why This Matters

Converting goods descriptions into the correct Harmonized System (HS) codes is essential for risk assessment, including verifying declared prices and flagging potential compliance issues. Traditionally, this process has been manual, slow, and prone to human error, increasing operational delays and regulatory exposure.

A Data-Driven Solution: AI-Powered Matching

To solve this, we built a powerful AI-driven HS code recommendation engine that uses advanced sentence transformer technology. Here’s how it works:

• Goods descriptions are converted into semantic “fingerprints” using vector-based natural language processing (NLP)
• These vectors are matched against official HS code descriptors using semantic similarity
• The system then ranks and returns the most relevant HS codes, all in a matter of seconds

This innovation is more than just a time-saver, it transforms how our clients interact with trade data, allowing them to make faster and more accurate decisions.

Delivering COACT-Driven Value

The HS code recommendation engine is a clear example of how we live our COACT data quality commitment:

• Accuracy: By validating goods descriptions against a curated library of HS code descriptors and ranking them by semantic proximity, we reduce misclassification risk and improve confidence in the results
• Timeliness: Real-time matching delivers near-instant insights, helping clients act on risk indicators without delay, whether they’re monitoring trade flows or investigating anomalies

The Outcome: Smarter Risk Insights, Delivered Faster

The result is a step-change in our Trade Risk solution: a more intelligent, responsive platform that helps clients identify risk indicators earlier, verify anomalies more efficiently, and streamline compliance workflows.

With AI doing the heavy lifting, users can focus on what really matters, making strategic decisions based on high-quality, timely intelligence.