AI-native trade compliance platform demonstrates expert-level mastery of CBP regulatory content.
NEWPORT BEACH, CALIFORNIA / ACCESS Newswire / November 19, 2025 / KYG Trade™ (http://www.kygtrade.com) today announced that its AI trade compliance assistant, Kay, passed the October 2025 CBLE-a rigorous, highly technical assessment widely considered one of the most challenging in the global trade industry. Kay scored 93%-higher than the required 75% score to pass the exam. In a comparison test, one of the top general-purpose commercial LLMs failed the exam with a score of only 60%. According to the U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) website, the average pass rate for the three exams prior to the October ’25 exam was 22.3%.
The CBLE requires advanced reasoning across Title 19 of the Code of Federal Regulations, the U.S. Harmonized Tariff Schedule (HTS), as well as various U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) directives and guidelines. Tested across six major categories-broker compliance, tariff classification, quota, valuation, entry/entry summary, and a complex practical exercise, the exam is designed to measure deep subject-matter expertise rather than generic knowledge retrieval.
AI Purpose-Built for Trade and Tariff Compliance
Kay’s impressive performance underscores the importance of AI systems engineered specifically for global trade and tariff compliance. Unlike general-purpose language models, Kay is optimized for the complex interpretive reasoning needed in customs compliance, including multi-source regulatory rule reconciliation and real-world export import shipping document analysis.
Executive Commentary
“As a licensed customs broker and former Big 4 trade and customs partner, I know firsthand how complex this exam is,” said Todd R. Smith, Founder CEO of KYG Trade. “Today, I uploaded the CBLE PDF into our platform, and Kay completed the entire 80 question 4.5-hour exam in under five minutes.” Smith emphasized Kay’s advanced capabilities in processing unstructured documents, “The HTS classification and practical exercise were the most impressive. Kay extracted and interpreted information from a full-page of facts referencing an air waybill, commercial invoice, and broker invoice. Kay didn’t just answer correctly-she proved robust OCR and ETL capabilities, essential for the administratively cumbersome document ridden trade and tariff landscape. This milestone reflects exactly why we built an AI-native global trade and tariff compliance platform: to enable our trade compliance customers to work faster and smarter without compromising sensitive data.”
“We’re proud to have developed one of the ‘smartest’ global trade and tariff management (GTM) solutions available today.”
Addressing Industry Skepticism
Some industry observers have questioned whether AI’s high performance on multiple-choice exams is meaningful. KYG Trade maintains that CBLE success requires more than pattern matching.
“Each question often involves cross-referencing multiple regulations, interpreting nuanced language, and ruling out competing statutory frameworks under time pressure,” said Aaron Ansel, a trade attorney and KYG’s Cofounder Chief AI Officer. “The complexity lies in the reasoning needed to achieve the correct answer. Basic retrieval augment generation (RAG) alone doesn’t cut it.”
Commitment to Security and Trust
KYG Trade also reaffirmed its commitment to data protection. The company is ISO 27001 certified, and all customer data processed through Kay is never stored, never retained, and never used to train its AI.
“Compliance is built on trust,” said Anand Raghavendran, a licensed customs broker and KYG’s Chief Product & Innovation Officer. “We designed our platform so organizations can safely leverage AI without exposing sensitive trade secrets to general-purpose LLMs.”
Rewarding Achievement. Empowering Trade Intelligence.
If you sat for the October 2025 CBLE and scored at least 50%, KYG is celebrating Kay’s accomplishment by providing you with a free subscription to its AI tariff and trade research tools. Get more information at [email protected] or https://www.kygtrade.com/contact-us.
Contact Information
Leslie Levy August
Chief Marketing Officer
[email protected]
650-391-7759
SOURCE: KYG Trade, Inc.
