May 25, 2026 | AI and product innovation

ONESOURCE Global Trade Research AI, a new CoCounsel-powered AI research tool demonstrated its accuracy by passing all six publicly available U.S. Customs Broker License Exams (CBLE) administered over the last three years – 18 total runs, spanning April 2023 through October 2025 – with a mean score above 84%, including through two years of significant tariff and regulatory change.

The exam is widely regarded as one of the hardest professional licensing exams in the United States, with pass rates typically ranging from 30% to as low as 2%. Candidates must navigate thousands of pages of CBP regulations, directives, rulings, and procedures, as well as The Harmonized Tariff Schedule which includes 99 chapters covering every tradable product.

The results reflect Thomson Reuters commitment to Fiduciary-Grade AI^TM – built to meet a higher standard than general productivity tools, to stand up to scrutiny and with outputs that are reliable and verifiable.

Embedded within the existing ONESOURCE Global Trade Management platform, Global Trade Research AI represents a significant development in trade compliance technology. Demonstrating advanced regulatory reasoning, document-based reasoning at scale, and complex synthesis of multiple sources to help with trade-based research tasks. Unlike general-purpose AI tools, the system is trained on over 100,000 pages of authoritative government sources, including Federal Register notices, CBP CSMS messages, and executive orders.

Meeting Strategic Demands in Trade Compliance
The launch comes as trade departments experience unprecedented elevation within their organizations. According to Thomson Reuters 2026 Global Trade Report, 43% of trade professionals report increased budgets for hiring, while 37% report more frequent involvement in executive decision-making.

“Trade teams are being asked to become strategic partners rather than operational functionaries,” said Ray Grove, head of product, Global Tax and Trade, Thomson Reuters. “They need tools that can provide instant, accurate regulatory intelligence to support real-time business decisions.”

The shift reflects broader changes in how organizations view trade compliance. More than three-quarters of legal trade professionals (76%) believe current U.S. tariff approaches represent a permanent change rather than temporary policy tools, according to the report.

And, it reflects growing enterprise adoption of specialized AI tools for professional services. Unlike consumer-focused AI applications, Global Trade Research AI is purpose-built for regulatory compliance workflows and trained exclusively on verified government sources rather than web-scraped content.

Technical Capabilities and Accuracy
Global Trade Research AI processes natural language queries such as “What are the current tariff rates for HTS 8708.29 from Mexico vs. China?” or “What FTA benefits apply to automotive parts from Mexico?”  The system synthesizes information across multiple regulatory sources and provides cited responses within seconds.

Key technical features include:

• Authoritative sourcing: Every response includes citations linking to primary government documents
• Real-time updates: Knowledge base refreshes as regulations change, with average update times under one business day
• Trade-specific intelligence: Understands HTS codes, duty drawback procedures, customs warehouse operations, and FTA rules
• Integrated platform: Embedded directly within ONESOURCE Global Trade Management workflow
• The system’s performance across 18 runs of the CBP licensing exam – spanning three years of changing tariff policy, demonstrates consistent ability to handle complex regulatory scenarios that typically require extensive professional training.

This is Fiduciary-Grade AI in practice: every answer is traceable, every source is authoritative, and the system is built to support decisions where being wrong carries real professional and financial consequence. Trade professionals can access Global Trade Research AI through their existing ONESOURCE Global Trade Management platform, maintaining workflow continuity while adding AI-powered research capabilities.