Global trade still runs on paper. Bills of Lading, certificates of origin, price attestations, and other documents remain the backbone of maritime trade, yet also its most persistent Achilles’ heel.
Forged paperwork fuels fraud, delays compliance, and stalls cargo worth millions. Windward’s new AI-Automated Document Validation changes that, by cross-checking every document against what actually happened at sea.
A single shipment can generate more than 50 documents exchanged among 30 different parties — carriers, banks, insurers, forwarders, and regulators. Most remain paper-based, and the potential savings from digitization are mouth-watering. McKinsey estimates that digitizing Bills of Lading alone could cut $6.5 billion in direct costs each year and unlock $30–40 billion in additional trade flows.
Legal reform is beginning to catch up. The UK’s Electronic Trade Documents Act (2023), based on the UNCITRAL Model Law on Electronic Transferable Records (MLETR), grants electronic documents legal parity with paper. The UK government expects efficiency gains of up to £224 billion and processing time cut by 75%.
But legislation alone doesn’t hold a candle to the sheer scale and complexity of this challenge. Digitizing the thousands of documents that…