Manifest Vegas: Q&A with Gaia Dynamics' Emil Stefanutti
The modern supply chain is drowning in data, but for most companies, that data is more of a liability than an asset. With error rates hovering around 30% and customs scrutiny skyrocketing, the "human-only" approach to global trade compliance is reaching a breaking point.
As governments double down on enforcement, Gaia Dynamics is stepping in to digitise the border. By leveraging AI to classify tens of thousands of SKUs in hours rather than months, they are helping importers avoid the massive costs of non-compliance.
We caught up with Emil Stefanutti, Co-Founder and CEO of Gaia Dynamics, at Manifest Vegas to discuss the "perfect storm" of trade complexity, the 600% surge in customs audits, and why the next 18 months will be a reckoning for manual processes.
Could you tell us about your background and what led you to found Gaia Dynamics?
We started the company last year, but the spark happened about 18 months ago. We saw this massive, looming problem: volumes were increasing, and complexities were compounding.
Most companies are operating with more than 30% errors in their data, which is a staggering number when you consider the stakes. We decided it was the perfect time to build a company that could actually handle that scale.
How has the regulatory landscape shifted for your customers recently?
It’s become much more aggressive. Scrutiny by customs has gone up about 600% in just the last couple of years.
The government is doubling down on enforcement, which means making a mistake is now more costly than it’s ever been. You have this combination of massive volumes and "big confusion," and frankly, there just aren't enough non-human tools out there to get the work done accurately.
Can you share a specific example of how Gaia Dynamics has impacted a supply chain?
We had a customer come to us with a list of 50,000 parts that needed proper classification for imports. They had talked to a traditional broker first, and the estimate was grim: 30 minutes per product. If you do the math on 50,000 parts, that is almost an entire year of work for a team of ten people.
With our technology, we were able to complete that entire project in just two days. It was 200 times faster and at 1% of the traditional cost. That is the difference between being stuck in a bottleneck and actually moving at the speed of modern commerce.
What do you see as the biggest driver for change in this space over the next 18 months?
It comes down to the realisation that you cannot solve these problems with human labour alone anymore. Technology allows you to do this at scale – fast, efficiently, and accurately. The need for these tools is going to keep growing quickly because the complexity isn't going away.
Leaders are realising they need to move away from the "big confusion" and toward automated precision if they want to survive this level of enforcement.