Before I began writing this article, I took the liberty to ask ChatGPT, Gemini, DeepSeek and Mistral about how AI can help beat US tariffs. All of them basically gave the same high-level replies, such as optimizing the supply chain, cost-cutting, improving efficiency, and so forth.
A more concrete answer simply eluded me. One thing for certain is that we’re merely scratching the surface of what AI can do for mankind. As of now, we’re seeing the proliferation of LLMs and AI agents. Are these AI mediums sufficient to help enterprises and governments lessen the impact of this imminent global trade war with the United States?
Countries Working Together, Trading With One Another
It’s not hard to imagine that this is already at play. The unpredictability of President Trump’s tariff policy should have compelled countries to unite closely in trade and to support one another at these trying times.
We foresee four years of trade battles with the US during Trump’s final tenure as POTUS, and four years is almost half a decade that should be taken seriously. Countries should be signing new bilateral trade agreements to enhance economic cooperation. But wait. Talking and agreeing are one thing, doing is another.
AI to Enhance Bilateral Communication
Let’s come down from building an AI castle in the air and be realistic about what AI can actually do at the onset of this tariff war. For countries to enhance trade, they need to communicate, albeit in multiple different languages.
English is still the universal trading language, covering 20% of the world’s linguistic population. Chinese, or rather, Mandarin, is probably the second most used language in global trade, but not on the frontline. Take Alibaba or AliExpress, for instance. Each platform comes with a built-in messaging tool that translates English to Chinese and back. This tool greatly enhances communication between global buyers with Chinese sellers. But what about strengthening trade with other countries beyond China?
Can Brazilians sell more coffee to South Korea? Can Koreans sell more cosmetic products to Vietnam? AI could revolutionize the way the world trades by optimizing language translation between different countries. Today’s LLMs are already capable of great linguistic capacity, and businesses should be exploiting this capability by trading with untapped countries where language has been an insurmountable barrier.
Enterprises across the world can rely on AI to translate text with near-perfect accuracy. Some even claim the interpretation is better than humans’. You can even get it to draft a business contract in perfect Japanese!
We could be creating a serendipitous blue ocean while we’re at it. Now, businesses can go beyond their borders and trade globally regardless of language. We could talk in Thai, French, or any other language whenever we need to.
All For One, And One For All
That is the reason why we developed an AI-powered mobile app for the sake of interpreting business conversations in real time. We can also trust today’s AI to do the job of drafting emails in languages we are completely unfamiliar. Ironically, most AI tools we use today are developed in U.S. soil, and we can now utilize them against their motherland. Anyhow, the world often seems to operate as a zero-sum game.