Transforming Small Businesses 2025

USE CASE ILLUSTRATION 1 AI agent-enabled export compliance A medium-sized Indian enterprise specializes in the manufacturing and export of masalas (spices) and gums. Exports are a significant source of revenue for the company, with 80% of its revenue coming from exports, primarily serving markets in the United Kingdom, the United States, Canada and the continent of Africa. The company’s export operations are managed by a team of three – one manager overseeing the entire process, with two team members handling pre-shipment and post-shipment procedures. It still relies on manual documentation and compliance processes, which creates significant inefficiencies and sometimes leads to delays in the export timeline. The current pre-shipment process involves obtaining Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI) certification, a registration-cum-membership certificate from the Spice Board and a letter of undertaking (LUT) from the GST department. A pro-forma invoice and customs invoice are then prepared upon receiving an export order. All of these documents are forwarded to the CHA. The second member of the team then gets the vessel schedule from the shipper, books a shipping vehicle, receives a packing list from the shipper and forwards it along with the commercial invoice, certificate of origin and laboratory testing report to the CHA. The CHA next forwards the bill of lading to the company. The entire export process can be simplified to a great extent by using AI and AI agents to automate the process. An illustration of how AI agents can automate this process is presented below. Note: GSTIN = Goods and Service Tax Network number; DGFT = Directorate General of Foreign Trade; GST = goods-and-services tax; IEC = importer-exporter code; RBI = Reserve Bank of India; ECGC = formerly the Export Credit Guarantee Corporation. Source: World Economic ForumUsing AI to simplify export paperwork for MSMEs AI-enabled MSME export compliance DGFT compliance requirementsGST compliance requirementsBank policiesCustoms requirementsRBI forex compliance requirementsLarge language modelRegistries available at government ministries Dynamic or real-time MSME data Logistics partnerCustomsTrade Promotion CouncilECGCBankGSTDGFTMeta agent Tracks purchase orders and orchestrates other agents to fulfil purchase order Supporting registries DGFT registry Customs registry GST compliance registry Bank compliance registry Country compliance registryPurchase order Agent A Creates a relevant list of compliance requirements based on purchase orderAgent C Creates the required documentation as per templatesAgent B Ingests and consolidates requisite data for compliance Export clearance certificateInsurance certificateCertificate of originBill of ladingIECAgent D Gathers the required certifications and forwards them to relevant parties Financial dataQuality dataProduct dataBuyer dataIdentity data Submits documents to relevant authorities upon MSME approvalCore registries Udyam registration number GSTIN Georeferenced location Product registryDynamic MSME data Purchase order data Buyer data Product data Quality data Pricing data Transforming Small Businesses: An AI Playbook for India’s SMEs 34