International Review of Digital Trade and Artificial Intelligence
Keywords:
Algorithmic systems, artificial intelligence, cross-border e-commerce, data governance, digital trade, global value chains, trade automationAbstract
The acceleration of digital trade has fundamentally reshaped the global economic landscape, with Artificial Intelligence (AI) emerging as a central driver of cross-border innovation, efficiency, and competitiveness. Recent advances in AI-enabled e-commerce automation, predictive logistics, data governance, and digital financial systems have increased the velocity, trustworthiness, and scalability of international digital markets. However, the integration of AI into global trade remains fragmented due to uneven regulatory regimes, data sovereignty conflicts, infrastructure disparities, and algorithmic risks. Existing studies provide important insights into the intersection of AI and digital trade, but a holistic, unified analytical framework remains missing. This article offers a comprehensive international review of AI-enabled digital trade and introduces the AI-Driven Digital Trade Integration Framework (AIDTIF), which conceptualizes AI’s role across digital infrastructure, regulatory governance, enterprise adoption, cybersecurity, and global value chain participation. The framework is validated through comparative literature triangulation, theoretical reasoning, and scenario-based assessments grounded in existing empirical work. Findings demonstrate that AI significantly enhances digital trade performance by reducing transaction friction, enabling scalable analytics, improving cross-border logistics, supporting small-market inclusion, and strengthening digital compliance. However, risks related to algorithmic bias, cybersecurity, legal fragmentation, and unequal absorption capacity remain persistent. The article concludes by outlining strategic policy, industry, and research recommendations to build an interoperable, equitable, and sustainable AI-enabled global trade ecosystem.
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