As regulatory scrutiny of global supply chains intensifies, Retraced is introducing an artificial intelligence (AI) feature for fashion brands to review supplier documentation tied to purchase orders more quickly.
The Düsseldorf-based supply chain traceability platform said the tool, dubbed Tracing AI, automatically reviews documents uploaded by suppliers and flags inconsistencies in supplier names, product details and quantities. The system is built into Retraced’s existing purchase order workflow and is already available to the company’s customers.
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“Scaling traceability has always been limited by the time and expertise required to review chain of custody documentation,” said Philipp Mayer, co-founder and chief product officer at Retraced. “With Tracing AI, we support brands and supply chain partners in identifying inconsistencies across large volumes of data, including foreign-language documents. Our goal is to significantly reduce manual effort and provide structured guidance for risk assessment. By automatically highlighting potential issues, teams can direct their expertise to the areas where it creates the greatest impact.”
According to Retraced, manual document checks tied to a single purchase order can take up to 90 minutes. The company said the AI system can reduce that process to roughly 10 minutes by automatically assessing uploaded files and producing a validation summary that displays potential risks or data gaps.
The system is intended to help brands scale supply chain documentation efforts as traceability programs expand beyond tier-one suppliers to deeper levels of production.
“Forced labor regulations have raised the bar for chain of custody traceability, but the manual workload it creates is unsustainable for both brands and suppliers,” said Lukas Puender, chief executive officer and co-founder of Retraced. “Our Tracing AI was developed in direct response to this problem. It provides brands and suppliers a way to review documentation more efficiently. Instead of up to 90 minutes, validation of POs can be done within 10 minutes. This allows our industry to trace deeper and act faster, especially when facing regulatory pressure.”
The company said the tool can analyze documents across multiple languages and automatically check supplier submissions against expected purchase order information.
Retraced customer Tom Tailor, for one, is among the companies testing the feature.
“Tracing AI transforms how we handle supply chain transparency,” said Dejan Veselinovic, senior specialist for sustainability and corporate responsibility at Tom Tailor. “By automatically reading uploaded documents and performing plausibility checks, it streamlines complex workflows and saves valuable time.”
Retraced said more than 150 brands use its platform and connects roughly 25,000 suppliers globally.
