From September 23 to 27, 2026, the 5th Global Digital Trade Expo was held at the Hangzhou Grand Convention and Exhibition Center. Under the annual theme of "meeting the AI future at the Expo" and the exhibition concept "accessible, interactive, transactable", the event brought digital trade and AI into a single room. eSign.AI took part across several stages, well beyond its own booth.

Opening day: BRICS recognition moves from research toward action

On September 24 the Expo formally opened, and eSign.AI's founder and CEO attended the opening ceremony. The same day, the 2026 BRICS Special Economic Zones Hangzhou Dialogue was held in parallel. As a representative enterprise in digital trust among BRICS countries, eSign.AI joined the dialogue on building BRICS special economic zones and on mutual recognition of electronic signatures across borders. The event released the research findings on promoting mutual recognition of electronic signatures among BRICS countries, and five institutions signed a memorandum to advance the work together.

In discussion, eSign.AI's CEO noted that although global cross-border trade is enormous in scale, large-value transactions remain constrained by digitalisation costs, leaving growth potential untapped. Mutual trust in remote scenarios is the core problem of digital trade. Trust begins with identity: only by signing on the basis of a verified real identity, with dispute-resolution mechanisms in place, can the value of digital trade be fully released.

Rule-of-law forum and a Digital Trade award

On September 23, the day before the opening, the 5th Digital Trade Rule of Law Forum was held in Hangzhou. eSign.AI's CEO gave a keynote in the session on dispute resolution and the modernisation of rules. This year the forum focused on AI legal governance, rules for cross-border data flows, digital platform governance and digital trade dispute resolution. eSign.AI shared its latest thinking on digital trust in the AI era, centred on the identity and permission governance of agents in cross-border transactions. Cross-border signing has to solve the mutual recognition of a person's identity; the AI era adds the identity and permissions of an agent. Extending twenty years of trust capability, from authenticating people to authenticating agents, is where the frontier now lies.

At the Expo's DT Surprise showcase, eSign.AI's AI-powered integrated contract platform received an award, presented by a representative of China's Ministry of Commerce.

Cross-border recognition and the booth as a window

On September 22, the BRICS seminar on mutual recognition of electronic signatures was held in Hangzhou, hosted by the Secretariat of the China Center for Cooperation on Development of Special Economic Zones in BRICS Countries and organized by eSign.AI, drawing more than 50 representatives.

Throughout the Expo, the eSign.AI booth drew a steady stream of visitors, from Chinese government departments and provincial commerce and finance offices to international guests, including the Chief Information Officer of UNOPS, a counsellor from Uganda, and consuls general and diplomats from Russia, Belarus, Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan. Media including Zhejiang Television's news channel and Hangzhou Daily interviewed eSign.AI's CEO on topics ranging from BRICS mutual recognition to AI contract platforms and digital trust.

Twenty years ago, eSign.AI started from the trust of a single electronic contract. Today that trust crosses borders, languages and the boundary between people and agents. From Hangzhou, and from BRICS, eSign.AI is building that trust into every corner of global digital trade. The same recognition problem we help enterprises solve every day — from signature recognition across markets to emerging-market eID routes — was on stage here.

Event: 5th Global Digital Trade Expo, Hangzhou, September 23-27, 2026. eSign.AI participated across the opening ceremony, the Digital Trade Rule of Law Forum, the BRICS e-signature seminar and the BRICS Special Economic Zones Hangzhou Dialogue.