The Task Exposure Indexv2026.Q3
Occupation · SOC 41-2021.00 · Job Zone 2

AI exposure: Counter and Rental Clerks

Receive orders, generally in person, for repairs, rentals, and services. May describe available options, compute cost, and accept payment.

Reading this score

computed

49.4% of this occupation's weighted task load is exposed, which puts Counter and Rental Clerks at the 88th percentile of 923 occupations. The capability is largely there. Its average task scores 2.9 out of 4 on what a current system can produce, and the frictions that hold other jobs in place are comparatively weak here.

What holds the line here is context. Across this occupation's 16 tasks it averages 1.66 out of 3, the highest of the five friction dimensions. In plain terms, the work depends on knowledge the model cannot hold. Much of this job runs on things that were never written down: what this particular organisation does, what happened last week, what the person across the table actually meant. That context is the barrier, and it erodes as systems are given more access.

The most exposed thing this job does is Allocate equipment to participants in sporting events or recreational activities, at 86.7%. The least is Prepare merchandise for display or for purchase or rental, at 0.0%. A gap of 86.7% between two parts of the same job is the reason this index publishes at task level. An occupation-wide number would have hidden both.

Within sales occupations, this one is less exposed than the median of 50.0% across the group's 22 roles, with 11 scoring higher. Being in an exposed family does not make a particular job exposed, and the reverse holds too.

What would move this score. Of 16 tasks, 12 are currently banded exposed, 1 assisted and 3 untouched. For that distribution to shift materially would take systems being given deeper access to the organisation's own records and history, which is already happening. The score is re-computed every quarter against a fresh capability reference, and the change is published rather than quietly applied.

Task by task

16 tasks, O*NET 31.0
TaskExposedAssistedUntouchedImportanceBand
Allocate equipment to participants in sporting events or recreational activities.86.7%13.3%0.0%3.30exposed
Recommend and provide advice on a wide variety of products and services.76.7%23.3%0.0%3.73exposed
Advise customers on use and care of merchandise.73.3%26.7%0.0%4.39exposed
Keep records of transactions and of the number of customers entering an establishment.73.3%26.7%0.0%4.14exposed
Provide information about rental items, such as availability, operation, or description.70.0%30.0%0.0%4.40exposed
Answer telephones to provide information and receive orders.67.1%20.4%12.5%4.32exposed
Reserve items for requested times and keep records of items rented.64.2%23.3%12.5%4.04exposed
Compute charges for merchandise or services and receive payments.61.3%26.2%12.5%4.66exposed
Receive orders for services, such as rentals, repairs, dry cleaning, and storage.55.0%20.0%25.0%4.42exposed
Prepare rental forms, obtaining customer signature and other information, such as required licenses.45.0%30.0%25.0%4.24exposed
Rent items, arrange for provision of services to customers, and accept returns.39.6%22.9%37.5%4.24exposed
Explain rental fees, policies, and procedures.35.0%40.0%25.0%4.40assisted
Greet customers and discuss the type, quality, and quantity of merchandise sought for rental.31.7%18.3%50.0%4.37exposed
Inspect and adjust rental items to meet needs of customer.10.0%15.0%75.0%4.24untouched
Receive, examine, and tag articles to be altered, cleaned, stored, or repaired.10.0%15.0%75.0%4.13untouched
Prepare merchandise for display or for purchase or rental.0.0%0.0%100.0%3.79untouched

Task text and importance ratings sourced from O*NET 31.0. Shares computed. The occupation score is the importance-weighted mean.

Where the score comes from

judged

Every task is scored through the standardised work activities it maps to. These are this occupation’s averages on the six rubric dimensions. Capability is what AI can do; the other five are what stands in the way.

DimensionMeanScale
Capability2.880-4
Embodiment0.880-3
Presence0.840-3
Accountability0.720-3
Context1.660-3
Verification cost0.970-3

What this means in practice

Where most of a role's weighted task load is exposed, the work that survives is usually the part of the job nobody wrote into the job description: deciding what should be produced rather than producing it, and being answerable for the result. The tasks lowest on this page are a better guide to where to spend your time than any general advice about the future of work.

Occupations either side of this one

The four closest scores in the same occupational family, then the four closest anywhere in the index.

Read this carefully. Exposure is not displacement. A high score means current AI systems can produce this work, not that anyone will stop paying a person to do it. Adoption depends on economics, regulation and inertia that this index deliberately does not model. How the score is built.