The Task Exposure Indexv2026.Q3
Occupation · SOC 41-9031.00 · Job Zone 4

AI exposure: Sales Engineers

Sell business goods or services, the selling of which requires a technical background equivalent to a baccalaureate degree in engineering.

Reading this score

computed

53.9% of this occupation's weighted task load is exposed, which puts Sales Engineers at the 92th percentile of 923 occupations. The capability is largely there. Its average task scores 3.1 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 25 tasks it averages 1.84 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 Identify resale opportunities and support them to achieve sales plans, at 80.0%. The least is Attend company training seminars to become familiar with product lines, at 0.0%. A gap of 80.0% 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 more exposed than most. The median across the 22 roles in the group is 49.4%, and only 6 of them score higher than this. Occupational families are not uniform, and the spread inside them is often wider than the gap between them.

What would move this score. Of 25 tasks, 22 are currently banded exposed, 1 assisted and 2 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

25 tasks, O*NET 31.0
TaskExposedAssistedUntouchedImportanceBand
Identify resale opportunities and support them to achieve sales plans.80.0%20.0%0.0%4.02exposed
Research and identify potential customers for products or services.80.0%20.0%0.0%3.85exposed
Arrange for demonstrations or trial installations of equipment.80.0%20.0%0.0%3.37exposed
Develop, present, or respond to proposals for specific customer requirements, including request for proposal responses and industry-specific solutions.73.3%26.7%0.0%4.58exposed
Collaborate with sales teams to understand customer requirements, to promote the sale of company products, and to provide sales support.73.3%26.7%0.0%4.37exposed
Keep informed on industry news and trends, products, services, competitors, relevant information about legacy, existing, and emerging technologies, and the latest product-line developments.73.3%26.7%0.0%4.05exposed
Document account activities, generate reports, and keep records of business transactions with customers and suppliers.73.3%26.7%0.0%3.91exposed
Provide technical and non-technical support and services to clients or other staff members regarding the use, operation, and maintenance of equipment.73.3%26.7%0.0%3.68exposed
Write technical documentation for products.73.3%26.7%0.0%3.23exposed
Report to supervisors about prospective firms' credit ratings.73.3%26.7%0.0%2.64exposed
Maintain sales forecasting reports.60.0%40.0%0.0%3.92exposed
Prepare and deliver technical presentations that explain products or services to customers and prospective customers.55.6%27.8%16.7%3.95exposed
Recommend improved materials or machinery to customers, documenting how such changes will lower costs or increase production.55.4%32.1%12.5%3.93exposed
Develop sales plans to introduce products in new markets.55.0%20.0%25.0%3.79exposed
Confer with customers and engineers to assess equipment needs and to determine system requirements.50.0%25.0%25.0%3.98exposed
Secure and renew orders and arrange delivery.50.0%25.0%25.0%3.84exposed
Create sales or service contracts for products or services.45.0%30.0%25.0%4.15exposed
Provide information needed for the development of custom-made machinery.45.0%30.0%25.0%3.70exposed
Visit prospective buyers at commercial, industrial, or other establishments to show samples or catalogs, and to inform them about product pricing, availability, and advantages.43.8%18.8%37.5%4.12exposed
Train team members in the customer applications of technologies.30.0%20.0%50.0%3.16exposed
Sell products requiring extensive technical expertise and support for installation and use, such as material handling equipment, numerical-control machinery, or computer systems.30.0%20.0%50.0%4.64exposed
Plan and modify product configurations to meet customer needs.26.7%23.3%50.0%3.96exposed
Diagnose problems with installed equipment.23.3%26.7%50.0%3.56assisted
Attend trade shows and seminars to promote products or to learn about industry developments.0.0%0.0%100.0%3.66untouched
Attend company training seminars to become familiar with product lines.0.0%0.0%100.0%3.55untouched

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
Capability3.050-4
Embodiment0.450-3
Presence0.850-3
Accountability0.690-3
Context1.840-3
Verification cost1.080-3

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.