AI exposure: Sales Representatives, Wholesale and Manufacturing, Technical and Scientific Products
Sell goods for wholesalers or manufacturers where technical or scientific knowledge is required in such areas as biology, engineering, chemistry, and electronics, normally obtained from at least 2 years of postsecondary education.
Reading this score
computedSales Representatives, Wholesale and Manufacturing, Technical and Scientific Products sits in the top 4% of every occupation measured. 60.5% of what this job consists of, weighted by how important each task is to the role, is work current AI systems can produce with little standing in the way. Very few occupations score this high. The ones that do tend to share a trait: the output is a document, a calculation or a message, and nobody has to be in a particular room for it to count.
What holds the line here is context. Across this occupation's 33 tasks it averages 1.85 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 Answer customers' questions about products, prices, availability, or credit terms, at 80.0%. The least is Stock or distribute resources, 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 2 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 33 tasks, 31 are currently banded exposed, 0 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
33 tasks, O*NET 31.0| Task | Exposed | Assisted | Untouched | Importance | Band |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Answer customers' questions about products, prices, availability, or credit terms. | 80.0% | 20.0% | 0.0% | 4.15 | exposed |
| Contact new or existing customers to discuss how specific products or services can meet their needs. | 80.0% | 20.0% | 0.0% | 4.07 | exposed |
| Select or assist customers in selecting products based on customer needs, product specifications, and applicable regulations. | 80.0% | 20.0% | 0.0% | 3.87 | exposed |
| Prepare sales presentations or proposals to explain product specifications or applications. | 80.0% | 20.0% | 0.0% | 3.86 | exposed |
| Identify prospective customers, using business directories, leads from existing clients, participation in organizations, or trade show or conference attendance. | 80.0% | 20.0% | 0.0% | 3.79 | exposed |
| Maintain customer records, using automated systems. | 73.3% | 26.7% | 0.0% | 4.20 | exposed |
| Verify that delivery schedules meet project deadlines. | 73.3% | 26.7% | 0.0% | 3.83 | exposed |
| Collaborate with colleagues to exchange information, such as selling strategies or marketing information. | 73.3% | 26.7% | 0.0% | 3.70 | exposed |
| Provide customers with ongoing technical support. | 73.3% | 26.7% | 0.0% | 3.68 | exposed |
| Advise customers on product usage to improve production. | 73.3% | 26.7% | 0.0% | 3.65 | exposed |
| Arrange for installation and testing of products or machinery. | 73.3% | 26.7% | 0.0% | 3.78 | exposed |
| Verify accuracy of materials lists. | 73.3% | 26.7% | 0.0% | 3.62 | exposed |
| Visit establishments, such as pharmacies, to determine product sales. | 73.3% | 26.7% | 0.0% | 3.21 | exposed |
| Inform customers about issues related to responsible use and disposal of products, such as waste reduction or product or byproduct recycling or disposal. | 73.3% | 26.7% | 0.0% | 2.89 | exposed |
| Visit establishments to evaluate needs or to promote product or service sales. | 67.1% | 20.4% | 12.5% | 4.22 | exposed |
| Emphasize product features, based on analyses of customers' needs and on technical knowledge of product capabilities and limitations. | 66.7% | 33.3% | 0.0% | 4.03 | exposed |
| Complete expense reports, sales reports, or other paperwork. | 66.7% | 33.3% | 0.0% | 3.84 | exposed |
| Inform customers of estimated delivery schedules, service contracts, warranties, or other information pertaining to purchased products. | 66.7% | 33.3% | 0.0% | 3.75 | exposed |
| Study documentation or other information for new scientific or technical products. | 60.0% | 15.0% | 25.0% | 3.35 | exposed |
| Verify customer credit ratings. | 60.0% | 40.0% | 0.0% | 3.58 | exposed |
| Quote prices, credit terms, or other bid specifications. | 55.0% | 20.0% | 25.0% | 4.10 | exposed |
| Compute customer's installation or production costs and estimate savings from new services, products, or equipment. | 55.0% | 20.0% | 25.0% | 4.00 | exposed |
| Initiate sales campaigns to meet sales and production expectations. | 50.0% | 25.0% | 25.0% | 3.70 | exposed |
| Prepare and submit sales contracts for orders. | 47.5% | 27.5% | 25.0% | 4.24 | exposed |
| Provide feedback to product design teams so that products can be tailored to clients' needs. | 45.0% | 30.0% | 25.0% | 3.88 | exposed |
| Consult with engineers regarding technical problems with products. | 45.0% | 30.0% | 25.0% | 3.51 | exposed |
| Present information to customers about the energy efficiency or environmental impact of scientific or technical products. | 45.0% | 30.0% | 25.0% | 2.94 | exposed |
| Attend sales or trade meetings or read related publications to obtain information about market conditions, business trends, environmental regulations, or industry developments. | 33.3% | 16.7% | 50.0% | 3.27 | exposed |
| Negotiate prices or terms of sales or service agreements. | 30.0% | 20.0% | 50.0% | 4.30 | exposed |
| Sell service contracts for technical or scientific products. | 30.0% | 20.0% | 50.0% | 4.22 | exposed |
| Sell technical and scientific products that are environmentally sound or designed for environmental remediation. | 30.0% | 20.0% | 50.0% | 3.49 | exposed |
| Demonstrate the operation or use of technical or scientific products. | 15.0% | 10.0% | 75.0% | 3.99 | untouched |
| Stock or distribute resources, such as samples or promotional or educational materials. | 0.0% | 0.0% | 100.0% | 3.33 | untouched |
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
judgedEvery 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.
| Dimension | Mean | Scale |
|---|---|---|
| Capability | 3.29 | 0-4 |
| Embodiment | 0.30 | 0-3 |
| Presence | 0.67 | 0-3 |
| Accountability | 0.68 | 0-3 |
| Context | 1.85 | 0-3 |
| Verification cost | 0.98 | 0-3 |
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.