Retail Salespersons

Most exposed tasks

Highest structured exposure values in this role’s task mix — the work AI systems can already do most of.

• Maintain records related to sales.67
• Open and close cash registers, performing tasks such as counting money, separating charge slips, coupons, and vouchers, balancing cash drawers, and making deposits.67
• Compute sales prices, total purchases, and receive and process cash or credit payment.62

Augmentable tasks

Work where AI assists rather than replaces — the productivity frontier of this role.

• Inventory stock and requisition new stock.59
• Greet customers and ascertain what each customer wants or needs.57
• Exchange merchandise for customers and accept returns.57

Most durable tasks

Lowest exposure — typically judgment, relationships, physical presence, or accountability. This is the human moat.

The current data release does not distinguish durable tasks for this role.

Task exposure values and classifications come from the versioned data release — they are structured data, not model output. Bars show exposure contribution relative to this role’s task mix.

What this means

A score of 56 puts Retail Salespersons in the third quartile of analyzed occupations. In practice, exposure this high is about the mix: 5 of 20 analyzed tasks lean automatable, 15 augmentable, and 0 durable. The useful question isn’t “will AI take this job” — it’s which tasks go first, which get faster, and where to reposition time. That’s what the personalized report maps against your actual week.

One next move: audit how much of your week sits in the exposed tasks above — then shift time toward the durable set or investigate the adjacent roles below.

Lower-exposure adjacent roles

Shown only when the target is at least 10 points lower under the same score version and skill overlap is at least 50%. These are adjacent roles with lower task exposure — not guaranteed “safe careers”.

Labor-market context

• $35,410median wage
• 3,897,860employed
• 555,800annual openings
• -0.5%projected growth

Context only — labor statistics are not inputs to the exposure score. See methodology.

Related roles

Adjacent by skills or family — no exposure claim implied.

• Counter and Rental Clerks 64
• Door-to-Door Sales Workers, News and Street Vendors, and Related Workers 47
• Stockers and Order Fillers 61
• First-Line Supervisors of Retail Sales Workers 56
• Parts Salespersons 55
• Cashiers 60

FAQ — Retail Salespersons

What does a score of 56 mean for a Retail Salespersons?

It means that, weighted across the 20 tasks we analyzed for this role, the task mix sits at 56 on a 0–100 exposure scale — in the third quartile of analyzed occupations. It measures task exposure to current and near-term AI capabilities, not the probability of losing a job.

Which tasks in this role are most exposed to AI?

The highest-exposure tasks are: Maintain records related to sales; Open and close cash registers, performing tasks such as counting money, separating charge slips, coupons, and vouchers, balancing cash drawers, and making deposits; Compute sales prices, total purchases, and receive and process cash or credit payment. Exposure is scored per task from structured data, not generated by a language model.

Which parts of this job are most durable?

The current data release does not distinguish durable tasks for this role.

Is this score personalized to me?

No — this page shows the occupation-level baseline. Two people with the same title often do different work. The $9 personalized report recalculates the score from the tasks you actually do and builds a concrete 7/30/90-day plan around them.