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AI Automation Index
Will AI Replace Counter and Rental Clerks?
Task-level automation exposure for Counter and Rental Clerks: 16 O*NET tasks scored against their work activities, plus the simulator.
E-E-A-T Verified
Developed & audited by Gini Loh Automation Exposure
55%
weighted task index
16 of 16 tasks scored
Median Salary
$41,300 / year
BLS OEWS, May 2025 — this exact occupation
Employment Level
Very High
400,810 people hold this job — size, not growth
Projected 2025–35
+3.0%
employment change
46,100 openings a year · BLS line item
Pay by state
BLS OEWS publishes 54 state estimates for this occupation. Each is its own survey estimate, not the national median adjusted for local prices.
$23,110 – $53,760
Highest medians
District of Columbia $53,760
New Jersey $48,900
Vermont $48,430
Washington $47,820
New Hampshire $47,250
Lowest medians
Puerto Rico $23,110
Guam $23,600
Virgin Islands $29,560
West Virginia $34,780
Louisiana $34,910
State figures come from the 41-2021 row in the May 2025 state panel. States where the estimate was suppressed or too small to publish are absent.
What the score is made of
Each task is mapped to its work activities, scored for AI automation potential, and weighted by how important those activities are to the job. These are the components.
Automation potential 55%
Importance-weighted mean of the scored tasks. This is the headline index.
Physical work 6%
Share of weighted tasks in hands-on or machine-operating work activities.
Judgment & influence 36%
Share in analysis, decisions, teaching, directing, advising, or caring for others.
Routine administration 46%
Share in documenting, recording, and administrative activities.
Rewritten by O*NET 0%
Share of weighted tasks O*NET rewrote in a recent update. Reported, not folded into the score.
Consequence of error 11/100
Low
O*NET's own rating of how serious an uncorrectable mistake would be here — respondents, not us. Deliberately not in the index: the score measures what AI can do with the task content, and multiplying it by stakes would be our judgment dressed as data.
Constituent Task Mix
16 tasks for this occupation, weighted by work-activity importance. Shares below are of total task weight, not task count.
High exposure (≥ 60% of the task is automatable) 62%
10 tasks
Medium exposure (≥ 35%) 13%
2 tasks
Low exposure (below 35%) 25%
4 tasks
How would you survive?
Move your week away from the high-exposure tasks and toward the ones that need judgment. The simulator recalculates the index as you shift the mix.
Simulate Upskilling →Constituent Tasks
#678 · Core · 69% automatable
Compute charges for merchandise or services and receive payments.
data analysis — Cost calculation from structured inputs
Calculate costs of goods or services. Process sales or other transactions.
#689 · Core · 70% automatable
Receive orders for services, such as rentals, repairs, dry cleaning, and storage.
interpersonal — Order capture automatable; customer interaction partly human
Take product orders from customers.
#687 · Core · 55% automatable
Explain rental fees, policies, and procedures.
interpersonal — Explaining finances to customers is relational
Explain financial information to customers.
#691 · Core · 63% automatable
Provide information about rental items, such as availability, operation, or description.
information retrieval — Product-use advice is largely informational with review
Explain technical product or service information to customers. Advise customers on the use of products or services.
#692 · Core · 70% automatable
Advise customers on use and care of merchandise.
information retrieval — Product-use advice is largely informational with review
Advise customers on the use of products or services.
#682 · Core · 33% automatable
Greet customers and discuss the type, quality, and quantity of merchandise sought for rental.
interpersonal — Customer needs discovery needs live interaction
Gather customer or product information to determine customer needs. Greet customers, patrons, or visitors.
#681 · Core · 69% automatable
Answer telephones to provide information and receive orders.
interpersonal — Order capture automatable; customer interaction partly human
Answer customer questions about goods or services. Take product orders from customers.
#686 · Core · 22% automatable
Inspect and adjust rental items to meet needs of customer.
visual inspection — Property condition assessment requires physical presence
Examine condition of property or products.
#684 · Core · 65% automatable
Prepare rental forms, obtaining customer signature and other information, such as required licenses.
text generation — Draft contracts; legal terms human-owned
Prepare sales or other contracts.
#690 · Core · 44% automatable
Rent items, arrange for provision of services to customers, and accept returns.
data analysis — Transaction processing software-driven; human handles exceptions
Sell products or services. Process sales or other transactions.
#683 · Core · 85% automatable
Keep records of transactions and of the number of customers entering an establishment.
data analysis — Maintain structured sales records via tools
Maintain records of sales or other business transactions.
#685 · Core · 22% automatable
Receive, examine, and tag articles to be altered, cleaned, stored, or repaired.
visual inspection — Property condition assessment requires physical presence
Examine condition of property or products.
#688 · Core · 78% automatable
Reserve items for requested times and keep records of items rented.
data analysis — Maintain structured sales records via tools
Maintain records of sales or other business transactions. Take product orders from customers.
#679 · Core · 6% automatable
Prepare merchandise for display or for purchase or rental.
physical manipulation — Setting up displays requires hands-on placement
Set up merchandise displays.
#680 · Core · 65% automatable
Recommend and provide advice on a wide variety of products and services.
information retrieval — Product-use advice is largely informational with review
Advise customers on the use of products or services. Recommend products or services to customers.
#693 · Supplemental · 78% automatable
Allocate equipment to participants in sporting events or recreational activities.
information retrieval — Arranging reservations and services via tools
Arrange services or reservations for patrons.
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How this was scored
- 1. Tasks. O*NET task statements for this occupation, from a release whose newest record is dated 08/2026.
- 2. Work activities. Each task maps to 1–5 Detailed Work Activities; each activity belongs to one of 41 Generalized Work Activities that O*NET rates for importance (1–5) in this occupation.
- 3. Automation potential. Every work activity carries one score for how far current AI can perform it end-to-end. Tasks inherit the mean of their activities.
- 4. Weighting. Task weight = 0.35 + 0.65 × (importance − 1)/4, scaled by how often the task is performed and by 0.7 for Supplemental tasks. Importance is the task's own O*NET rating where it exists (18,369 of 18,838 tasks); the rest inherit their work activities' importance. The index is the weighted mean.
Check: across the 910 occupations where O*NET also rates how far machine speed sets the pace, this index moves opposite to it (Spearman ρ = -0.49). The more a job is paced by equipment, the less of its task content AI can address — the relationship you would expect if the scoring is working.
Sources · O*NET 31.0 (task records to 08/2026) · BLS OEWS May 2025 · BLS projections 2025-2035 · rubric v2.1 · tasks for O*NET, not a forecast
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