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AI Automation Index
Will AI Replace Purchasing Agents, Except Wholesale, Retail, and Farm Products?
Task-level automation exposure for Purchasing Agents, Except Wholesale, Retail, and Farm Products: 19 O*NET tasks scored against their work activities, plus the simulator.
E-E-A-T Verified
Developed & audited by Gini Loh Automation Exposure
59%
weighted task index
19 of 19 tasks scored
Median Salary
$77,710 / year
BLS OEWS, May 2025 — this exact occupation
Employment Level
Very High
491,430 people hold this job — size, not growth
Projected 2025–35
+6.0%
employment change
47,200 openings a year · BLS roll-up 13-1020
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.
$36,750 – $124,090
Highest medians
District of Columbia $124,090
New Jersey $93,250
Maryland $90,900
Virginia $89,210
Rhode Island $86,240
Lowest medians
Puerto Rico $36,750
Virgin Islands $52,480
Montana $62,850
Kentucky $65,240
Vermont $65,330
OEWS has no state row for this exact code, so figures come from the 13-1020 roll-up. 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 59%
Importance-weighted mean of the scored tasks. This is the headline index.
Physical work 0%
Share of weighted tasks in hands-on or machine-operating work activities.
Judgment & influence 28%
Share in analysis, decisions, teaching, directing, advising, or caring for others.
Routine administration 16%
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
19 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) 61%
11 tasks
Medium exposure (≥ 35%) 34%
7 tasks
Low exposure (below 35%) 4%
1 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
#1146 · Core · 65% automatable
Monitor and follow applicable laws and regulations.
information retrieval — Law-to-activity mapping; human owns compliance
Evaluate applicable laws and regulations to determine impact on organizational activities.
#1142 · Core · 60% automatable
Purchase the highest quality merchandise at the lowest possible price and in correct amounts.
decision support — Purchase research automatable; human authorizes spend
Purchase products or services.
#1159 · Core · 55% automatable
Formulate policies and procedures for bid proposals and procurement of goods and services.
decision support — AI drafts guidelines; authority and context are human
Establish organizational guidelines or policies.
#1143 · Core · 57% automatable
Prepare purchase orders, solicit bid proposals, and review requisitions for goods and services.
decision support — Purchase research automatable; human authorizes spend
Execute sales or other financial transactions. Purchase products or services.
#1157 · Core · 60% automatable
Write and review product specifications, maintaining a working technical knowledge of the goods or services to be purchased.
decision support — Technical specs drafted; human verifies
Develop technical specifications for systems or equipment.
#1145 · Core · 80% automatable
Analyze price proposals, financial reports, and other data and information to determine reasonable prices.
data analysis — Analyzes structured financial data with tools
Analyze business or financial data.
#1156 · Core · 40% automatable
Hire, train, or supervise purchasing clerks, buyers, and expediters.
interpersonal — Job-skill training content AI-assisted; coaching human
Train personnel to enhance job skills. Supervise employees.
#1144 · Core · 72% automatable
Research and evaluate suppliers, based on price, quality, selection, service, support, availability, reliability, production and distribution capabilities, and the supplier's reputation and history.
information retrieval — Web research on goods/services, human verifies vendors
Obtain information about goods or services.
#1150 · Core · 62% automatable
Evaluate and monitor contract performance to ensure compliance with contractual obligations and to determine need for changes.
data analysis — Organizational process monitoring is largely digital and analyzable
Monitor organizational processes.
#1147 · Core · 35% automatable
Negotiate, renegotiate, and administer contracts with suppliers, vendors, and other representatives.
interpersonal — Contract negotiation needs mandate and accountability
Negotiate contracts with clients or service providers.
#1153 · Core · 62% automatable
Study sales records and inventory levels of current stock to develop strategic purchasing programs that facilitate employee access to supplies.
data analysis — System inventory monitoring automatable; physical audit human
Monitor inventories of products or materials.
#1149 · Core · 45% automatable
Confer with staff, users, and vendors to discuss defective or unacceptable goods or services and determine corrective action.
interpersonal — Business operations coordination is live and relational
Confer with personnel to coordinate business operations.
#1151 · Core · 74% automatable
Maintain and review computerized or manual records of purchased items, costs, deliveries, product performance, and inventories.
data analysis — Enter and maintain data in information systems
Maintain data in information systems or databases. Monitor inventories of products or materials.
#1158 · Core · 71% automatable
Monitor changes affecting supply and demand, tracking market conditions, price trends, or futures markets.
data analysis — Market trend analysis from provided data
Estimate demand for products or services. Analyze market conditions or trends.
#1148 · Core · 62% automatable
Monitor shipments to ensure that goods come in on time, and resolve problems related to undelivered goods.
data analysis — System inventory monitoring automatable; physical audit human
Monitor inventories of products or materials.
#1152 · Core · 59% automatable
Review catalogs, industry periodicals, directories, trade journals, and Internet sites and consult with other department personnel to locate necessary goods and services.
information retrieval — Web research on goods/services, human verifies vendors
Obtain information about goods or services. Confer with personnel to coordinate business operations.
#1160 · Core · 25% automatable
Attend meetings, trade shows, conferences, conventions, and seminars to network with people in other purchasing departments.
interpersonal — Business relationships require human trust and presence
Develop business relationships.
#1155 · Supplemental · 65% automatable
Arrange the payment of duty and freight charges.
data analysis — Payments executed via systems; human authorizes
Pay charges, fees, or taxes.
#1154 · Supplemental · 42% automatable
Interview vendors and visit suppliers' plants and distribution centers to examine and learn about products, services, and prices.
interpersonal — Live interview judgment and rapport; AI can only screen
Conduct eligibility or selection interviews.
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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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