AI Automation Index

Will AI Replace Sales Representatives of Services, Except Advertising, Insurance, Financial Services, and Travel?

Task-level automation exposure for Sales Representatives of Services, Except Advertising, Insurance, Financial Services, and Travel: 15 O*NET tasks scored against their work activities, plus the simulator.

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Developed & audited by Gini Loh

Automation Exposure

62% weighted task index

15 of 15 tasks scored

Median Salary

$69,990 / year

BLS OEWS, May 2025 — this exact occupation

Employment Level

Very High

1,256,010 people hold this job — size, not growth

Projected 2025–35

+2.7% employment change

115,700 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.

$28,580 – $92,190

Highest medians

New York $92,190

Massachusetts $83,760

Rhode Island $81,450

California $80,850

Washington $79,920

Lowest medians

Puerto Rico $28,580

Guam $37,170

Virgin Islands $42,980

Mississippi $48,440

West Virginia $50,240

State figures come from the 41-3091 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 62%

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 50%

Share in analysis, decisions, teaching, directing, advising, or caring for others.

Routine administration 14%

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 2/100 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

15 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) 69%

10 tasks

Medium exposure (≥ 35%) 26%

4 tasks

Low exposure (below 35%) 6%

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

#23225 · Core · 70% automatable

Consult with clients after sales or contract signings to resolve problems and provide ongoing support.

information retrieval — Product-use advice is largely informational with review

Advise customers on the use of products or services.

#23222 · Core · 68% automatable

Answer customers' questions about services, prices, availability, or credit terms.

information retrieval — Product questions answered from knowledge base

Answer customer questions about goods or services.

#23228 · Core · 75% automatable

Develop sales presentations or proposals to explain service specifications.

text generation — Generates sales content drafts; human tailors and approves

Develop content for sales presentations or other materials.

#23227 · Core · 65% automatable

Create forms or agreements to complete sales.

text generation — Draft contracts; legal terms human-owned

Prepare sales or other contracts.

#23226 · Core · 45% automatable

Contact prospective or existing customers to discuss how services can meet their needs.

interpersonal — Outreach scripts drafted; live customer contact is human

Contact current or potential customers to promote products or services.

#23235 · Core · 38% automatable

Negotiate prices or terms of sales or service agreements.

interpersonal — Price negotiation needs live give-and-take

Negotiate prices or other sales terms.

#23236 · Core · 72% automatable

Quote prices, credit terms, contract terms, or fulfillment dates for services.

decision support — Estimates costs/terms; human negotiates and commits

Estimate costs or terms of sales.

#23233 · Core · 82% automatable

Maintain customer records using automated systems.

data analysis — Maintain structured customer account records

Maintain records of customer accounts.

#23231 · Core · 68% automatable

Identify prospective customers using business directories, leads from clients, or information from conferences or trade shows.

data analysis — AI analyzes market data to identify prospects

Identify potential customers.

#23232 · Core · 62% automatable

Inform customers of contracts or other information pertaining to purchased services.

decision support — Drafts advice; accountability and context owned by human

Advise others on business or operational matters.

#23230 · Core · 57% automatable

Emphasize or recommend service features based on knowledge of customers' needs and vendor capabilities and limitations.

decision support — Product recommendations need customer context and persuasion

Explain technical product or service information to customers. Recommend products or services to customers.

#23229 · Core · 15% automatable

Distribute promotional materials at meetings, conferences, or trade shows.

physical manipulation — Physically distributing samples and literature

Distribute promotional literature or samples to customers.

#23234 · Core · 81% automatable

Monitor market conditions, innovations, and competitors' services, prices, and sales.

information retrieval — AI extracts product specs and summarizes

Monitor market conditions or trends. Study product information to acquire professional knowledge.

#23224 · Supplemental · 79% automatable

Compute and compare costs of services.

data analysis — Cost calculation from structured inputs

Assess the cost effectiveness of products, projects, or services. Calculate costs of goods or services.

#23223 · Supplemental · 49% automatable

Attend sales or trade meetings or read related publications to obtain information about market conditions, business trends, regulations, or industry developments.

information retrieval — AI aggregates and analyzes market data at scale

Monitor market conditions or trends. Attend events to develop professional knowledge.

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Community Sentiment

Do you agree?

Do you agree with the AI automation risk score calculated for this occupation?

Method

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

See the full method →

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