AI Automation Index

Will AI Replace Wholesale and Retail Buyers, Except Farm Products?

Task-level automation exposure for Wholesale and Retail Buyers, Except Farm Products: 16 O*NET tasks scored against their work activities, plus the simulator.

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Developed & audited by Gini Loh

Automation Exposure

58% weighted task index

16 of 16 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 58%

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 41%

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

Routine administration 7%

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 14/100 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%) 38%

6 tasks

Low exposure (below 35%) 0%

0 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

#20711 · Core · 35% automatable

Negotiate prices, discount terms, or transportation arrangements with suppliers.

interpersonal — Contract negotiation needs mandate and accountability

Negotiate contracts with clients or service providers.

#20716 · Core · 70% automatable

Inspect merchandise or products to determine quality, value, or yield.

decision support — Valuation aided; human owns final value judgment

Determine the value of goods or services.

#20713 · Core · 66% automatable

Recommend mark-up rates, mark-down rates, or merchandise selling prices.

decision support — Valuation aided; human owns final value judgment

Determine the value of goods or services. Advise others on business or operational matters.

#20714 · Core · 45% automatable

Obtain information about customer needs or preferences by conferring with sales or purchasing personnel.

interpersonal — Business operations coordination is live and relational

Confer with personnel to coordinate business operations.

#20710 · Core · 65% automatable

Buy merchandise or commodities for resale to wholesale or retail consumers.

decision support — Merchandise purchasing aided; human owns buying decisions

Purchase stocks of merchandise or supplies.

#20715 · Core · 72% automatable

Collaborate with vendors to obtain or develop desired products.

information retrieval — Web research on goods/services, human verifies vendors

Obtain information about goods or services.

#68 · Core · 46% automatable

Authorize payment of invoices or return of merchandise.

data analysis — Disbursement rules applied; fiduciary oversight human

Authorize financial actions. Disburse funds from clients accounts to creditors.

#72 · Core · 45% automatable

Consult with store or merchandise managers about budgets or goods to be purchased.

interpersonal — Strategy discussion with managers is accountable judgment

Discuss business strategies, practices, or policies with managers.

#66 · Core · 71% automatable

Monitor and analyze sales records, trends, or economic conditions to anticipate consumer buying patterns, company sales, and needed inventory.

data analysis — Market trend analysis from provided data

Analyze market conditions or trends. Analyze consumer trends.

#20712 · Core · 60% automatable

Examine, select, order, or purchase merchandise consistent with quality, quantity, specification requirements, or other factors, such as environmental soundness.

decision support — Purchase research automatable; human authorizes spend

Purchase products or services.

#77 · Supplemental · 72% automatable

Provide clerks with information to print on price tags, such as price, mark-ups or mark-downs, manufacturer number, season code, or style number.

text generation — Providing routine information to coworkers is text-based

Provide information to coworkers.

#19547 · Supplemental · 65% automatable

Analyze environmental aspects of competing merchandise when making buying decisions.

information retrieval — Policy research synthesis, human validates sources

Research issues related to the environment or sustainable business practices.

#78 · Supplemental · 72% automatable

Determine which products should be featured in advertising, the advertising medium to be used, or when the ads should be run.

text generation — Drafts copy and concepts; brand judgment and final polish human

Create marketing materials.

#76 · Supplemental · 40% automatable

Train or supervise sales or clerical staff.

interpersonal — Job-skill training content AI-assisted; coaching human

Train personnel to enhance job skills. Supervise employees.

#20717 · Supplemental · 45% automatable

Conduct sales meetings to introduce new merchandise.

interpersonal — Business operations coordination is live and relational

Confer with personnel to coordinate business operations.

#79 · Supplemental · 72% automatable

Monitor competitors' sales activities by following their advertisements in newspapers or other media.

data analysis — Market trend analysis from provided data

Analyze market conditions or trends.

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Community Sentiment

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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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