AI exposure: Procurement Clerks
Compile information and records to draw up purchase orders for procurement of materials and services.
Reading this score
computed58.3% of this occupation's weighted task load is exposed, which puts Procurement Clerks at the 94th percentile of 923 occupations. The capability is largely there. Its average task scores 3.2 out of 4 on what a current system can produce, and the frictions that hold other jobs in place are comparatively weak here.
No single friction dominates this occupation. The strongest is context at 1.58 out of 3 and the weakest is embodiment at 0.47, which is a narrow spread. Where nothing structural stands in the way, exposure tracks capability almost directly, and capability is the thing that changes every quarter.
The most exposed thing this job does is Locate suppliers, at 93.3%. The least is Monitor contractor performance, recommending contract modifications when necessary, at 13.3%. A gap of 80.0% between two parts of the same job is the reason this index publishes at task level. An occupation-wide number would have hidden both.
Within office and administrative support occupations, this one is more exposed than most. The median across the 51 roles in the group is 54.6%, and only 18 of them score higher than this. Occupational families are not uniform, and the spread inside them is often wider than the gap between them.
What would move this score. Of 19 tasks, 16 are currently banded exposed, 0 assisted and 3 untouched. For that distribution to shift materially would take systems being given deeper access to the organisation's own records and history, which is already happening. The score is re-computed every quarter against a fresh capability reference, and the change is published rather than quietly applied.
Task by task
19 tasks, O*NET 31.0| Task | Exposed | Assisted | Untouched | Importance | Band |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Locate suppliers, using sources such as catalogs and the internet, and interview them to gather information about products to be ordered. | 93.3% | 6.7% | 0.0% | 3.92 | exposed |
| Perform buying duties when necessary. | 80.0% | 20.0% | 0.0% | 4.42 | exposed |
| Monitor in-house inventory movement and complete inventory transfer forms for bookkeeping purposes. | 80.0% | 20.0% | 0.0% | 4.04 | exposed |
| Track the status of requisitions, contracts, and orders. | 73.3% | 26.7% | 0.0% | 4.45 | exposed |
| Calculate costs of orders, and charge or forward invoices to appropriate accounts. | 73.3% | 26.7% | 0.0% | 4.34 | exposed |
| Compare prices, specifications, and delivery dates to determine the best bid among potential suppliers. | 73.3% | 26.7% | 0.0% | 4.33 | exposed |
| Respond to customer and supplier inquiries about order status, changes, or cancellations. | 66.7% | 33.3% | 0.0% | 4.12 | exposed |
| Prepare, maintain, and review purchasing files, reports and price lists. | 61.3% | 26.2% | 12.5% | 4.15 | exposed |
| Review requisition orders to verify accuracy, terminology, and specifications. | 60.0% | 40.0% | 0.0% | 4.14 | exposed |
| Compare suppliers' bills with bids and purchase orders to verify accuracy. | 60.0% | 40.0% | 0.0% | 3.96 | exposed |
| Maintain knowledge of all organizational and governmental rules affecting purchases, and provide information about these rules to organization staff members and to vendors. | 55.0% | 20.0% | 25.0% | 4.24 | exposed |
| Determine if inventory quantities are sufficient for needs, ordering more materials when necessary. | 55.0% | 20.0% | 25.0% | 4.23 | exposed |
| Prepare purchase orders and send copies to suppliers and to departments originating requests. | 52.5% | 22.5% | 25.0% | 4.36 | exposed |
| Prepare invitation-of-bid forms, and mail forms to supplier firms or distribute forms for public posting. | 52.5% | 22.5% | 25.0% | 3.74 | exposed |
| Contact suppliers to schedule or expedite deliveries and to resolve shortages, missed or late deliveries, and other problems. | 45.0% | 30.0% | 25.0% | 4.15 | exposed |
| Approve and pay bills. | 40.0% | 35.0% | 25.0% | 4.29 | exposed |
| Train and supervise subordinates and other staff. | 20.0% | 17.5% | 62.5% | 3.47 | untouched |
| Check shipments when they arrive to ensure that orders have been filled correctly and that goods meet specifications. | 15.0% | 10.0% | 75.0% | 4.23 | untouched |
| Monitor contractor performance, recommending contract modifications when necessary. | 13.3% | 11.7% | 75.0% | 3.77 | untouched |
Task text and importance ratings sourced from O*NET 31.0. Shares computed. The occupation score is the importance-weighted mean.
Where the score comes from
judgedEvery task is scored through the standardised work activities it maps to. These are this occupation’s averages on the six rubric dimensions. Capability is what AI can do; the other five are what stands in the way.
| Dimension | Mean | Scale |
|---|---|---|
| Capability | 3.21 | 0-4 |
| Embodiment | 0.47 | 0-3 |
| Presence | 0.50 | 0-3 |
| Accountability | 1.16 | 0-3 |
| Context | 1.58 | 0-3 |
| Verification cost | 1.05 | 0-3 |
What this means in practice
Where most of a role's weighted task load is exposed, the work that survives is usually the part of the job nobody wrote into the job description: deciding what should be produced rather than producing it, and being answerable for the result. The tasks lowest on this page are a better guide to where to spend your time than any general advice about the future of work.
Occupations either side of this one
The four closest scores in the same occupational family, then the four closest anywhere in the index.
Read this carefully. Exposure is not displacement. A high score means current AI systems can produce this work, not that anyone will stop paying a person to do it. Adoption depends on economics, regulation and inertia that this index deliberately does not model. How the score is built.