AI exposure: Sales Managers
Plan, direct, or coordinate the actual distribution or movement of a product or service to the customer. Coordinate sales distribution by establishing sales territories, quotas, and goals and establish training programs for sales representatives. Analyze sales statistics gathered by staff to determine sales potential and inventory requirements and monitor the preferences of customers.
Reading this score
computed36.9% of this occupation's weighted task load is exposed, which puts Sales Managers at the 65th percentile of 923 occupations. The capability is largely there. Its average task scores 2.4 out of 4 on what a current system can produce, and the frictions that hold other jobs in place are comparatively weak here.
What holds the line here is context. Across this occupation's 17 tasks it averages 2.18 out of 3, the highest of the five friction dimensions. In plain terms, the work depends on knowledge the model cannot hold. Much of this job runs on things that were never written down: what this particular organisation does, what happened last week, what the person across the table actually meant. That context is the barrier, and it erodes as systems are given more access.
The most exposed thing this job does is Confer with potential customers regarding equipment needs, and advise customers on types of..., at 73.3%. The least is Represent company at trade association meetings to promote products, at 6.7%. A gap of 66.7% 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 management occupations, this one is less exposed than the median of 41.4% across the group's 56 roles, with 44 scoring higher. Being in an exposed family does not make a particular job exposed, and the reverse holds too.
What would move this score. Of 17 tasks, 12 are currently banded exposed, 1 assisted and 4 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
17 tasks, O*NET 31.0| Task | Exposed | Assisted | Untouched | Importance | Band |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Confer with potential customers regarding equipment needs, and advise customers on types of equipment to purchase. | 73.3% | 26.7% | 0.0% | 4.24 | exposed |
| Review operational records and reports to project sales and determine profitability. | 60.0% | 40.0% | 0.0% | 4.21 | exposed |
| Assess marketing potential of new and existing store locations, considering statistics and expenditures. | 55.0% | 20.0% | 25.0% | 3.23 | exposed |
| Resolve customer complaints regarding sales and service. | 50.0% | 25.0% | 25.0% | 4.35 | exposed |
| Confer or consult with department heads to plan advertising services and to secure information on equipment and customer specifications. | 50.0% | 25.0% | 25.0% | 3.53 | exposed |
| Monitor customer preferences to determine focus of sales efforts. | 45.0% | 30.0% | 25.0% | 4.29 | exposed |
| Advise dealers and distributors on policies and operating procedures to ensure functional effectiveness of business. | 45.0% | 30.0% | 25.0% | 3.25 | exposed |
| Determine price schedules and discount rates. | 40.0% | 35.0% | 25.0% | 3.95 | exposed |
| Prepare budgets and approve budget expenditures. | 39.6% | 22.9% | 37.5% | 3.70 | exposed |
| Direct and coordinate activities involving sales of manufactured products, services, commodities, real estate, or other subjects of sale. | 30.0% | 20.0% | 50.0% | 4.00 | exposed |
| Direct, coordinate, and review sales and service accounting and record-keeping, as well as receiving and shipping. | 30.0% | 20.0% | 50.0% | 3.06 | exposed |
| Direct foreign sales and service outlets of an organization. | 30.0% | 20.0% | 50.0% | 2.92 | exposed |
| Plan and direct staffing, training, and performance evaluations to develop and control sales and service programs. | 22.9% | 39.6% | 37.5% | 4.19 | assisted |
| Oversee regional and local sales managers and their staffs. | 13.3% | 11.7% | 75.0% | 4.65 | untouched |
| Direct clerical staff to keep records of export correspondence, bid requests, and credit collections, and to maintain current information on tariffs, licenses, and restrictions. | 13.3% | 11.7% | 75.0% | 3.00 | untouched |
| Visit franchised dealers to stimulate interest in establishment or expansion of leasing programs. | 11.7% | 13.3% | 75.0% | 3.50 | untouched |
| Represent company at trade association meetings to promote products. | 6.7% | 18.3% | 75.0% | 3.33 | 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 | 2.41 | 0-4 |
| Embodiment | 0.18 | 0-3 |
| Presence | 1.50 | 0-3 |
| Accountability | 1.15 | 0-3 |
| Context | 2.18 | 0-3 |
| Verification cost | 1.41 | 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.