AI exposure: Stockers and Order Fillers
Receive, store, and issue merchandise, materials, equipment, and other items from stockroom, warehouse, or storage yard to fill shelves, racks, tables, or customers' orders. May operate power equipment to fill orders. May mark prices on merchandise and set up sales displays.
Reading this score
computedAt 23.4% of weighted task load, Stockers and Order Fillers sits at the 44th percentile, below the point where a job's centre of gravity has moved. 67.2% of what this role does is untouched, meaning current systems cannot produce that work at all, whatever the commercial incentive.
What holds the line here is embodiment. Across this occupation's 30 tasks it averages 2.07 out of 3, the highest of the five friction dimensions. In plain terms, the work has to happen in physical space. A language model cannot move matter. Until the robotics to do this work is both good enough and cheap enough to deploy widely, capability in software does not reach it.
The most exposed thing this job does is Answer customers' questions about merchandise and advise customers on merchandise selection, at 80.0%. The least is Design and set up advertising signs and displays of merchandise on shelves, counters, or tables..., at 0.0%. 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 transportation and material moving occupations, this one is less exposed than the median of 24.3% across the group's 52 roles, with 28 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 30 tasks, 10 are currently banded exposed, 0 assisted and 20 untouched. For that distribution to shift materially would take robotics cheap and reliable enough to deploy at scale, not a better language model. The score is re-computed every quarter against a fresh capability reference, and the change is published rather than quietly applied.
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 | 1.40 | 0-4 |
| Embodiment | 2.07 | 0-3 |
| Presence | 0.22 | 0-3 |
| Accountability | 0.57 | 0-3 |
| Context | 0.93 | 0-3 |
| Verification cost | 0.62 | 0-3 |
Task by task
30 tasks, O*NET 31.0| Task | Exposed | Assisted | Untouched | Importance | Band |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Answer customers' questions about merchandise and advise customers on merchandise selection. | 80.0% | 20.0% | 0.0% | 4.22 | exposed |
| Requisition merchandise from supplier, based on available space, merchandise on hand, customer demand, or advertised specials. | 80.0% | 20.0% | 0.0% | 3.90 | exposed |
| Keep records of out-going orders. | 80.0% | 20.0% | 0.0% | 3.60 | exposed |
| Keep records on the use or damage of stock or stock-handling equipment. | 73.3% | 26.7% | 0.0% | 3.67 | exposed |
| Compute prices of items or groups of items. | 73.3% | 26.7% | 0.0% | 4.02 | exposed |
| Take inventory or examine merchandise to identify items to be reordered or replenished. | 55.0% | 20.0% | 25.0% | 4.23 | exposed |
| Read orders to ascertain catalog numbers, sizes, colors, and quantities of merchandise. | 55.0% | 20.0% | 25.0% | 3.84 | exposed |
| Itemize and total customer merchandise selection at checkout counter, using cash register, and accept cash or charge card for purchases. | 47.5% | 27.5% | 25.0% | 3.94 | exposed |
| Recommend disposal of excess, defective, or obsolete stock. | 45.0% | 30.0% | 25.0% | 3.82 | exposed |
| Complete order receipts. | 45.0% | 30.0% | 25.0% | 3.69 | exposed |
| Dispose of damaged or defective items, or return them to vendors. | 30.0% | 7.5% | 62.5% | 3.69 | untouched |
| Determine proper storage methods, identification, and stock location, based on turnover, environmental factors, and physical capabilities of facilities. | 16.7% | 8.3% | 75.0% | 3.63 | untouched |
| Examine and inspect stock items for wear or defects, reporting any damage to supervisors. | 16.7% | 8.3% | 75.0% | 3.61 | untouched |
| Compare merchandise invoices to items actually received to ensure that shipments are correct. | 15.0% | 10.0% | 75.0% | 3.87 | untouched |
| Receive and count stock items, and record data manually or on computer. | 13.3% | 11.7% | 75.0% | 4.21 | untouched |
| Operate equipment such as forklifts. | 13.3% | 11.7% | 75.0% | 3.98 | untouched |
| Receive, unload, open, unpack, or issue sales floor merchandise. | 8.3% | 4.2% | 87.5% | 4.03 | untouched |
| Stock shelves, racks, cases, bins, and tables with new or transferred merchandise. | 0.0% | 0.0% | 100.0% | 4.03 | untouched |
| Pack and unpack items to be stocked on shelves in stockrooms, warehouses, or storage yards. | 0.0% | 0.0% | 100.0% | 4.02 | untouched |
| Mark stock items, using identification tags, stamps, electric marking tools, or other labeling equipment. | 0.0% | 0.0% | 100.0% | 3.96 | untouched |
| Store items in an orderly and accessible manner in warehouses, tool rooms, supply rooms, or other areas. | 0.0% | 0.0% | 100.0% | 3.90 | untouched |
| Obtain merchandise from bins or shelves. | 0.0% | 0.0% | 100.0% | 3.87 | untouched |
| Issue or distribute materials, products, parts, and supplies to customers or coworkers, based on information from incoming requisitions. | 0.0% | 0.0% | 100.0% | 3.85 | untouched |
| Clean and maintain supplies, tools, equipment, and storage areas to ensure compliance with safety regulations. | 0.0% | 0.0% | 100.0% | 3.69 | untouched |
| Provide assistance or direction to other stockroom, warehouse, or storage yard workers. | 0.0% | 0.0% | 100.0% | 3.64 | untouched |
| Clean display cases, shelves, and aisles. | 0.0% | 0.0% | 100.0% | 3.43 | untouched |
| Transport packages to customers' vehicles. | 0.0% | 0.0% | 100.0% | 3.88 | untouched |
| Stamp, attach, or change price tags on merchandise, referring to price list. | 0.0% | 0.0% | 100.0% | 3.78 | untouched |
| Pack customer purchases in bags or cartons. | 0.0% | 0.0% | 100.0% | 3.77 | untouched |
| Design and set up advertising signs and displays of merchandise on shelves, counters, or tables to attract customers and promote sales. | 0.0% | 0.0% | 100.0% | 3.76 | untouched |
Task text and importance ratings sourced from O*NET 31.0. Shares computed. The occupation score is the importance-weighted mean.
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.
What this means in practice
Most of this work is not reachable by current systems, so the immediate pressure is on the administrative edges of the role rather than its core: the scheduling, the reporting, the written records. That is where time is recovered.