AI exposure: Wholesale and Retail Buyers, Except Farm Products
Buy merchandise or commodities, other than farm products, for resale to consumers at the wholesale or retail level, including both durable and nondurable goods. Analyze past buying trends, sales records, price, and quality of merchandise to determine value and yield. Select, order, and authorize payment for merchandise according to contractual agreements. May conduct meetings with sales personnel and introduce new products. May negotiate contracts. Includes assistant wholesale and retail buyers of nonfarm products.
Reading this score
computed54.3% of this occupation's weighted task load is exposed, which puts Wholesale and Retail Buyers, Except Farm Products at the 92th 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.
What holds the line here is context. Across this occupation's 16 tasks it averages 1.75 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 Collaborate with vendors to obtain or develop desired products, at 93.3%. The least is Train or supervise sales or clerical staff, at 20.0%. A gap of 73.3% 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 business and financial operations occupations, this one is more exposed than most. The median across the 48 roles in the group is 47.1%, and only 10 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 16 tasks, 13 are currently banded exposed, 2 assisted and 1 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
16 tasks, O*NET 31.0| Task | Exposed | Assisted | Untouched | Importance | Band |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Collaborate with vendors to obtain or develop desired products. | 93.3% | 6.7% | 0.0% | 4.19 | exposed |
| Monitor and analyze sales records, trends, or economic conditions to anticipate consumer buying patterns, company sales, and needed inventory. | 86.7% | 13.3% | 0.0% | 4.01 | exposed |
| Monitor competitors' sales activities by following their advertisements in newspapers or other media. | 86.7% | 13.3% | 0.0% | 2.79 | exposed |
| Provide clerks with information to print on price tags, such as price, mark-ups or mark-downs, manufacturer number, season code, or style number. | 80.0% | 20.0% | 0.0% | 3.92 | exposed |
| Analyze environmental aspects of competing merchandise when making buying decisions. | 80.0% | 20.0% | 0.0% | 3.78 | exposed |
| Determine which products should be featured in advertising, the advertising medium to be used, or when the ads should be run. | 80.0% | 20.0% | 0.0% | 3.57 | exposed |
| Inspect merchandise or products to determine quality, value, or yield. | 50.0% | 25.0% | 25.0% | 4.28 | exposed |
| Buy merchandise or commodities for resale to wholesale or retail consumers. | 50.0% | 25.0% | 25.0% | 4.24 | exposed |
| Examine, select, order, or purchase merchandise consistent with quality, quantity, specification requirements, or other factors, such as environmental soundness. | 50.0% | 25.0% | 25.0% | 3.97 | exposed |
| Recommend mark-up rates, mark-down rates, or merchandise selling prices. | 47.5% | 27.5% | 25.0% | 4.27 | exposed |
| Obtain information about customer needs or preferences by conferring with sales or purchasing personnel. | 45.0% | 30.0% | 25.0% | 4.25 | exposed |
| Consult with store or merchandise managers about budgets or goods to be purchased. | 45.0% | 30.0% | 25.0% | 4.06 | exposed |
| Conduct sales meetings to introduce new merchandise. | 45.0% | 30.0% | 25.0% | 3.24 | exposed |
| Authorize payment of invoices or return of merchandise. | 31.2% | 31.2% | 37.5% | 4.08 | assisted |
| Negotiate prices, discount terms, or transportation arrangements with suppliers. | 23.3% | 26.7% | 50.0% | 4.30 | assisted |
| Train or supervise sales or clerical staff. | 20.0% | 17.5% | 62.5% | 3.35 | 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 | 3.19 | 0-4 |
| Embodiment | 0.03 | 0-3 |
| Presence | 0.78 | 0-3 |
| Accountability | 0.94 | 0-3 |
| Context | 1.75 | 0-3 |
| Verification cost | 1.19 | 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.