The Task Exposure Indexv2026.Q3
Comparison

Parts Salespersons vs First-Line Supervisors of Retail Sales Workers

Parts Salespersons carries the higher exposed share at 44.8% against 41.1%, a gap of 3.6 points. The difference is driven by friction: the work is similarly producible in both, and what differs is what stands in the way of letting a machine finish it. Release v2026.Q3.

OccupationExposedAssistedUntouchedCapabilityFrictionMedian payRankBand
Parts Salespersons44.8%18.5%36.8%0.630.29$38,630177exposed
First-Line Supervisors of Retail Sales Workers41.1%21.8%37.1%0.630.38$48,520254exposed

What stands in the way, in each

Parts Salespersons: the dominant friction is that it runs on knowledge of the organisation that a model cannot hold. Capability sits at 0.63 of 1 and friction at 0.29 of 1.

First-Line Supervisors of Retail Sales Workers: the dominant friction is that it runs on knowledge of the organisation that a model cannot hold. Capability sits at 0.63 of 1 and friction at 0.38 of 1.

Capability asks whether a generally available system can produce the work product at all. Friction asks what stops it finishing the job: physical work, being present, being accountable, unseen context, or the cost of checking the output. The rubric is here.

Read each in full

Exposure is not displacement. A higher score does not rank two jobs by how safe they are, and nothing here models adoption, employment or pay.