Gather customer or product information to determine customer needs.

Gather customer or product information to determine customer needs. is a detailed work activity in O*NET — a concrete unit of work shared across 15 occupations and seen in 19 occupation-specific tasks. It rolls up into the broader work activity Collect data about consumer needs or opinions. in Getting Information .

Detailed work activities are the most granular shared layer in O*NET's work-activity hierarchy (Generalized → Intermediate → Detailed → occupation-specific task). The figures below describe how this activity shows up across the economy and what independent studies measure about AI and this kind of work — not a prediction that the work will be automated.

AI exposure

Of the 19 tasks under this activity that the OpenAI / Eloundou “GPTs are GPTs” study rated, 15 (79%) are flagged as directly exposed to language models (E1) or exposed via model-powered tools (E2).

The Anthropic Economic Index observes real AI use on 9 of these tasks, with a mean mapped-usage share of 0.011% per task.

Exposure estimates overlap with model capabilities — whether a model could speed the task up — not whether the work will be done by software. Observed AI use is augmentation and assistance today, not jobs replaced.

Member tasks

Occupation-specific tasks O*NET maps to this detailed work activity, most important first.

• Greet customers and ascertain what each customer wants or needs. · Retail Salespersons · importance 4.8 · no direct exposure
• Converse with customer to determine destination, mode of transportation, travel dates, financial considerations, and accommodations required. · Travel Agents · importance 4.6 · exposure with tools
• Gather information from prospective customers to identify their solar energy needs. · Solar Sales Representatives and Assessors · importance 4.5 · exposure with tools
• Interview clients to determine what kinds of properties they are seeking. · Real Estate Sales Agents · importance 4.4 · exposure with tools
• Read catalogs, microfiche viewers, or computer displays to determine replacement part stock numbers and prices. · Parts Salespersons · importance 4.4 · direct LLM exposure
• Interview clients to determine clients' assets, liabilities, cash flow, insurance coverage, tax status, or financial objectives. · Securities, Commodities, and Financial Services Sales Agents · importance 4.4 · exposure with tools
• Determine replacement parts required, according to inspections of old parts, customer requests, or customers' descriptions of malfunctions. · Parts Salespersons · importance 4.4 · exposure with tools
• Obtain and study information about clients' products, needs, problems, advertising history, and business practices to offer effective sales presentations and appropriate product assistance. · Advertising Sales Agents · importance 4.4 · exposure with tools
• Greet customers and discuss the type, quality, and quantity of merchandise sought for rental. · Counter and Rental Clerks · importance 4.4 · exposure with tools
• Develop an understanding of customers' needs and take actions to ensure that such needs are met. · Logisticians · importance 4.3 · exposure with tools
• Visit establishments to evaluate needs or to promote product or service sales. · Sales Representatives, Wholesale and Manufacturing, Technical and Scientific Products · importance 4.2 · no direct exposure
• Determine customers' financial services needs and prepare proposals to sell services that address these needs. · Securities, Commodities, and Financial Services Sales Agents · importance 4.2 · exposure with tools
• Confer with clients to obtain and provide information when claims are made on a policy. · Insurance Sales Agents · importance 4.1 · exposure with tools
• Interview prospective clients to obtain data about their financial resources and needs, the physical condition of the person or property to be insured, and to discuss any existing coverage. · Insurance Sales Agents · importance 4.1 · exposure with tools
• Visit retailers and sales representatives to promote products and gather information. · First-Line Supervisors of Non-Retail Sales Workers · importance 4.1 · no direct exposure
• Confer with customers and engineers to assess equipment needs and to determine system requirements. · Sales Engineers · importance 4.0 · exposure with tools
• Learn about competitors' products or consumers' interests or concerns to answer questions or provide more complete information. · Demonstrators and Product Promoters · importance 4.0 · exposure with tools
• Conduct user research to determine design requirements and analyze user feedback to improve design quality. · Web and Digital Interface Designers · exposure with tools
• Hear testimony from constituents, representatives of interest groups, board and commission members, and others with an interest in bills or issues under consideration. · Legislators · no direct exposure

Occupations that perform this

• Retail Salespersons
• Travel Agents
• Solar Sales Representatives and Assessors
• Parts Salespersons
• Real Estate Sales Agents
• Securities, Commodities, and Financial Services Sales Agents
• Advertising Sales Agents
• Counter and Rental Clerks
• Logisticians
• Insurance Sales Agents
• First-Line Supervisors of Non-Retail Sales Workers
• Demonstrators and Product Promoters
• Sales Engineers
• Legislators
• Web and Digital Interface Designers

Sources for this page

Every figure above traces to a named public dataset and the exact release below — not hand-written opinion. See the full methodology for what each measure does and does not mean.

• O*NET 30.3 U.S. Department of Labor / National Center for O*NET Development
• Anthropic Economic Index v4 (2026-01-15) + v2 (2025-03-27) Anthropic
• “GPTs are GPTs” (Eloundou et al.) arXiv 2303.10130 OpenAI / academic

Data compiled June 2, 2026. Figures are estimates, not advice.

@misc{singulariki-gather-customer-or-product-information-to-determine-customer-needs,
  title  = {Gather customer or product information to determine customer needs.},
  author = {{Singulariki}},
  year   = {2026},
  note   = {O*NET 30.3; Anthropic Economic Index v4 (2026-01-15) + v2 (2025-03-27); “GPTs are GPTs” (Eloundou et al.) arXiv 2303.10130. Accessed June 7, 2026},
  url    = {https://singulariki.com/detailed-activities/gather-customer-or-product-information-to-determine-customer-needs}
}