Prepare outgoing mail.

Prepare outgoing mail. is a detailed work activity in O*NET — a concrete unit of work shared across 7 occupations and seen in 8 occupation-specific tasks. It rolls up into the broader work activity Process shipments or mail. in Performing Administrative Activities .

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 8 tasks under this activity that the OpenAI / Eloundou “GPTs are GPTs” study rated, 1 (13%) are flagged as directly exposed to language models (E1) or exposed via model-powered tools (E2).

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.

• Register, certify, and insure parcels and letters. · Postal Service Mail Carriers · importance 4.5 · no direct exposure
• Register, certify, and insure letters and parcels. · Postal Service Clerks · importance 4.5 · exposure with tools
• Affix postage to packages or letters by hand, or stamp materials, using postage meters. · Mail Clerks and Mail Machine Operators, Except Postal Service · importance 4.2 · no direct exposure
• Collect, seal, and stamp outgoing mail, using postage meters and envelope sealers. · Couriers and Messengers · importance 4.0 · no direct exposure
• Insert processed negatives and prints into envelopes for delivery to customers. · Photographic Process Workers and Processing Machine Operators · importance 3.9 · no direct exposure
• Seal or open envelopes, by hand or by using machines. · Mail Clerks and Mail Machine Operators, Except Postal Service · importance 3.9 · no direct exposure
• Cancel letter or parcel post stamps by hand. · Postal Service Mail Sorters, Processors, and Processing Machine Operators · importance 3.8 · no direct exposure
• Prepare records for shipment by certified mail. · Correspondence Clerks · importance 3.2 · no direct exposure

Occupations that perform this

• Postal Service Mail Carriers
• Postal Service Clerks
• Mail Clerks and Mail Machine Operators, Except Postal Service
• Couriers and Messengers
• Photographic Process Workers and Processing Machine Operators
• Postal Service Mail Sorters, Processors, and Processing Machine Operators
• Correspondence Clerks

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
• “GPTs are GPTs” (Eloundou et al.) arXiv 2303.10130 OpenAI / academic

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

@misc{singulariki-prepare-outgoing-mail,
  title  = {Prepare outgoing mail.},
  author = {{Singulariki}},
  year   = {2026},
  note   = {O*NET 30.3; “GPTs are GPTs” (Eloundou et al.) arXiv 2303.10130. Accessed June 7, 2026},
  url    = {https://singulariki.com/detailed-activities/prepare-outgoing-mail}
}