Often handed to AI
Task areas most often handled directively in observed AI conversations — candidates to delegate with light review.
- Represent company at trade association meetings to promote products. · 0.8%
Sales Managers
Occupation · SOC 11-2022.00
Plan, direct, or coordinate the actual distribution or movement of a product or service to the customer. Coordinate sales distribution by establishing sales territories, quotas, and goals and establish training programs for sales representatives. Analyze sales statistics gathered by staff to determine sales potential and inventory requirements and monitor the preferences of customers.
Also called: District Sales Manager · Sales Director · Sales Manager · Sales VP (Sales Vice President) · Fractional Sales Executive · National Sales Manager · Regional Sales Manager · Sales Operations Manager (Sales Ops Manager) · Sales Supervisor · Sales and Marketing VP (Sales and Marketing Vice President) · Account Manager · Area Sales Manager
Job family: Management Occupations
Take this to your AI
A source-stamped Markdown brief of this occupation — paste it into an agent, or fetch
/roles/role-11-2022-00/context.md directly.
AI work map
A fast read on where AI already shows up in this occupation, where it stays a copilot, where humans remain in the loop, and what the labor market is doing. Built from observed Claude.ai conversations mapped to O*NET tasks and from published research — measures of usage and exposure, not advice or predictions that the job is going away.
Use as a copilot
Task areas where people work with AI — iterating, learning, or checking — staying in the loop rather than handing the task off.
- Resolve customer complaints regarding sales and service. · 1.3%
Keep a human in the loop
Task areas where a human was still judged necessary in a large share of observed conversations — not a safety ruling, an observed-need signal.
- Represent company at trade association meetings to promote products. · 100.0% need a human
- Resolve customer complaints regarding sales and service. · 97.0% need a human
Skills it runs on
The capabilities O*NET rates most important for this occupation — the human ground the work is built on.
See all skills →Market signal
Independent published positions, read together — not a forecast.
- About average employment outlook (+4.7% by 2034)
- 49,000 openings/yr
- Moderate AI exposure
- Observed AI use leans augmentation
- Median pay $138,060/yr
- Can largely be done remotely (teleworkable)
- A reversal from 2013 — rated low automation risk then (8th), high AI task-overlap now (74th)
74th-percentile task overlap — yet about 49,000 openings a year (+4.7% projected, BLS), and observed AI use leans 4009% copilot, not hand-off (AEI) . What exposure means →
AI & job outlook
What today's research says about this occupation's exposure to AI, how AI is actually being used in it, and where employment is headed. These are positions within published studies — measures of exposure and usage, not predictions that this job will disappear.
Exposure to current AI
Each study uses its own scale, so the raw scores are not comparable across rows — the percentile (this job's rank among all U.S. occupations with data) is the comparable figure, and sizes the bars.
| Measure | Rank vs all occupations | Percentile | Score |
|---|---|---|---|
| Overall AI exposure (Felten et al.) High | 84th | 1.3 | |
| LLM task exposure, γ (OpenAI / Eloundou) High | 78th | 0.9 | |
| AI assistant applicability (Microsoft) Moderate | 56th | 0.2 |
OpenAI's exposure study scores tasks three ways: with a language model alone (α 0.0), with simple added tooling (β 0.5), and including AI-powered software (γ 0.9). Higher means more of the job's tasks could be done at least twice as fast — not that they will be automated away.
Most of this job's tasks can be done remotely (Dingel–Neiman), which tends to track with higher digital and AI exposure.
Historical automation estimate (2013)
A pre-LLM (2013) estimate of how automatable this job is by computerization and robotics. Shown for historical context only — it is not part of any current AI ranking.
Frey–Osborne probability 0.0 · 8th percentile among occupations · Low
How AI is actually used in this job
Among measured AI assistant conversations mapped to this occupation (Anthropic Economic Index, 2026-01-15), these task types came up most. These are shares of observed AI conversations — not shares of the job, of worker time, or of what could be automated.
| Resolve customer complaints regarding sales and service. | 1.2% | |
| Determine price schedules and discount rates. | 0.5% | |
| Represent company at trade association meetings to promote products. | 0.3% | |
| Review operational records and reports to project sales and determine profitability. | 0.2% | |
| Prepare budgets and approve budget expenditures. | 0.2% |
Job outlook
Independent U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics employment projection for 2024–2034 — a labor-market forecast, not an AI-impact forecast.
| Outlook | About average · +4.7% by 2034 |
| Projected annual openings | 49,000 |
| Employment 2024 → 2034 | 619,500 → 648,500 |
“Annual openings” counts new jobs plus replacements for workers who leave the occupation, so it can be large even when growth is modest.
Where this work sits on the global GenAI gradient
The ILO's 2025 global study scores generative-AI exposure on the international ISCO-08 occupation system, not US SOC. Bridged through the published (and approximate, many-to-many) IBS O*NET-SOC ↔ ISCO-08 crosswalk, this US occupation corresponds to the international occupation below. Exposure here means how much of the work's tasks today's AI can attempt — task overlap, not automation, adoption, or jobs lost.
Sales Managers sits at the 78th percentile of 427
occupations on the global GenAI task-exposure gradient
— exposure rose from 2023 to 2025. Each dot is one occupation; the
ringed one is this work. Exposure is task overlap, not automation or jobs lost.
41% mean task exposure (2025)
78th percentile of 427 placed occupations
+12 pts shift 2023 → 2025
| International occupation (ISCO-08) | Task exposure (2025) | Most tasks fall in |
|---|---|---|
| Sales and Marketing Managers · 1221 | 41% | Gradient 2 |
Read the whole six-band gradient on the GenAI exposure gradient page. The crosswalk is approximate: a US occupation can map to several international ones, and the ILO scores describe the international occupation, not this exact US role.
Working with AI in this job
How people actually apply AI to this occupation's tasks, from Claude.ai (Free and Pro) conversations in the Anthropic Economic Index, 2026-01-15. This is one AI assistant's consumer sample — not all AI, not the whole workforce. Autonomy and the collaboration mix are model-rated estimates; figures below the sample floor are hidden.
| Augmentation vs. automation | 40.1% working with AI · 31.3% handed to AI |
| Most common way people use AI here | Iteration · you and AI go back and forth |
| Typical AI autonomy | 4.0 / 5 · higher = AI acts more independently |
| Used for work (vs. personal / coursework) | 54.4% |
What people delegate to AI
The role's most common tasks in AI conversations, each tagged with how people work with the AI on it. “Usage” is the share of observed conversations, not of the job.
| Task | How | Usage |
|---|---|---|
| Resolve customer complaints regarding sales and service. | Iteration | 1.3% |
| Represent company at trade association meetings to promote products. | Directive | 0.8% |
Where a human is still needed
Tasks where the model most often judged that a person remained necessary — a useful read on the current boundary, not a guarantee.
| Represent company at trade association meetings to promote products. | 100.0% | |
| Resolve customer complaints regarding sales and service. | 97.0% |
What people most often hand AI here
Example prompts phrased from the tasks people most often delegate to AI in this occupation (Anthropic Economic Index). Each shows the underlying measured task and its share of observed AI use. They are suggested phrasings of real tasks — starting points, not endorsed instructions.
-
Help me resolve customer complaints regarding sales and service.From: Resolve customer complaints regarding sales and service. · 1.3% of measured AI use · task iteration
-
Help me represent company at trade association meetings to promote products.From: Represent company at trade association meetings to promote products. · 0.8% of measured AI use · directive
Tasks
All 17 tasks O*NET lists for this occupation, ordered by importance. Each links to its own page with AI-exposure and observed-use detail.
- Oversee regional and local sales managers and their staffs. Core · importance 4.7
- Resolve customer complaints regarding sales and service. Core · importance 4.3
- Monitor customer preferences to determine focus of sales efforts. Core · importance 4.3
- Confer with potential customers regarding equipment needs, and advise customers on types of equipment to purchase. Supplemental · importance 4.2
- Review operational records and reports to project sales and determine profitability. Core · importance 4.2
- Plan and direct staffing, training, and performance evaluations to develop and control sales and service programs. Core · importance 4.2
- Direct and coordinate activities involving sales of manufactured products, services, commodities, real estate, or other subjects of sale. Core · importance 4.0
- Determine price schedules and discount rates. Core · importance 4.0
- Prepare budgets and approve budget expenditures. Core · importance 3.7
- Confer or consult with department heads to plan advertising services and to secure information on equipment and customer specifications. Core · importance 3.5
- Visit franchised dealers to stimulate interest in establishment or expansion of leasing programs. Supplemental · importance 3.5
- Represent company at trade association meetings to promote products. Core · importance 3.3
- Advise dealers and distributors on policies and operating procedures to ensure functional effectiveness of business. Core · importance 3.3
- Assess marketing potential of new and existing store locations, considering statistics and expenditures. Supplemental · importance 3.2
- Direct, coordinate, and review sales and service accounting and record-keeping, as well as receiving and shipping. Core · importance 3.1
- Direct clerical staff to keep records of export correspondence, bid requests, and credit collections, and to maintain current information on tariffs, licenses, and restrictions. Core · importance 3.0
- Direct foreign sales and service outlets of an organization. Supplemental · importance 2.9
Emerging tasks
Newer responsibilities O*NET has flagged as growing for this occupation.
- Coach staff on sales tactics.
- Establish and monitor staff's sales goals.
Work activities
- Resolve customer complaints or problems.
- Represent the organization in external relations.
- Evaluate employee performance.
- Manage human resources activities.
- Establish interpersonal business relationships to facilitate work activities.
- Advise customers on technical or procedural issues.
- Supervise employees.
- Direct sales, marketing, or customer service activities.
- Evaluate potential of products, technologies, or resources.
- Conduct opinion surveys or needs assessments.
- Determine pricing or monetary policies.
- Analyze financial records or reports to determine state of operations.
- Confer with organizational members to accomplish work activities.
- Advise others on business or operational matters.
- Approve expenditures.
- Prepare operational budgets.
Knowledge, skills & abilities
O*NET importance rating, from 1 (not important) to 5 (extremely important).
Knowledge
Essential skills
| Active Listening | 4.0 | |
| Speaking | 4.0 | |
| Reading Comprehension | 3.9 | |
| Critical Thinking | 3.9 | |
| Monitoring | 3.9 | |
| Active Learning | 3.8 | |
| Writing | 3.6 | |
| Learning Strategies | 3.1 |
Transferable skills
| Negotiation | 4.0 | |
| Social Perceptiveness | 3.9 | |
| Persuasion | 3.9 | |
| Judgment and Decision Making | 3.9 | |
| Management of Personnel Resources | 3.9 | |
| Coordination | 3.8 | |
| Instructing | 3.8 | |
| Complex Problem Solving | 3.8 | |
| Time Management | 3.8 | |
| Service Orientation | 3.6 | |
| Systems Analysis | 3.6 | |
| Systems Evaluation | 3.6 |
Abilities
| Oral Comprehension | 4.0 | |
| Written Comprehension | 4.0 | |
| Oral Expression | 4.0 | |
| Written Expression | 4.0 | |
| Problem Sensitivity | 3.9 | |
| Deductive Reasoning | 3.9 | |
| Inductive Reasoning | 3.9 | |
| Fluency of Ideas | 3.8 | |
| Originality | 3.8 | |
| Speech Recognition | 3.8 | |
| Speech Clarity | 3.8 | |
| Category Flexibility | 3.3 | |
| Information Ordering | 3.1 |
Skills in demand
Skills employers ask for in job postings for this occupation (Lightcast), with whether each is a common or specialized skill.
Showing the top 40 of 68.
Tools & technology
Showing the top 40 of 103.
Work context
How characteristic each condition is of the job, on O*NET's 1–5 context scale (higher = more present in day-to-day work). Each condition links to how it varies across all occupations.
How to get in
- Job zone
- Zone 4 — Job Zone Four: Considerable Preparation Needed
- Education
- Most of these occupations require a four-year bachelor's degree, but some do not.
- Typical entry-level education
- Bachelor's degree · BLS, the typical path — not a requirement
- Related experience
- A considerable amount of work-related skill, knowledge, or experience is needed for these occupations. For example, an accountant must complete four years of college and work for several years in accounting to be considered qualified.
- Preparation level
- SVP (7.0 to < 8.0) — total schooling plus on-the-job experience.
What to study: Business, Management, Marketing, and Related Support Services , Family and Consumer Sciences/Human Sciences , Health Professions and Related Programs . Fields of study crosswalked to this occupation (NCES CIP–SOC), not a requirement.
Education of current workers
Share of people in this occupation at each level of education.
| Bachelor's Degree | 71.4% | |
| Some College Courses | 19.1% | |
| Associate's Degree (or other 2-year degree) | 4.8% | |
| Master's Degree | 4.8% |
Interests & work styles
The interests and personal qualities O*NET associates with people who do this work.
Work styles
| Dependability | 9.0 | |
| Integrity | 8.0 | |
| Achievement Orientation | 7.0 | |
| Social Orientation | 6.0 | |
| Adaptability | 5.0 | |
| Perseverance | 4.0 |
Career interests (Holland / RIASEC)
| Enterprising | 7.0 | |
| Conventional | 5.5 | |
| Social | 3.4 |
Interest areas
| Sales | 6.6 | |
| Management/Administration | 6.4 | |
| Business Initiatives | 6.3 | |
| Marketing/Advertising | 5.0 | |
| Public Speaking | 4.8 | |
| Human Resources | 3.4 | |
| Accounting | 3.4 |
Wages & employment
U.S. · annual wages (BLS OEWS)
| 10th percentile | $66,910 |
| 25th percentile | $95,910 |
| Median (50th) | $138,060 |
| 75th percentile | $201,490 |
| 90th percentile | — |
| People employed | 603,710 |
Industries that employ this occupation
Where these workers are employed, by number of jobs (national, BLS OEWS). Pay shown is the occupation's national median, not industry-specific.
| Industry | Workers | National median pay |
|---|---|---|
| Wholesale Trade · Sector | 123,910 | $135,530 |
| Retail Trade · Sector | 100,180 | $92,630 |
| Professional, Scientific, and Technical Services · Sector | 83,200 | $168,320 |
| Manufacturing · Sector | 63,920 | $150,210 |
| Finance and Insurance · Sector | 61,040 | $173,230 |
| Information · Sector | 42,020 | $170,280 |
| Management of Companies and Enterprises · Sector | 35,830 | $166,330 |
| Administrative and Support and Waste Management and Remediation Services · Sector | 27,330 | $125,010 |
| Insurance Agencies and Brokerages · National industry | 12,650 | $156,130 |
| Accommodation and Food Services · Sector | 11,110 | $95,270 |
| Construction · Sector | 10,930 | $125,800 |
| Transportation and Warehousing · Sector | 10,910 | $125,720 |
Where this work is most concentrated
Industries where this occupation is far more common than in the economy as a whole. The location quotient is how many times more concentrated it is here (a value of 5 means five times its economy-wide share).
| Industry | Concentration | Workers |
|---|---|---|
| Wholesale Trade · Sector | 5.24× | 123,910 |
| Radio Broadcasting Stations · National industry | 3.85× | 780 |
| Information · Sector | 3.69× | 42,020 |
| Television Broadcasting Stations · National industry | 3.38× | 860 |
| Farm and Garden Machinery and Equipment Merchant Wholesalers · National industry | 3.34× | 1,490 |
| Insurance Agencies and Brokerages · National industry | 3.26× | 12,650 |
| Management of Companies and Enterprises · Sector | 3.26× | 35,830 |
| Finance and Insurance · Sector | 2.5× | 61,040 |
Related occupations
Part of the Marketing & Sales career cluster.
- Marketing Managers · 11-2021.00 Compare →
- Sales Representatives of Services, Except Advertising, Insurance, Financial Services, and Travel · 41-3091.00 Compare →
- Market Research Analysts and Marketing Specialists · 13-1161.00 Compare →
- Advertising and Promotions Managers · 11-2011.00 Compare →
- Wholesale and Retail Buyers, Except Farm Products · 13-1022.00 Compare →
- Purchasing Managers · 11-3061.00 Compare →
- First-Line Supervisors of Retail Sales Workers · 41-1011.00 Compare →
- First-Line Supervisors of Non-Retail Sales Workers · 41-1012.00 Compare →
- General and Operations Managers · 11-1021.00 Compare →
- Advertising Sales Agents · 41-3011.00 Compare →
- Management Analysts · 13-1111.00 Compare →
- Online Merchants · 13-1199.06 Compare →
Side-by-side comparisons place two occupations’ pay, preparation, skills, and AI exposure on the same page — same data, same scale, no forecast.
What you can do with this
Options the data surfaces for Sales Managers — not advice or a forecast. Each is a real cross-link you can follow into the evidence.
Skills that travel
Capabilities this work builds that are used across many other occupations.
Adjacent roles
Occupations O*NET rates as related — the nearby moves on the map.
- Marketing Managers Compare →
- Sales Representatives of Services, Except Advertising, Insurance, Financial Services, and Travel Compare →
- Market Research Analysts and Marketing Specialists Compare →
- Advertising and Promotions Managers Compare →
- Wholesale and Retail Buyers, Except Farm Products Compare →
Paths in
How people typically prepare for this work.
- Bachelor's degree · typical entry level
- Job zone 4 — Job Zone Four: Considerable Preparation Needed · preparation tier
- Business, Management, Marketing, and Related Support Services · field of study
- Family and Consumer Sciences/Human Sciences · field of study
Zoom out
On the global GenAI exposure gradient this work sits around the 78th percentile of 427 international occupations.
Write a report on thisheadline · factoids · citation
Sales Managers show 74th-percentile AI task overlap — and about 49,000 annual U.S. openings
- Sales Managers rank in the 74th percentile (High band) for AI task overlap across U.S. occupations — a measure of how much of the work today's AI can attempt, not how much is automated.Eloundou et al. (GPTs are GPTs) + Felten AIOE
- The occupation is projected to see about 49,000 U.S. job openings per year (2024–34), counting growth and replacement — a labor-demand projection made independently of AI.BLS Employment Projections 2024–34
- BLS projects employment to be about average (+4.7%) from 2024 to 2034.BLS Employment Projections 2024–34
- Median annual pay is $138,060, across about 603,710 U.S. workers.BLS OEWS (May 2024)
- Of the AI use actually observed for this work, 40% looks like augmentation (drafting, iterating, checking) rather than hands-off automation — from a Claude.ai usage sample, not a census.2026-01-15-v4-plus-2025-03-27-v2
Copy the whole kit
Sales Managers show 74th-percentile AI task overlap — and about 49,000 annual U.S. openings • Sales Managers rank in the 74th percentile (High band) for AI task overlap across U.S. occupations — a measure of how much of the work today's AI can attempt, not how much is automated. (Eloundou et al. (GPTs are GPTs) + Felten AIOE) • The occupation is projected to see about 49,000 U.S. job openings per year (2024–34), counting growth and replacement — a labor-demand projection made independently of AI. (BLS Employment Projections 2024–34) • BLS projects employment to be about average (+4.7%) from 2024 to 2034. (BLS Employment Projections 2024–34) • Median annual pay is $138,060, across about 603,710 U.S. workers. (BLS OEWS (May 2024)) • Of the AI use actually observed for this work, 40% looks like augmentation (drafting, iterating, checking) rather than hands-off automation — from a Claude.ai usage sample, not a census. (2026-01-15-v4-plus-2025-03-27-v2) Source: Singulariki — "Sales Managers". https://singulariki.com/roles/role-11-2022-00 Note: AI task overlap measures what today's AI can attempt, not automation, job loss, or a forecast.
AssetsShare imageMethodology & sourcesPress & newsroomThe newsroom
Every line is built only from figures this page already shows and cites. AI task overlap means what today's AI can attempt — not automation, job loss, or a forecast.
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
- BLS Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics (OEWS) May 2024 U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics
- BLS Employment Projections 2024–2034 U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics
- Anthropic Economic Index v4 (2026-01-15) + v2 (2025-03-27) Anthropic
- Microsoft “Working with AI” working-with-ai Microsoft Research
- “GPTs are GPTs” (Eloundou et al.) arXiv 2303.10130 OpenAI / academic
- AI Occupational Exposure (AIOE) Felten, Raj & Seamans academic
- ILO / Gmyrek et al. GenAI exposure gradient 2025 International Labour Organization
- IBS O*NET-SOC ↔ ISCO-08 occupation crosswalk 2022 Institute for Structural Research (IBS)
- Frey & Osborne (2013) frey-osborne-automation academic
- Dingel & Neiman (2020) dingel-neiman-workathome academic
Data compiled June 2, 2026. Figures are estimates, not advice.
Cite this page
Plain
Singulariki. "Sales Managers." Singulariki: a source-backed encyclopedia of work. Built from O*NET 30.3; BLS Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics (OEWS) May 2024; BLS Employment Projections 2024–2034; Anthropic Economic Index v4 (2026-01-15) + v2 (2025-03-27); Microsoft “Working with AI” working-with-ai; “GPTs are GPTs” (Eloundou et al.) arXiv 2303.10130; AI Occupational Exposure (AIOE) Felten, Raj & Seamans; ILO / Gmyrek et al. GenAI exposure gradient 2025; IBS O*NET-SOC ↔ ISCO-08 occupation crosswalk 2022; Frey & Osborne (2013) frey-osborne-automation; Dingel & Neiman (2020) dingel-neiman-workathome. Accessed June 7, 2026. https://singulariki.com/roles/role-11-2022-00
APA
Singulariki. (2026). Sales Managers. Singulariki: a source-backed encyclopedia of work. Retrieved June 7, 2026, from https://singulariki.com/roles/role-11-2022-00
BibTeX
@misc{singulariki-role-11-2022-00,
title = {Sales Managers},
author = {{Singulariki}},
year = {2026},
note = {O*NET 30.3; BLS Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics (OEWS) May 2024; BLS Employment Projections 2024–2034; Anthropic Economic Index v4 (2026-01-15) + v2 (2025-03-27); Microsoft “Working with AI” working-with-ai; “GPTs are GPTs” (Eloundou et al.) arXiv 2303.10130; AI Occupational Exposure (AIOE) Felten, Raj & Seamans; ILO / Gmyrek et al. GenAI exposure gradient 2025; IBS O*NET-SOC ↔ ISCO-08 occupation crosswalk 2022; Frey & Osborne (2013) frey-osborne-automation; Dingel & Neiman (2020) dingel-neiman-workathome. Accessed June 7, 2026},
url = {https://singulariki.com/roles/role-11-2022-00}
} Citations name the underlying public dataset releases — they reflect what this page is built from, not just the URL.