# Retail Salespersons

> Sell merchandise, such as furniture, motor vehicles, appliances, or apparel to consumers.

- **SOC code:** 41-2031.00
- **Canonical URL:** https://singulariki.com/roles/role-41-2031-00
- **Also known as:** Sales Associate, Sales Clerk, Sales Consultant, Sales Person, Car Salesman, Customer Assistant, Retail Salesperson, Sales Representative
- **Frame:** "AI exposure" means task overlap (how codifiable the work is), not jobs lost or a forecast. Every figure below is traced to a named public dataset.

## What this work is

**Core tasks** (O*NET):
- Greet customers and ascertain what each customer wants or needs.
- Recommend, select, and help locate or obtain merchandise based on customer needs and desires.
- Maintain records related to sales.
- Compute sales prices, total purchases, and receive and process cash or credit payment.
- Prepare merchandise for purchase or rental.
- Answer questions regarding the store and its merchandise.
- Maintain knowledge of current sales and promotions, policies regarding payment and exchanges, and security practices.
- Open and close cash registers, performing tasks such as counting money, separating charge slips, coupons, and vouchers, balancing cash drawers, and making deposits.
- Prepare sales slips or sales contracts.
- Describe merchandise and explain use, operation, and care of merchandise to customers.
- Demonstrate use or operation of merchandise.
- Ticket, arrange, and display merchandise to promote sales.

## Skills, tools, capabilities

**Knowledge, skills & abilities** (O*NET, highest importance first):
- Sales and Marketing _(knowledge)_
- Customer and Personal Service _(knowledge)_
- Oral Expression _(ability)_
- Persuasion _(transferable_skill)_
- Oral Comprehension _(ability)_
- Active Listening _(essential_skill)_
- Speaking _(essential_skill)_
- Service Orientation _(transferable_skill)_
- English Language _(knowledge)_
- Speech Recognition _(ability)_
- Speech Clarity _(ability)_
- Social Perceptiveness _(transferable_skill)_

**Skills in demand:**
- Active Listening _(Common Skill)_
- English Language _(Common Skill)_
- Speech Recognition _(Specialized Skill)_
- Social Perceptiveness _(Common Skill)_
- Negotiation _(Common Skill)_
- Critical Thinking _(Common Skill)_
- Mathematics _(Common Skill)_
- Writing _(Common Skill)_
- Time Management _(Common Skill)_
- Reading Comprehension _(Common Skill)_
- Microsoft Word _(Common Skill)_
- Microsoft Windows _(Common Skill)_

**Tools & technology:**
- Adobe Acrobat _(hot technology)_
- Adobe Creative Cloud software _(hot technology)_
- Adobe Illustrator _(hot technology)_
- Adobe InDesign _(hot technology)_
- Adobe Photoshop _(hot technology)_
- Apple macOS _(hot technology)_
- Apple Safari _(hot technology)_
- Autodesk AutoCAD _(hot technology)_
- Eclipse IDE _(hot technology)_
- Facebook _(hot technology)_
- Google Docs _(hot technology)_
- Intuit QuickBooks _(hot technology)_

## AI exposure & outlook

- **AI task-overlap index:** 62nd percentile (Moderate) across all occupations — composite of current-era exposure studies (ai-exposure-index-v1).
- **Overall AI exposure (Felten et al.):** 50th percentile (Moderate) — source: felten_aioe.
- **LLM task exposure, γ (OpenAI / Eloundou):** 50th percentile (Moderate) — source: eloundou_gamma.
- **AI assistant applicability (Microsoft):** 89th percentile (High) — source: microsoft_applicability.
- **Frey–Osborne (2013, historical computerization estimate):** 82nd percentile — kept separate from current-era studies.
- **Remote-capable (Dingel–Neiman):** no — task structure, not who actually works remote.
- **Projected employment (BLS 2024–34):** -0.5% growth (Declining); 555.8k annual openings; 3,936.7k → 3,917.1k jobs.
- **Pay & employment (BLS OEWS, May 2024):** median $34,580; 3,800,250 employed.

## How people actually use AI here

Anthropic Economic Index — measured AI conversations mapped to this occupation's tasks:

- **Automation vs augmentation:** 27% automation, 31% augmentation (usage-weighted).
- **Autonomy median:** 4.0 (higher = AI acts more independently).
- **Dominant collaboration mode:** none.

**Tasks most handed to AI here:**
- Recommend, select, and help locate or obtain merchandise based on customer needs and desires. _(11.0% of measured AI use; task iteration)_
- Greet customers and ascertain what each customer wants or needs. _(10.6% of measured AI use; none)_
- Describe merchandise and explain use, operation, and care of merchandise to customers. _(3.7% of measured AI use; learning)_
- Answer questions regarding the store and its merchandise. _(1.7% of measured AI use; directive)_
- Prepare merchandise for purchase or rental. _(0.4% of measured AI use; directive)_

**Example prompts (honest phrasings of the tasks above — starting points, not endorsed instructions):**
- Help me recommend, select, and help locate or obtain merchandise based on customer needs and desires.
- Help me greet customers and ascertain what each customer wants or needs.
- Help me describe merchandise and explain use, operation, and care of merchandise to customers.
- Help me answer questions regarding the store and its merchandise.
- Help me prepare merchandise for purchase or rental.

## Sources

- **O*NET** (30.3) — U.S. Department of Labor / National Center for O*NET Development. https://www.onetcenter.org/database.html
- **BLS Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics (OEWS)** (May 2024) — U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. https://www.bls.gov/oes/
- **BLS Employment Projections** (2024–2034) — U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. https://www.bls.gov/emp/
- **Anthropic Economic Index** (v4 (2026-01-15) + v2 (2025-03-27)) — Anthropic. https://www.anthropic.com/economic-index
- **Microsoft “Working with AI”** (working-with-ai) — Microsoft Research. https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/research/
- **“GPTs are GPTs” (Eloundou et al.)** (arXiv 2303.10130) — OpenAI / academic. https://arxiv.org/abs/2303.10130
- **AI Occupational Exposure (AIOE)** (Felten, Raj & Seamans) — academic. https://github.com/AIOE-Data/AIOE
- **Frey & Osborne (2013)** (frey-osborne-automation) — academic. https://www.oxfordmartin.ox.ac.uk/publications/the-future-of-employment/
- **Dingel & Neiman (2020)** (dingel-neiman-workathome) — academic. https://github.com/jdingel/DingelNeiman-workathome

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_Generated from Singulariki's joined dataset; data snapshot 2026-06-02T21:00:32.945303+00:00. https://singulariki.com/roles/role-41-2031-00_