Sales Representatives of Services, Except Advertising, Insurance, Financial Services, and Travel

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.

OpenAI's exposure study scores tasks three ways: with a language model alone (α 0.3), with simple added tooling (β 0.6), 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.

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.

Job outlook

Independent U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics employment projection for 2024–2034 — a labor-market forecast, not an AI-impact forecast.

“Annual openings” counts new jobs plus replacements for workers who leave the occupation, so it can be large even when growth is modest.

Tasks

All 15 tasks O*NET lists for this occupation, ordered by importance. Each links to its own page with AI-exposure and observed-use detail.

• Answer customers' questions about services, prices, availability, or credit terms.
• Attend sales or trade meetings or read related publications to obtain information about market conditions, business trends, regulations, or industry developments.
• Compute and compare costs of services.
• Consult with clients after sales or contract signings to resolve problems and provide ongoing support.
• Contact prospective or existing customers to discuss how services can meet their needs.
• Create forms or agreements to complete sales.
• Develop sales presentations or proposals to explain service specifications.
• Distribute promotional materials at meetings, conferences, or trade shows.
• Emphasize or recommend service features based on knowledge of customers' needs and vendor capabilities and limitations.
• Identify prospective customers using business directories, leads from clients, or information from conferences or trade shows.
• Inform customers of contracts or other information pertaining to purchased services.
• Maintain customer records using automated systems.
• Monitor market conditions, innovations, and competitors' services, prices, and sales.
• Negotiate prices or terms of sales or service agreements.
• Quote prices, credit terms, contract terms, or fulfillment dates for services.

Work activities

• Answer customer questions about goods or services.
• Monitor market conditions or trends.
• Attend events to develop professional knowledge.
• Assess the cost effectiveness of products, projects, or services.
• Calculate costs of goods or services.
• Advise customers on the use of products or services.
• Contact current or potential customers to promote products or services.
• Prepare sales or other contracts.
• Develop content for sales presentations or other materials.
• Distribute promotional literature or samples to customers.
• Explain technical product or service information to customers.
• Recommend products or services to customers.
• Identify potential customers.
• Advise others on business or operational matters.
• Maintain records of customer accounts.
• Study product information to acquire professional knowledge.
• Negotiate prices or other sales terms.
• Estimate costs or terms of sales.

Skills in demand

Skills employers ask for in job postings for this occupation (Lightcast), with whether each is a common or specialized skill.

• Microsoft Excel Common Skill
• Microsoft Word Common Skill
• Microsoft Project Specialized Skill
• Microsoft PowerPoint Common Skill
• Microsoft Outlook Common Skill
• Microsoft Dynamics Specialized Skill
• Project Management Software Specialized Skill
• Presentation Software Specialized Skill

Tools & technology

How to get in

Job zone

Zone 2 — Job Zone 1-2: Very Little to Some Preparation Needed

Education

Usually requires a high school diploma or GED, though some occupations may not.

Typical entry-level education

High school diploma or equivalent · BLS, the typical path — not a requirement

Related experience

Some occupations may need little or no previous experience; others require several months to a year of experience. For example, landscaping and groundskeeping workers might require very little training or previous experience, while agricultural equipment operators can benefit from on-the job training.

Preparation level

SVP (Below 6.0) — total schooling plus on-the-job experience.

What to study: Business, Management, Marketing, and Related Support Services . Fields of study crosswalked to this occupation (NCES CIP–SOC), not a requirement.

Interests & work styles

The interests and personal qualities O*NET associates with people who do this work.

Career interests (Holland / RIASEC)

Interest areas

Work styles

Wages & employment

U.S. · annual wages (BLS OEWS)

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.

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).

Related occupations

Part of the Marketing & Sales career cluster.

• Customer Service Representatives · 43-4051.00 Compare →
• Telemarketers · 41-9041.00 Compare →
• Sales Managers · 11-2022.00 Compare →
• Advertising Sales Agents · 41-3011.00 Compare →
• Sales Representatives, Wholesale and Manufacturing, Technical and Scientific Products · 41-4011.00 Compare →
• Sales Representatives, Wholesale and Manufacturing, Except Technical and Scientific Products · 41-4012.00 Compare →
• Marketing Managers · 11-2021.00 Compare →
• New Accounts Clerks · 43-4141.00 Compare →
• Insurance Sales Agents · 41-3021.00 Compare →
• Demonstrators and Product Promoters · 41-9011.00 Compare →
• Securities, Commodities, and Financial Services Sales Agents · 41-3031.00 Compare →
• First-Line Supervisors of Non-Retail Sales Workers · 41-1012.00 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 Representatives of Services, Except Advertising, Insurance, Financial Services, and Travel — not advice or a forecast. Each is a real cross-link you can follow into the evidence.

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

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

@misc{singulariki-role-41-3091-00,
  title  = {Sales Representatives of Services, Except Advertising, Insurance, Financial Services, and Travel},
  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. Accessed June 7, 2026},
  url    = {https://singulariki.com/roles/role-41-3091-00}
}