# Telemarketers

> Solicit donations or orders for goods or services over the telephone.

- **SOC code:** 41-9041.00
- **Canonical URL:** https://singulariki.com/roles/role-41-9041-00
- **Also known as:** Telemarketer, Telephone Sales Representative (TSR), Telephone Service Representative (TSR), Telesales Representative (Telesales Rep), Call Agent, Inside Sales Representative (Inside Sales Rep), Telemarketing Sales Representative (Telemarketing Sales Rep), Telesales Specialist
- **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):
- Contact businesses or private individuals by telephone to solicit sales for goods or services, or to request donations for charitable causes.
- Explain products or services and prices, and answer questions from customers.
- Obtain customer information such as name, address, and payment method, and enter orders into computers.
- Record names, addresses, purchases, and reactions of prospects contacted.
- Maintain records of contacts, accounts, and orders.
- Adjust sales scripts to better target the needs and interests of specific individuals.
- Answer telephone calls from potential customers who have been solicited through advertisements.
- Deliver prepared sales talks, reading from scripts that describe products or services, to persuade potential customers to purchase a product or service or to make a donation.
- Telephone or write letters to respond to correspondence from customers or to follow up initial sales contacts.
- Obtain names and telephone numbers of potential customers from sources such as telephone directories, magazine reply cards, and lists purchased from other organizations.
- Schedule appointments for sales representatives to meet with prospective customers or for customers to attend sales presentations.
- Conduct client or market surveys to obtain information about potential customers.

## Skills, tools, capabilities

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

**Skills in demand:**
- Active Listening _(Common Skill)_
- English Language _(Common Skill)_
- Speech Recognition _(Specialized Skill)_
- Social Perceptiveness _(Common Skill)_
- Reading Comprehension _(Common Skill)_
- Negotiation _(Common Skill)_
- Microsoft Word _(Common Skill)_
- Microsoft PowerPoint _(Common Skill)_
- Microsoft Outlook _(Common Skill)_
- Microsoft Excel _(Common Skill)_
- Critical Thinking _(Common Skill)_
- Deductive Reasoning _(Common Skill)_

**Tools & technology:**
- Microsoft Excel _(hot technology)_
- Microsoft Office software _(hot technology)_
- Microsoft Outlook _(hot technology)_
- Microsoft PowerPoint _(hot technology)_
- Microsoft Word _(hot technology)_
- Salesforce software _(hot technology)_
- Zoom _(hot technology)_
- Acarda Sales Technologies Acarda Outbound
- Automatic call distribution software
- Database Systems Corp Telemation
- Microsoft Dynamics
- Remote access call center software

## AI exposure & outlook

- **AI task-overlap index:** 96th percentile (High) across all occupations — composite of current-era exposure studies (ai-exposure-index-v1).
- **Overall AI exposure (Felten et al.):** 79th percentile (High) — source: felten_aioe.
- **LLM task exposure, γ (OpenAI / Eloundou):** 95th percentile (High) — source: eloundou_gamma.
- **AI assistant applicability (Microsoft):** 99th percentile (High) — source: microsoft_applicability.
- **Frey–Osborne (2013, historical computerization estimate):** 99th percentile — kept separate from current-era studies.
- **Remote-capable (Dingel–Neiman):** yes — task structure, not who actually works remote.
- **Projected employment (BLS 2024–34):** -22.1% growth (Declining); 6.5k annual openings; 67.4k → 52.5k jobs.
- **Pay & employment (BLS OEWS, May 2024):** median $34,410; 66,430 employed.

## How people actually use AI here

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

- **Automation vs augmentation:** 30% automation, 57% augmentation (usage-weighted).
- **Autonomy median:** 4.0 (higher = AI acts more independently).
- **Dominant collaboration mode:** task iteration.

**Tasks most handed to AI here:**
- Explain products or services and prices, and answer questions from customers. _(2.0% of measured AI use; learning)_
- Adjust sales scripts to better target the needs and interests of specific individuals. _(0.5% of measured AI use; task iteration)_

**Example prompts (honest phrasings of the tasks above — starting points, not endorsed instructions):**
- Help me explain products or services and prices, and answer questions from customers.
- Help me adjust sales scripts to better target the needs and interests of specific individuals.

## 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-41-9041-00_