Collect samples of merchandise for examination, appraisal, or testing.

“Collect samples of merchandise for examination, appraisal, or testing.” is a core task performed by Customs and Border Protection Officers. Among the occupation's 11 rated tasks, workers place it 2nd by importance (#10 most important). About 74% of workers say it is relevant to their job.

This is a single occupation-specific task statement from O*NET. The figures below describe how central the task is to the job and what independent studies measure about AI and this kind of work — not a prediction that the task will be automated.

Work activities this task rolls up to

O*NET groups concrete tasks into broader work activities shared across many occupations.

• Gather information from physical or electronic sources. in Getting Information

AI exposure

The OpenAI / Eloundou “GPTs are GPTs” study rates this task E0. No direct exposure — current language models give little or no time savings on this task.

Exposure measures whether a model could meaningfully speed the task up — it is an estimate of overlap with model capabilities, not a measure of whether the work will be done by software. The study's intermediate score (β) for this task is 0.00. Automation potential label: T0.

Other tasks in this occupation

• Examine immigration applications, visas, and passports and interview persons to determine eligibility for admission, residence, and travel in the U.S. · importance 4.8
• Detain persons found to be in violation of customs or immigration laws and arrange for legal action, such as deportation. · importance 4.6
• Inspect cargo, baggage, and personal articles entering or leaving U.S. for compliance with revenue laws and U.S. customs regulations. · importance 4.6
• Locate and seize contraband, undeclared merchandise, and vehicles, aircraft, or boats that contain such merchandise. · importance 4.6
• Interpret and explain laws and regulations to travelers, prospective immigrants, shippers, and manufacturers. · importance 4.4
• Institute civil and criminal prosecutions and cooperate with other law enforcement agencies in the investigation and prosecution of those in violation of immigration or customs laws. · importance 4.3
• Testify regarding decisions at immigration appeals or in federal court. · importance 4.2
• Record and report job-related activities, findings, transactions, violations, discrepancies, and decisions. · importance 4.2
• Determine duty and taxes to be paid on goods. · importance 4.0
• Investigate applications for duty refunds and petition for remission or mitigation of penalties when warranted. · importance 3.1

See all tasks on the Customs and Border Protection Officers page.

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-task-9459,
  title  = {Collect samples of merchandise for examination, appraisal, or testing.},
  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/tasks/task-9459}
}