Research and identify potential customers for products or services.

“Research and identify potential customers for products or services.” is a core task performed by Sales Engineers. Among the occupation's 25 rated tasks, workers place it 12th by importance (#14 most important). About 93% 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.

• Identify business or organizational opportunities. in Identifying Objects, Actions, and Events

AI exposure

The OpenAI / Eloundou “GPTs are GPTs” study rates this task E2. Exposure with tools — software built on top of a language model (not the model alone) could cut the time by at least half.

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 0.50. Automation potential label: T3.

How AI is actually used on this kind of task

The Anthropic Economic Index observes how people actually use AI on tasks like this one across millions of real conversations.

• 0.032% share of AI-use records mapped to this task
• 93% of that use is work-related
• Most common interaction: directive
• Average autonomy of the AI: 3.2 (1–5; higher = more autonomous)
• 98% of interactions still needed a human in the loop

Observed AI use describes people choosing to use AI as a tool on this kind of task today. It is augmentation and assistance, not a measure of jobs replaced.

Working with AI vs. handing it off

Of the AI conversations mapped to this task, the split between people working alongside AI and people delegating the task to it.

How people interact with AI on this task

Other tasks in this occupation

• Sell products requiring extensive technical expertise and support for installation and use, such as material handling equipment, numerical-control machinery, or computer systems. · importance 4.6
• Develop, present, or respond to proposals for specific customer requirements, including request for proposal responses and industry-specific solutions. · importance 4.6
• Collaborate with sales teams to understand customer requirements, to promote the sale of company products, and to provide sales support. · importance 4.4
• Create sales or service contracts for products or services. · importance 4.2
• Visit prospective buyers at commercial, industrial, or other establishments to show samples or catalogs, and to inform them about product pricing, availability, and advantages. · importance 4.1
• Keep informed on industry news and trends, products, services, competitors, relevant information about legacy, existing, and emerging technologies, and the latest product-line developments. · importance 4.0
• Identify resale opportunities and support them to achieve sales plans. · importance 4.0
• Confer with customers and engineers to assess equipment needs and to determine system requirements. · importance 4.0
• Plan and modify product configurations to meet customer needs. · importance 4.0
• Prepare and deliver technical presentations that explain products or services to customers and prospective customers. · importance 4.0
• Recommend improved materials or machinery to customers, documenting how such changes will lower costs or increase production. · importance 3.9
• Maintain sales forecasting reports. · importance 3.9
• Document account activities, generate reports, and keep records of business transactions with customers and suppliers. · importance 3.9
• Secure and renew orders and arrange delivery. · importance 3.8

See all tasks on the Sales Engineers 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
• Anthropic Economic Index v4 (2026-01-15) + v2 (2025-03-27) Anthropic
• “GPTs are GPTs” (Eloundou et al.) arXiv 2303.10130 OpenAI / academic

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

@misc{singulariki-task-9688,
  title  = {Research and identify potential customers for products or services.},
  author = {{Singulariki}},
  year   = {2026},
  note   = {O*NET 30.3; Anthropic Economic Index v4 (2026-01-15) + v2 (2025-03-27); “GPTs are GPTs” (Eloundou et al.) arXiv 2303.10130. Accessed June 7, 2026},
  url    = {https://singulariki.com/tasks/task-9688}
}