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Deal With External Customers or the Public in General

Work context · O*NET

Deal With External Customers or the Public in General is a work-context dimension in the O*NET database — one of the standardized conditions O*NET uses to describe the environment a job is done in , grouped under Interpersonal Relationships. O*NET defines it by asking workers: "How important is it to deal with external customers (as in retail sales) or the public in general (as in police work) in this job?." It is rated for 894 occupations, which average 3.39 out of 5 (high relative to other context dimensions).

How it's measured

O*NET rates each occupation on this dimension on a 1–5 context-importance scale (the CX scale), where higher means the condition is a more frequent or more central part of the work. The figures on this page are those occupation-level ratings — a description of working conditions as workers report them, not a judgment about pay, difficulty, or whether a job is "good."

Economy-wide average 3.39 / 5 Mean across all 894 rated occupations
Range across occupations 1.09–4.99 Lowest to highest occupation rating (spread 3.90)
Intensity vs. other dimensions 74th pct Where this dimension's average ranks among all O*NET work-context dimensions

Occupations where it's highest

The occupations that rate this condition strongest on the 1–5 scale.

Occupation Rating Score
Public Safety Telecommunicators 4.99
Insurance Sales Agents 4.97
Solar Sales Representatives and Assessors 4.94
Insurance Appraisers, Auto Damage 4.92
Patient Representatives 4.92
Sales Representatives, Wholesale and Manufacturing, Except Technical and Scientific Products 4.91
Security Guards 4.91
First-Line Supervisors of Gambling Services Workers 4.90
Hearing Aid Specialists 4.90
Flight Attendants 4.87
Detectives and Criminal Investigators 4.86
Amusement and Recreation Attendants 4.85
Coroners 4.85
Police and Sheriff's Patrol Officers 4.85
Fish and Game Wardens 4.84
Parts Salespersons 4.84
Bicycle Repairers 4.82
Advertising Sales Agents 4.81
Entertainment and Recreation Managers, Except Gambling 4.81
Customs and Border Protection Officers 4.80
Floral Designers 4.80
Customer Service Representatives 4.79
Dermatologists 4.79
First-Line Supervisors of Police and Detectives 4.79
Opticians, Dispensing 4.79

Occupations where it's lowest

The occupations that rate this condition weakest — where it is rarely part of the work.

Occupation Rating Score
Roof Bolters, Mining 1.09
Pourers and Casters, Metal 1.11
Molding, Coremaking, and Casting Machine Setters, Operators, and Tenders, Metal and Plastic 1.15
Cutters and Trimmers, Hand 1.16
Sawing Machine Setters, Operators, and Tenders, Wood 1.20
Continuous Mining Machine Operators 1.22
Cleaning, Washing, and Metal Pickling Equipment Operators and Tenders 1.25
Model Makers, Metal and Plastic 1.31
Extruding and Drawing Machine Setters, Operators, and Tenders, Metal and Plastic 1.32
Separating, Filtering, Clarifying, Precipitating, and Still Machine Setters, Operators, and Tenders 1.39
Postal Service Mail Sorters, Processors, and Processing Machine Operators 1.41
Textile Knitting and Weaving Machine Setters, Operators, and Tenders 1.44
Furniture Finishers 1.45
Timing Device Assemblers and Adjusters 1.45
Furnace, Kiln, Oven, Drier, and Kettle Operators and Tenders 1.46
Sewing Machine Operators 1.48
Dredge Operators 1.50
Textile Cutting Machine Setters, Operators, and Tenders 1.54
Heat Treating Equipment Setters, Operators, and Tenders, Metal and Plastic 1.63
Refractory Materials Repairers, Except Brickmasons 1.64
Loading and Moving Machine Operators, Underground Mining 1.65
Textile Winding, Twisting, and Drawing Out Machine Setters, Operators, and Tenders 1.65
Chemical Equipment Operators and Tenders 1.68
Chemical Plant and System Operators 1.68
Shoe Machine Operators and Tenders 1.68

How AI is used by roles where deal with external customers or the public in general is central

A working condition is not itself "being automated" — but we can look at the occupations where it is most central and ask how those people actually use AI. This rolls the Anthropic Economic Index per-role signal up across the roles that rate this condition 3 or higher (CX-rating-weighted). 62.9% of the 607 occupations where this condition is present carry observed AI-usage data (382 roles).

Across those roles, 45.8% of AI conversations are people working with AI and 31.4% hand a task to AI , with an average autonomy of 3.55 / 5.

Collaboration pattern Share What it means
directive 29.4% AI does it; you give the instruction
task iteration 23.8% you and AI go back and forth
learning 19.6% you ask AI to explain or teach
validation 2.4% you do it; AI checks your work
feedback loop 2.0% AI does it, then adjusts from your feedback

Roles behind this signal

The occupations where this condition is most central and that also have the most AEI data. "Works with AI" is the role's share of conversations that augment rather than automate.

Occupation Condition (1–5) Works with AI Autonomy
English Language and Literature Teachers, Postsecondary 3.3 63.2% 4.0/5
Biological Science Teachers, Postsecondary 3.5 63.2% 4.0/5
Editors 3.7 68.2% 4.0/5
Office Clerks, General 4.3 36.5% 3.0/5
Educational, Guidance, School, and Vocational Counselors 4.1 70.6% 4.0/5
Social Work Teachers, Postsecondary 3.9 67.2% 3.5/5
Criminal Justice and Law Enforcement Teachers, Postsecondary 4.2 65.7% 3.3/5
Education Teachers, Postsecondary 4.0 65.3% 3.5/5
Recreation and Fitness Studies Teachers, Postsecondary 3.6 66.2% 3.3/5
Technical Writers 3.2 54.2% 4.0/5
Instructional Coordinators 3.6 53.1% 4.0/5
Health Specialties Teachers, Postsecondary 3.7 66.2% 3.5/5

Source: Anthropic Economic Index (2026-01-15-v4-plus-2025-03-27-v2) over a sample of Claude.ai Free and Pro conversations — not all AI tools and not the whole workforce. This is a role-weighted projection from AEI-linked occupations where this condition is central, not a direct measurement of AI use for the condition itself. Shares are weighted by how central the condition is to each role; some conversations are left unclassified by Anthropic's taxonomy, so shares need not sum to 100.

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.

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

Cite this page
Plain

Singulariki. "Deal With External Customers or the Public in General." Singulariki: a source-backed encyclopedia of work. Built from O*NET 30.3; Anthropic Economic Index v4 (2026-01-15) + v2 (2025-03-27). Accessed June 7, 2026. https://singulariki.com/work-context/deal-with-external-customers-or-the-public-in-general

APA

Singulariki. (2026). Deal With External Customers or the Public in General. Singulariki: a source-backed encyclopedia of work. Retrieved June 7, 2026, from https://singulariki.com/work-context/deal-with-external-customers-or-the-public-in-general

BibTeX
@misc{singulariki-deal-with-external-customers-or-the-public-in-general,
  title  = {Deal With External Customers or the Public in General},
  author = {{Singulariki}},
  year   = {2026},
  note   = {O*NET 30.3; Anthropic Economic Index v4 (2026-01-15) + v2 (2025-03-27). Accessed June 7, 2026},
  url    = {https://singulariki.com/work-context/deal-with-external-customers-or-the-public-in-general}
}

Citations name the underlying public dataset releases — they reflect what this page is built from, not just the URL.