EXPOSED
The paperwork core of this job — building media kits, drafting proposals, pulling rate cards, prospecting lists, cold-call scripts, campaign performance recaps — is exactly what current AI does at usable quality, and self-serve programmatic platforms already removed the human seller from most small-account transactions. What persists is the mid-to-large account relationship: sitting with a regional advertiser, arguing for a budget shift, absorbing blame when a campaign underdelivers. Expect the occupation to shrink toward fewer agents carrying bigger books, with the transactional tier absorbed by dashboards.
Mixed — a routine tier and a judgment tier. An 8 reflects the split: quote generation, insertion-order prep, audience-reach math, and post-campaign recap decks are already machine work, while the part that isn't — walking into a car dealership's back office and talking a skeptical owner off a competitor's schedule — still fills a real share of the week, which is why this sits at 8 rather than the 4 a pure inside-sales quoting role would get.
Some physical or field component. A 6 covers the drive time: territory agents still make in-person calls on local advertisers, walk retail locations, and work trade shows and remotes, but nothing about the job requires hands on equipment or an uncontrolled site, so it lands above desk-only and well below a field technician.
No licence, no signature requirement. A 2 is right because nothing licenses an ad sales agent — no state board, no exam, no CE hours; the station or publisher's contract and its standards department carry any exposure on false-advertising or FCC political-rate issues, and you can be replaced by anyone the sales manager hires Monday.
Some relationship component. An 11 recognizes that renewals on mid-size accounts genuinely follow the rep — the agency buyer who takes your call, the local advertiser who trusts your read on their Q4 — but the media property, its ratings, and its rate card do most of the persuading, so the relationship is a real asset without being the product itself.
Meaningful discretion. An 8 fits the discretion you actually hold: proposing spend allocation across dayparts or placements, deciding when to discount or add value within the manager-approved floor, and calling how to handle a make-good after underdelivery — real calls, but bounded by rate cards, credit approval, and sign-off above you.
Has AI actually changed your work?