EXPOSED
The core work — walking a route, knocking on doors, working a street cart, reading a stranger's face in the first three seconds and closing on the spot — is physical, in-person persuasion that language models cannot perform. But the shield is narrow: no license, no signature, minimal discretion, and the real threat to this occupation is not AI but e-commerce, targeted digital advertising, and app-based ordering, which have already shrunk US employment here to roughly 2,760. Lead lists, scripts, territory routing, and follow-up messaging are already generated by software.
Mixed — a routine tier and a judgment tier. A knock, a doorstep read, and a same-visit close cannot be delivered by software, but the parts around it — territory routing, lead qualification, pitch scripts, price quotes, and follow-up texts — are already handled by CRM and ad-targeting tools, which is why this sits at 13 rather than up with trades work that resists digitisation end to end.
Hands-on in uncontrolled environments. You are outdoors on foot in whatever weather, hauling product or pushing a cart, dealing with locked gates, dogs, stairs, and hostile residents on unfamiliar property — uncontrolled environments throughout — held just under the top band because the physical demand is walking and carrying rather than skilled manual technique.
No licence, no signature requirement. There is no occupational license behind this work; the most you face is a municipal peddler or solicitation permit and a Do-Not-Knock registry check, and when a sale goes wrong it is the company's contract and the FTC three-day cooling-off rule that answer for it, not your signature.
Some relationship component. Regular newsstand and street-cart customers, and route sellers who come back to the same blocks, build real repeat familiarity worth something — but most doorstep encounters are cold, one-shot, and with a stranger who did not ask you to come, so the relationship cannot be the product the way it is for an insurance agent with a book of clients.
Executes defined procedures on defined inputs. Pricing, product line, financing terms, and refund policy come down from the employer or distributor; your calls are whether to keep talking, which house to try next, and how much stock to bring out — real choices, but low-stakes and reversible within a day, which is what puts this at 4.
Has AI actually changed your work?