{ "source": "Cooked Index — occupational AI risk register", "page": "https://cookedindex.com/jobs/sales-and-related-workers-all-other/", "methodology": "https://cookedindex.com/methodology", "notice": "Verdicts are re-examined as evidence accumulates. Re-fetch before relying on this; the page above always carries the current score.", "scored_at": "2026-08-11", "model": "claude-opus-5", "occupation": { "title": "Sales and Related Workers, All Other", "soc_code": "41-9099", "category": "Sales", "us_employment": 93180, "median_annual_wage": 48280 }, "verdict": "EXPOSED", "risk_resistance": 35, "contested": false, "near_boundary": false, "dimensions": { "task_resistance": 8, "embodiment": 7, "liability_shield": 2, "trust_premium": 10, "judgment_accountability": 8 }, "reasoning": { "task_resistance": "At 8, the split is real but lopsided: list building, cadence emails, quote-and-proposal assembly, and CRM hygiene — likely most of a rep's logged hours — are already being handed to tools, while the discovery call where a buyer talks himself out of a purchase and has to be talked back in still needs a human to hear the pause and change tack.", "embodiment": "A 7 reflects that most of the week is phone, email, and video, but this bucket absorbs event and trade-show sellers, in-home demo reps, and route-and-territory canvassers who carry samples, set up booths, and drive to the buyer's site — physical presence that shows up in some jobs here, not in the baseline one.", "liability_shield": "A 2 rather than 0 acknowledges that some employers require product-specific certification badges and background checks, but nothing here is a state license: no exam gates the work, no registry can be struck, and the employer or manufacturer absorbs any misrepresentation claim.", "trust_premium": "10 puts this squarely mid-band because named accounts, repeat buyers, and referral flow do accrue to the individual rep, but the relationship attaches to the price, the product, and the territory — buyers switch reps without switching vendors, and most of the book transfers when the rep leaves.", "judgment_accountability": "An 8 covers the discretion that actually exists — how far to discount inside an approved band, which objection to concede, whether an account is worth the quarter's attention — while pricing floors, contract terms, and credit approval sit with sales management and finance, so the rep rarely owns the call that can't be reversed." }, "rationale": "This is a residual catch-all bucket, so the modal worker is a generalist seller — prospecting lists, sending outreach, quoting prices, demoing products, logging activity in CRM — and the prospecting, follow-up sequencing, quote generation, and pipeline notes are already the strongest use case for current AI. What survives is the part where a buyer wants a person in the room: reading hesitation, negotiating terms, and being the accountable face when the deal or the delivery goes sideways. No license protects the role, and volume-based seat counts are the first thing trimmed when AI raises per-rep throughput.", "outlook": "Headcount in this bucket shrinks as AI absorbs prospecting and quoting volume, leaving fewer sellers who each carry larger, relationship-heavy territories.", "what_would_raise_it": { "levers": [ { "dimension": "task_resistance", "change": "Task-mix shift: once AI absorbs prospecting, sequencing, quoting and CRM hygiene, the surviving seat is the complex-deal tier — multi-stakeholder negotiation, custom terms, on-site demos, escalation recovery. This is a genuine two-tier occupation, but the shift raises per-seat resistance while cutting seat count, so the register score rises for a smaller population.", "plausibility": "already happening", "would_add": 4 }, { "dimension": "trust_premium", "change": "Buyer-side procurement rules that require a named human account representative and prohibit AI-only quoting on contracts above a threshold — visible already in some enterprise and government vendor terms and in state bills restricting automated pricing/AI-set prices (e.g. California and New York algorithmic-pricing disclosure bills). If a named human of record becomes a standard contract clause, the premium hardens.", "plausibility": "plausible", "would_add": 4 }, { "dimension": "liability_shield", "change": "Sector-specific licensing pulling parts of this residual bucket into regulated selling: e.g. state insurance producer or securities registration extended to adjacent product sellers, or FTC/state enforcement on AI-generated sales claims requiring a named human to attest to representations made in a quote or demo. Narrow, because the bucket is unlicensed by definition.", "plausibility": "unlikely", "would_add": 3 }, { "dimension": "judgment_accountability", "change": "Discount and concession authority formally delegated to the rep with a signed approval of record, as AI recommends but cannot authorize — the pattern in existing CPQ approval-matrix policies. Codified as a human-authorization gate in deal desk rules, the role owns the consequential call.", "plausibility": "plausible", "would_add": 3 } ], "ceiling_note": "Realistic ceiling is mid-50s. The bucket is a residual SOC code with no professional body, no license, and no unified employer, so nothing can shield it uniformly; whatever survives is headcount-thinned enterprise closers, and the register score rises for the remnant rather than for the 93,180." }, "adjudication": null, "employment_history": { "points": [ { "y": 2017, "emp": 93860, "wage": 33890 }, { "y": 2018, "emp": 95690, "wage": 33220 }, { "y": 2019, "emp": 118910, "wage": 31820 }, { "y": 2020, "emp": 153180, "wage": 30550 }, { "y": 2021, "emp": 235740, "wage": 29570 }, { "y": 2022, "emp": 119490, "wage": 44120 }, { "y": 2023, "emp": 114280, "wage": 44610 }, { "y": 2024, "emp": 99070, "wage": 46370 }, { "y": 2025, "emp": 93180, "wage": 48280 } ], "from": 2017, "to": 2025, "change_pct": -0.7, "comparable_from": 2019, "spans_soc_revision": true }, "pivots": [], "license": "https://cookedindex.com/terms" }