{
  "source": "Cooked Index — occupational AI risk register",
  "page": "https://cookedindex.com/jobs/sales-representatives-of-services-except-advertising-insurance-financial-services-and-travel/",
  "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 Representatives of Services, Except Advertising, Insurance, Financial Services, and Travel",
    "soc_code": "41-3091",
    "category": "Sales",
    "us_employment": 1256010,
    "median_annual_wage": 69990
  },
  "verdict": "EXPOSED",
  "risk_resistance": 39,
  "contested": false,
  "near_boundary": false,
  "dimensions": {
    "task_resistance": 8,
    "embodiment": 6,
    "liability_shield": 1,
    "trust_premium": 13,
    "judgment_accountability": 11
  },
  "reasoning": {
    "task_resistance": "Prospect research, sequenced cold email, inbound lead qualification, quote assembly and CRM hygiene are already machine work, which caps this at 8; what holds it above the automatable band is the live discovery call where a buyer's real constraint (a budget cycle, an internal rival, a burned prior vendor) only surfaces under conversational pressure, plus closing negotiations where scope and price move together.",
    "embodiment": "A 6 reflects that most of the week is phone, video and CRM, but service selling still puts you on-site for walkthroughs — surveying a facility before quoting janitorial or security coverage, sitting in a client's office to scope a staffing or logistics contract, working a trade show booth — which is more physical presence than an inside-sales desk job and far less than a field technician.",
    "liability_shield": "There is no licence to sell janitorial, staffing, telecom, or logistics services; contracts are signed by the company and misrepresentation exposure runs to the employer, so nothing in law prevents your accounts from being reassigned to a smaller team with better tooling — hence a 1 rather than a 0 only because commission agreements and non-competes create minor personal contractual attachment.",
    "trust_premium": "At 13 the relationship is genuinely the product for renewals and referrals — buyers of intangible services purchase your credibility that delivery will happen, and they call you personally when it slips — but it sits at the floor of that band rather than 17 because most mid-market service accounts survive rep turnover, and procurement teams, RFPs and multi-stakeholder buying committees deliberately dilute any single rep's hold.",
    "judgment_accountability": "An 11 fits a rep who decides which deals to walk away from, where to concede scope versus price, and how to sequence a five-stakeholder buying committee — real discretion with revenue consequences — but discount authority, contract terms and approval thresholds are set above you, so the genuinely ambiguous high-stakes calls escalate to sales management or legal."
  },
  "rationale": "The top-of-funnel half of this job — building prospect lists, writing cold outreach sequences, qualifying inbound leads, assembling proposals and quotes, logging CRM activity, following up — is already being done by AI and automated sequencing tools at acceptable quality, and headcount for junior/SDR-style service selling is the first to compress. What survives is the part where a buyer commits budget to an intangible service and wants a named human accountable for delivery: discovery conversations that surface unstated constraints, multi-stakeholder negotiation, pricing and scope tradeoffs, and rescuing accounts when delivery slips. Score reflects the modal worker (mid-market B2B services closer), not the enterprise strategic-accounts tier, which is materially safer.",
  "outlook": "Total headcount shrinks as automated prospecting collapses the junior tier, but experienced closers who own complex, relationship-heavy service deals stay in demand and see quota-per-rep rise.",
  "what_would_raise_it": {
    "levers": [
      {
        "dimension": "task_resistance",
        "change": "Task-mix shift is genuine here: if SDR/prospecting/proposal-assembly work is fully absorbed by AI sequencers (Outreach/Clay/Regie-style stacks), the residual job is discovery of unstated constraints, multi-stakeholder negotiation, and scope/pricing tradeoffs — the tier models handle worst. The composite occupation score can fall while per-survivor task_resistance rises.",
        "plausibility": "already happening",
        "would_add": 4
      },
      {
        "dimension": "trust_premium",
        "change": "If enterprise procurement rules for intangible services keep requiring a named human account owner in the MSA/SOW (single point of contact clauses, escalation-path attestations), and buyers of managed IT/security services continue insisting on a named human for renewals and incident escalation, the premium holds and can rise as AI-generated outreach floods inboxes and human contact becomes the scarce signal.",
        "plausibility": "plausible",
        "would_add": 3
      },
      {
        "dimension": "judgment_accountability",
        "change": "If firms formalize authority — documented discount/scope-concession authority thresholds and signature power on nonstandard SOWs vested in the rep rather than deal desk — the role owns consequential calls under ambiguity rather than routing them. Watch for the reverse too: AI-driven deal desks centralizing pricing authority would push this down.",
        "plausibility": "plausible",
        "would_add": 3
      },
      {
        "dimension": "liability_shield",
        "change": "Narrow route only: FTC/state UDAP enforcement or state telemarketing/telesales registration regimes (e.g. FTC Telemarketing Sales Rule amendments extending record-keeping and misrepresentation liability to B2B outbound, and TCPA one-to-one consent fights) could require an identified, registered human seller accountable for representations made in a sale. This would create a thin personal-accountability floor, not professional licensure.",
        "plausibility": "unlikely",
        "would_add": 2
      }
    ],
    "ceiling_note": "No credible route to a professional license for service selling, and embodiment cannot rise — travel to a client site is not unpredictable physical work. The realistic outcome is a smaller occupation with a higher per-person score, not a protected one; the register score for the modal mid-market closer is unlikely to clear the mid-50s."
  },
  "adjudication": null,
  "employment_history": {
    "points": [
      {
        "y": 2019,
        "emp": 1039670,
        "wage": 56130
      },
      {
        "y": 2020,
        "emp": 977070,
        "wage": 58770
      },
      {
        "y": 2021,
        "emp": 1026390,
        "wage": 60550
      },
      {
        "y": 2022,
        "emp": 1075750,
        "wage": 62400
      },
      {
        "y": 2023,
        "emp": 1142020,
        "wage": 64600
      },
      {
        "y": 2024,
        "emp": 1189330,
        "wage": 66260
      },
      {
        "y": 2025,
        "emp": 1256010,
        "wage": 69990
      }
    ],
    "from": 2019,
    "to": 2025,
    "change_pct": 20.8,
    "comparable_from": 2019,
    "spans_soc_revision": false
  },
  "pivots": [],
  "license": "https://cookedindex.com/terms"
}