# Will rental clerks be replaced by AI? Updated October 2026 Rental clerks score 57 of 100 for AI exposure. The largest share of their task time, 47%, is work AI speeds up while they stay in charge. AI can take over 19% outright, and 34% stays with people. - **19%** AI can do it - **47%** AI helps - **34%** Needs a person High exposure Higher than 87% of the 923 occupations we scored. ## Task by task We graded 16 tasks, listed here from most to least exposed. AI can do 3 of them today, speeds up 7 and leaves 6 to people. | Task | AI exposure | | --- | --- | | Reserve items for requested times and keep records of items rented. Reservation and rental records are routine scheduling software work. | 76% AI can do it | | Answer telephones to provide information and receive orders. Voice agents can answer routine calls and take orders. | 72% AI can do it | | Keep records of transactions and of the number of customers entering an establishment. POS and door sensors already log transactions and visitor counts. | 66% AI can do it | | Explain rental fees, policies, and procedures. Assistants explain policies well, but clerk delivers them face to face. | 60% AI helps | | Provide information about rental items, such as availability, operation, or description. Catalog and inventory lookups answer most item questions quickly. | 58% AI helps | [See what AI can take on across a sales team](https://www.aigentcy.com/ai-for/sales/) ## How rental clerks compare All occupations (923) Sales and related (22) **Rental clerks score 57**, marked by the dark line. Each dot is a score, darker where more occupations share it. The short marks show the averages, 37 for all occupations and 54 for sales and related. ## Pay and outlook in the US Median pay $41,300 a year, May 2025 People employed 400,810 in the US, May 2025 Projected change in jobs +3.0% from 2024 to 2034 ## Skills to build - Run rental reservations and availability in inventory management systems - Pull rental history and item records with Oracle Database queries - Inspect and adjust rental equipment before customer handover - Check customer licenses and collect signatures on rental forms - Build fee quotes and rate sheets in Microsoft Excel - Examine and tag returned articles for damage and repair ## Safer roles nearby 5 related occupations with lower scores. - [Retail salespeople48 out of 100](https://www.aigentcy.com/ai-exposure/retail-salespeople/) - [Cashiers43 out of 100](https://www.aigentcy.com/ai-exposure/cashiers/) - [Door-to-door salespeople47 out of 100](https://www.aigentcy.com/ai-exposure/door-to-door-salespeople/) - [Stockers30 out of 100](https://www.aigentcy.com/ai-exposure/stockers/) - [Parts salespersons38 out of 100](https://www.aigentcy.com/ai-exposure/parts-salespersons/) ## Questions about rental clerks and AI Will AI replace rental clerks? Partly. About 4 in 10 working hours go to tasks AI can already do, mostly reserving items and recording rental records, plus answering phone orders. Greeting customers, inspecting equipment and handing items over stay with clerks because they need a person in the room and hands on the gear. Which tasks is AI taking over for rental clerks? Reservations and rental records carry the highest exposure at 76 out of 100, because scheduling software already tracks them. Phone order intake follows at 72, since voice agents can answer routine calls and take orders. Transaction logs score 66 because POS systems record sales automatically. Which tasks stay human for rental clerks? Inspecting and adjusting rental items scores only 8 out of 100 because it needs hands on the equipment. Greeting customers and discussing merchandise quality scores 15 because it is a live conversation. Renting items and accepting returns scores 20 because the physical handover and return check dominate the task. How can rental clerks stay valuable on the job? Get skilled at in-person inspection and fitting for the gear you rent, so you can catch condition problems before handover. Learn to fix exceptions that inventory management systems and Oracle Database reports flag. Use Microsoft Excel to check quotes against rate sheets, and keep license checks and signature collection in your hands. ## Related jobs - [Sales representatives of services66 out of 100](https://www.aigentcy.com/ai-exposure/sales-representatives-of-services/) - [Customer service representatives74 out of 100](https://www.aigentcy.com/ai-exposure/customer-service-representatives/) - [Sales representatives63 out of 100](https://www.aigentcy.com/ai-exposure/sales-representatives/) - [Telemarketers76 out of 100](https://www.aigentcy.com/ai-exposure/telemarketers/) ## Next steps for rental clerks - ### Check your job Your job title is a rough guide. Your actual tasks decide your score. Paste your job description or CV and see which of your tasks AI can do. [Check your job](https://www.aigentcy.com/tools/ai-exposure-checker/) [Check your CV](https://www.aigentcy.com/tools/cv-checker/) ### Check which roles in your team AI can take on We map your team's tasks, show what AI can do today and build the automations that pay back first. [Book an AI audit](https://www.aigentcy.com/audit/) ## Related topics - [**Jobs AI can't replace**Cement masons score lowest, at 8.](https://www.aigentcy.com/ai-exposure/jobs-ai-cant-replace/) - [**Jobs most at risk from AI**Proofreaders score highest, at 76.](https://www.aigentcy.com/ai-exposure/jobs-most-exposed-to-ai/) - [**High-paying jobs with low AI exposure**Radiologists earn a median $420,860 and score 46.](https://www.aigentcy.com/ai-exposure/high-paying-jobs-low-ai-exposure/) - [**Entry-level jobs with low AI exposure**Cement masons need little prior training and score 8.](https://www.aigentcy.com/ai-exposure/entry-level-jobs-low-ai-exposure/) - [**Jobs AI speeds up the most**For natural sciences managers, AI speeds up 96% of task time.](https://www.aigentcy.com/ai-exposure/jobs-ai-speeds-up/) - [**AI and jobs in Malta**15 iGaming roles graded task by task.](https://www.aigentcy.com/ai-exposure/malta/) - [**Skills that keep work human**The skills to build in the jobs AI changes least.](https://www.aigentcy.com/ai-exposure/skills/) - [**Jobs A to Z**Every job we publish, by first letter.](https://www.aigentcy.com/ai-exposure/jobs/) - [**AI exposure by industry**Average scores for 22 occupation groups.](https://www.aigentcy.com/ai-exposure/industries/) - [**Write a CV screening software can read**How applicant tracking systems read a CV, and what to change.](https://www.aigentcy.com/ai-exposure/cv-screening-guide/) - [**AI for businesses**The tasks to automate first in each team and industry.](https://www.aigentcy.com/ai-for/) - [**How we score AI exposure**The grading, the weights and every source.](https://www.aigentcy.com/ai-exposure/methodology/) Occupation data from the O\*NET 30.3 Database by the U.S. Department of Labor, Employment and Training Administration (USDOL/ETA), used under [CC BY 4.0](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) and modified by Aigentcy. O\*NET® is a trademark of USDOL/ETA. Wage, employment and projection data from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. EU occupation names from ESCO, European Commission. AI usage signals from the Anthropic Economic Index (CC BY) and Microsoft Research (CC BY 4.0). [Methodology and sources](https://www.aigentcy.com/ai-exposure/methodology/). Scores © Aigentcy. Quote them with a link to the page.