# Will retail salespeople be replaced by AI? Updated October 2026 Retail salespeople score 48 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 16% outright, and 37% stays with people. - **16%** AI can do it - **47%** AI helps - **37%** Needs a person Moderate exposure Higher than 70% of the 923 occupations we scored. ## Task by task We graded 24 tasks, listed here from most to least exposed. AI can do 4 of them today, speeds up 12 and leaves 8 to people. | Task | AI exposure | | --- | --- | | Maintain records related to sales. Sales records are digital and easily generated and organized by software. | 75% AI can do it | | Prepare sales slips or sales contracts. Sales slips and standard contracts can be generated from order data. | 70% AI can do it | | Answer questions regarding the store and its merchandise. Store chatbots and knowledge bases answer product and store questions well. | 65% AI can do it | | Place special orders or call other stores to find desired items. Searching stock and placing orders can run through software and agents. | 60% AI can do it | | Compute sales prices, total purchases, and receive and process cash or credit payment. POS software totals sales, but staff handle cash and card payments. | 58% AI helps | [See what AI can take on across a sales team](https://www.aigentcy.com/ai-for/sales/) ## How retail salespeople compare All occupations (923) Sales and related (22) **Retail salespeople score 48**, 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 $35,410 a year, May 2025 People employed 3.9 million in the US, May 2025 Projected change in jobs \-0.3% from 2024 to 2034 ## Skills to build - Close sales in Salesforce software with accurate customer records - Fit and demonstrate apparel and appliances in person - Read customer needs face to face during greetings and fittings - Process cash and card payments at the point of sale - Estimate flooring or paint quantities from on-site measurements - Check special order stock and escalate exceptions to managers ## Safer roles nearby 5 related occupations with lower scores. - [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/) - [Product demonstrators42 out of 100](https://www.aigentcy.com/ai-exposure/product-demonstrators/) - [Retail supervisors43 out of 100](https://www.aigentcy.com/ai-exposure/retail-supervisors/) - [Cashiers43 out of 100](https://www.aigentcy.com/ai-exposure/cashiers/) ## Questions about retail salespeople and AI Will AI replace retail salespeople? Partly. About 3 in 10 working hours go to tasks AI can already do, mostly maintaining sales records and preparing sales slips or contracts. Fitting, demonstrating products, and reading what a customer needs stay with people because they need a physical presence in the store. Which retail sales tasks is AI taking over? Record keeping and paperwork are the most exposed, with maintaining sales records scoring 75 out of 100 on exposure. Sales records are digital and software generates and organizes them. Answering store and merchandise questions, scoring 65, is also moving to chatbots and knowledge bases. Which retail sales tasks stay human? Fitting and demonstrating merchandise stay with people, with helping customers try on or fit merchandise scoring just 4 out of 100 on exposure. Greeting customers and working out what they want scores 12, because reading a person in front of you depends on face to face judgement. Physical handling of goods also stays with staff. How can retail salespeople stay valuable as AI takes over paperwork? Spend the hours AI frees on the work only a person can do. Learn Salesforce software well enough to qualify leads and log customer history, master product demonstrations, and get trained on the store's POS and payment systems. Measuring rooms and estimating flooring quantities on site also stays with you. ## Related jobs - [Rental clerks57 out of 100](https://www.aigentcy.com/ai-exposure/rental-clerks/) - [Parts salespersons38 out of 100](https://www.aigentcy.com/ai-exposure/parts-salespersons/) - [Customer service representatives74 out of 100](https://www.aigentcy.com/ai-exposure/customer-service-representatives/) - [Telemarketers76 out of 100](https://www.aigentcy.com/ai-exposure/telemarketers/) ## Next steps for retail salespeople - ### 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.